Injuries, transfer errors and behind-the-scenes uncertainty have resulted in a dramatic and devastating dip in form.
It feels like a lifetime ago now, but Liverpool actually went into this season riding a wave of optimism.
Having narrowly missed out on the most remarkable of quadruples in May, Jurgen Klopp’s side looked as if they were ready to roll once more by the time July came around.
Victory over Manchester City in the Community Shield at Leicester’s King Power Stadium suggested the Reds had lost none of their hunger or spark.
New signing Darwin Nunez marked his debut with a goal, ensuring an instant rapport with the travelling Kop, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Mohamed Salah were also on the scoresheet, while City new-boy Erling Haaland was shackled well by Virgil van Dijk & Co. at the other end.
“We’re ready to go again,” declared Klopp, who looked like a man at ease with the world, and with himself.
Fast forward five months, and the landscape has shifted considerably. That early-season hope has long since evaporated, each disjointed performance and underwhelming result serving to chip away at the confidence, belief and aura of a side once labelled – and correctly so too – “mentality giants” by its manager.
Liverpool lost only four times in 63 games in all competitions last term, but they have already lost six of 27 this time around.
They have won less than half of their Premier League matches, decimating their title chances and leaving them facing an uphill battle to secure even the “minimum aim” of Champions League qualification.
They travel to Brighton this weekend, and it’s difficult to make a case for them being favourites.
How did it come to this? How did the mood around Anfield change so quickly, after the heady heights of spring and summer?
Early cracks and momentum lost
It all started down at Craven Cottage, you could say. Six days after that Community Shield win, Liverpool headed to Fulham looking to underline their status, once more, as one of the teams to beat in this season’s Premier League. Klopp named something like his strongest XI, with only Joel Matip and Roberto Firmino coming into the side which had started the Champions League final against Real Madrid in May. Nunez, the £64 million ($78m) summer arrival from Benfica, began on the bench, ready to cause carnage once his opponents tired and the game opened up.
The rest of Liverpool’s bench, though, hinted at some of the problems to come. It contained the likes of Sepp van den Berg, Luke Chambers and Stefan Bajcetic – a trio without a single Premier League appearance – with injuries already having begun to nibble away at Klopp’s squad.
Diogo Jota and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain had suffered hamstring issues during the pre-season trip to the Far East, summer arrival Calvin Ramsay was sidelined with a back problem, Curtis Jones, a late substitute in the Community Shield, had picked up a stress reaction in his tibia and wouldn’t be seen on the pitch again until October, while Ibrahima Konate had damaged knee ligaments in a bizarrely-scheduled friendly against Toulouse at Anfield, 24 hours after the City win.
Then, less than an hour into the league season, Thiago Alcantara limped off with a thigh injury, leaving Liverpool further exposed. They played poorly, both with and without Thiago, at Fulham, looking rattled by their hosts’ energy and in-your-face physicality – another sign of things to come.
“We cannot always hug the boys,” Klopp said. “We usually only do that when they deserve it.”
Nunez, at least, came off the bench to score and set up another for Salah, while both Luis Diaz and Jordan Henderson hit the woodwork, but a 2-2 draw against newly-promoted opposition was not the kind of authoritative opening Klopp had expected.
“We started in exactly the opposite way to what we wanted,” he said afterwards. It would not be the first time he’d be left scratching his head trying to explain a Reds performance this season.
Darwin’s red mist and no new midfielder
By the time Crystal Palace arrived at Anfield for the Reds’ first home game, Liverpool’s injury issues had worsened. Matip had picked up a groin issue in training, Firmino was left out as “a precaution”, while both Jordan Henderson and Joe Gomez were deemed fit enough only for the bench. It meant Nat Phillips, who had spent the second half of last season on loan at Bournemouth and had been expecting (and expected) to leave permanently in the summer, started alongside Van Dijk at centre-back, and Liverpool’s problems would deepen when, at 1-0 down early in the second half, Nunez was shown a straight red card after a clash with Palace defender Joachim Andersen.
Diaz’s brilliant strike salvaged a point, but there was little consolation for Klopp and his supporters, with two draws against lesser opposition to start the campaign, a pair of low-key performances, an alarming injury list and the new big-money striker facing a three-match ban.
Liverpool had, to that point, believed they had enjoyed a positive transfer window, bringing in Nunez, Ramsay from Aberdeen to provide youthful cover for Alexander-Arnold, and the talented Fabio Carvalho from Fulham. They had also, after lengthy and fraught negotiations, renewed Salah’s contract, making him the highest-paid player in the club’s history, while choosing to cash in on another of their attacking stars in Sadio Mane.