Liverpool's great escape is on! January singings proving key to Reds' hopes of Women's Super League survival

While no one expected Liverpool to have to wait until January 25 for their first league win of the 2025-26 season, there were signs that the Reds could start slowly back in the summer. That was because it took until August 8 for Taylor, who had been sacked by Man City back in March, to be appointed as the new head coach.

Taylor was looking to implement an entirely new style of play, too, one "unique" to the club that would make them "the best pressing team in Europe" in due course, he told Sky Sports earlier this season. That sort of thing takes time and he wasn't given much of that by being appointed late in the pre-season - less than a month before the WSL campaign started - meaning the players were still getting to grips with a lot when competitive action got underway.

That potential for a slow start was added to by the business done in the summer window. Taylor took over a side that was low on confidence after a disappointing end to the 2024-25 season which saw them win just one of their last seven games under interim boss Amber Whiteley - that run coming after Matt Beard had already been relieved of his managerial duties in late February.

To see Niamh Fahey, the club captain, retire, while Hinds, their vice-captain, and Smith, their top-scorer, both left for Arsenal will not have done much to help in that regard; not when Liverpool did not do enough to make up for those departures.

When the record-breaking fee was revealed for Smith's move, many expected Liverpool to use that money to address several areas of the squad and improve as a unit. However, according to BBC Sport, that payment was to be received in instalments while the majority of their summer budget went on compensation related to Taylor's appointment, due to a clause in his previous contract at City.

Four of the Reds' eight summer signings arrived before Taylor did, which is never ideal, especially not when the incoming coach has such a specific style. In fact, two of those who were signed before the season are not currently at the club, as Emilia Szymczak's loan from Barcelona was cut short in January while goalkeeper Rafaela Borggrafe was sent to Bayer Leverkusen for the rest of the season. Beata Olsson, who has five goals in seven league starts, has been a success story, but the rest of the summer arrivals are still proving themselves.

Injuries have only exacerbated issues in the squad. Marie Hobinger, so often Liverpool's talisman, and striker Sophie Roman Haug have both sustained ACL injuries that have effectively ended their seasons; Samantha Kerr, who signed from Bayern Munich in the summer, hasn't played since November due to a back problem; Anna Josendal is yet to debut, after joining the club in January; while Taylor confirmed last week that Sofie Lundgaard is joining that list of absentees for a significant period, as she undergoes surgery.

That's on top of all the other instances of unavailability that have already come and gone. Grace Fisk, Risa Shimizu, Lucy Parry and Lily Woodham have all also missed at least a month or more this term. When Chelsea visited Merseyside in December for a quarter-final clash in the League Cup, the one competition where the Reds have racked up wins, albeit against lower-tier opposition, Liverpool could only name two senior outfield players to their bench. They lost 9-1.

Then there is the elephant in the room. On September 20, just over six months after he was last in post as Liverpool manager, Beard tragically passed away at the age of 47. His death rocked women's football as a whole and especially affected those who had worked so closely with him over the years, many of whom are still with the Reds today.

Liverpool's clash with Aston Villa, set to be played just a day later, was postponed as those at the club came to terms with the awful news. It's impossible to measure the impact that grief has had on this team, which was only added to a month later when women's first-team kitman Jonathan Humble passed away after a short illness, but it cannot be ignored when discussing why the Reds have struggled so much this season.

Recently, though, the tide is turning, with a much-improved January window playing no small part. Liverpool made six signings in the winter and many of them have already made an immediate impact.

Jennifer Falk kept clean sheets in all of her first three games, conceding just twice across her first five in between the sticks for the Reds; Alice Bergstrom already has three goals for the club, helping to alleviate major issues in attack; while both Martha Thomas and Aurelie Csillag are also already off the mark after scoring in the 4-1 win over Aston Villa on Sunday which lifted Liverpool off the foot of the WSL table for the first time since November.

That was Liverpool's second win in three league games and part of a run that has seen the Reds lose just one of their last five in the competition. It has been clear for a while that the squad was generally getting to grips with what Taylor wanted, with performances much-improved long before results started to go their way as well. Now, boosted by those January arrivals, the team is putting it all together a little bit better.

Backing up the belief that this has been coming, rather than it being a streak that will fade, are the underlying numbers. In their last five league games, Liverpool's expected goals (xG) statistic has been above one four times, a mark the team only managed to hit three times in their first 10 games of the WSL season, and the nine goals they've managed in that time is also more than the six that came in those first 10 league outings. Things have certainly clicked in attack, aided by those new signings.

Improvements have come at the back, too. Liverpool's opponents registered an xG above one nine times in the 11 games before the winter break, and above two on three occasions. Since the turn of the year - since Falk took her place in between the sticks, since Denise O'Sullivan added her defensive nous to the midfield and since Fisk returned to the back line after injury - the Reds have kept that xG against below two in all of their four league outings, and below one on three occasions. That's something that has also allowed them to stop dropping so many points from winning positions, having let slip a whopping 11 prior to the New Year.

Even if, for a while, the feeling was that Liverpool were not as bad as their winless run suggested, there is always a point at which a club has to act if the results do not come. Fortunately for Taylor, it looks like his team has changed course and is now steering away from that potential point.

There's still a lot of work to do, with the Reds only one place and one point above Leicester City, who occupy that one relegation play-off spot and have a game in hand, but the two-time WSL champions look much more likely to keep their place in the top-flight now, all while taking further strides towards that attractive and unique style Taylor wants to bring to Liverpool.