Liverpool already considered FAVOURITES for next season's title race

Once you've won a Premier League title, the focus soon changes to thinking about ways in which you can improve the team and ensure you retain the trophy the following season.

Liverpool struggled massively in the 2020/21 season which was littered with injuries, including an ACL tear for Virgil Van Dijk and a last gasp spot in the top four was considered an enormous success.

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As such, context is key and each team's confidence ahead of the 2025/26 season is likely to be dented in some way once the campaign is under way. Winning involves a rollercoaster of emotions.

But speculation over the upcoming season is rife, even despite the off-season being just 16 days old, and the Reds have been name dropped as having a huge advantage in retaining their title.

The influence of the Club World Cup

While the club's transfer business is enough to persuade anyone that Liverpool will be serious title contenders when August rolls around, given the signing of Jeremie Frimpong and the upcoming agreements for Florian Wirtz and Milos Kerkez, there's another significant factor to consider.

The Reds will not be playing in the revamped FIFA Club World Cup this summer, despite winning their league this season and being renowned as one of Europe's biggest clubs in terms of heritage.

Meanwhile, Chelsea will be competing because they won the Champions League in 2021 and Manchester City have also bene invited because of their Premier League triumphs and their European Cup win in 2023 to complete the Treble. That's the pair representing England.

As such, the players will have more time off this summer to recuperate after a long and challenging season, refreshing themselves before July rolls around and it's time for pre-season to begin.

Speaking in his capacity as England manager, Thomas Tuchel gave his thoughts on the players that will be going straight from his camp back to their clubs and assessed the impact on next season.

He said: "I think it [the Club World Cup] will have a huge impact and it was give Liverpool and Arsenal a huge advantage in the next season to not be there."

The players end the Premier League season and had two weeks off before being called up for international duty with Tuchel and from June 14 to July 13, the new FIFA tournament will take place, which will lead directly into pre-season, which will inevitably be cut short for City and Chelsea.

However, the opportunity for the players that have been bought in this mini transfer window to bond with their new teammates early on might also be advantageous. It's unknown what the impact will be.

But the Reds should definitely take the comments as a compliment, not just in terms of the team's quality to challenge once again, but also, if there's an advantage then we should make the most of it.

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We've already proven over 38-games that we can get the better of Arsenal and if the Gunners are the main challengers, then Arne Slot will feel confident of getting the job done once again.

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