Dominik Szoboszlai has said that Liverpool need to ‘stop making excuses’ about being a club in ‘transition’ and show a demonstrable improvement on the pitch this season.The 2025/26 campaign was one to forget at Anfield, with the Reds’ Premier League title defence quickly unravelling to instead become a scramble for Champions League qualification, which was achieved on the final day.Some of the signings from the preceding summer didn’t hit the ground running on Merseyside, with several stalwarts of the 2024/25 top-flight triumph leaving in the subsequent months and Arne Slot losing his job as head coach to be replaced by Andoni Iraola.Szoboszlai: Liverpool can’t lean on ‘excuses’Amid such a turbulent time in L4, expectations for Liverpool this season are substantially lower than 12 months ago, but Szoboszlai doesn’t want the club to merely accept slow progress amid all the changes on and off the pitch.The Hungary midfielder said in the latest episode of the Reds Roundtable (via Liverpool FC on YouTube): “It’s enough to speak about that we need time. Obviously last season things weren’t going well and we were saying that new players came in and a couple of players left, Lucho [Luis Diaz] and Darwin [Nunez], and it didn’t work out.(Photo by Alex Livesey/Getty Images)“We were saying we need time because of the transition. Now we will say that Mo [Salah] left, a legend and, with all the respect, Robbo [Andy Robertson] the same. Every year something is going to happen, so at one point we have to take the responsibility and stop making excuses, because we are Liverpool FC.“We don’t have three years to renew everybody and start again. I think it starts now and we are there again. It’s a long season.”Szoboszlai added: “To talk is easy but I think you also have to show it on the pitch. What this season is going to ask us is are we ready to compete again on the highest level? I think we are, but we have to start to do it.”Want more Empire of the Kop coverage? Add us as a preferred source on Google to your favourites list for news you can trustNow is the time for Liverpool to show discernible improvementWhile Liverpool’s players won’t want to make excuses for the drop-off of last season, Robertson’s reflections this week on the impact of Diogo Jota’s death in July 2025 highlighted just how difficult the campaign had been for Slot’s squad.The Scot’s admission that he and his teammates ‘didn’t care about football’ in the wake of that tragedy hammered home the extremity of what they had to face in trying to carry out their jobs as professional footballers whilst grieving the premature loss of a close friend.(Photo by Molly Darlington/Getty Images)In that context, to simply get through the season is an immense credit to the players, although Szoboszlai is right in saying that the Reds can’t keep using ‘transition’ as a free pass for failing to deliver upon expectations on the pitch.It’s been a mixed start to Iraola’s debut campaign at Anfield, with Liverpool unbeaten thus far but dropping too many points from draws (especially at home) and yet to deliver a thoroughly convincing 90-minute performance.It’s understandable that changes in the dugout and the squad will bring with it a certain adjustment period, and in modern football there’s too much of a demand for instant gratification.However, Szoboszlai recognises the expectation which comes with playing for this club, and while nobody is realistically expecting a title challenge this term, it isn’t too much to ask for a discernible improvement in performances and more consistency with results.The post ‘Stop making excuses’ – Dominik Szoboszlai issues no-nonsense rallying call to Liverpool teammates appeared first on The Empire of The Kop.