ClapLiverpool Football Club have once again become a real force of nature over the course of the last few years, largely due to a combination of Jurgen Klopp’s management, their incredible mentality and the quality they possess on the pitch.
They’ve won the Premier League, Champions League, FA Cup and League Cup, and they continue to push themselves to the limit in pretty much every competition they compete in.
In the early stages of this season, however, things seem to have gone a bit pear-shaped.
While it’s never fair to make that kind of assessment with just three games gone, it feels slightly different to the few ‘blips’ they’ve experienced in years gone by.
They opened up the campaign with a 2-2 draw against Fulham at Craven Cottage and, to put it lightly, it just didn’t feel like they really wanted it.
They went on to battle it out with Crystal Palace and, in fairness to them, they certainly seemed to be up for the challenge as they made their first appearance at Anfield of the new season.
Unfortunately, they didn’t have that killer instinct they once did, with Darwin Nunez spending his time getting sent off for a needless headbutt.
There was also a strange sensation at the Reds’ ground on the day, and by strange sensation, we of course mean that it was unbelievably quiet – leaving us to question the famous Anfield atmosphere.
Perhaps the biggest sign of this supposed decline came at Old Trafford on Monday night as they took on their fierce rivals Manchester United.
The Red Devils had lost back-to-back games to kick things off and yet, they were the ones that managed to dig deep and produce the kind of performance that reminded the world who exactly they are.
The final result was 2-1 and Liverpool, simply put, were terrible in every area of the pitch.
Astonishingly enough their fans and, to an extent their manager, continue to blame outside influences for some of their problems – such as the dry nature of the pitch or the mountain of injuries they have.
Sure, it would’ve been pretty beneficial for them to have the likes of Thiago and Diogo Jota available for selection, and it’s a good point to suggest their bench against United wasn’t the best.
In equal measure, it’s worth taking a look at which regular first teamers started the game: Alisson, Robertson, van Dijk, Gomez, Alexander-Arnold, Henderson, Diaz, Salah and, arguably, Firmino.
The midfield is ironically enough where it seemed to fall apart with Milner and Elliott not quite being able to keep up but even with that being the case, there were so very many other issues that were evident from the first minute until the very last.
We’re not here to say they can’t come back from this and still make a push for the title because there’s a pretty good chance that’s exactly what they’ll do. Still, we do think it’s time for the excuses to stop, and for some accountability to come into play.
