Liverpool have made their worst start to a Premier League season in ten years with a 2-1 defeat away to Manchester United last night.
While losing by a one-goal margin in a big game like this is not enough on its own to be a crisis, some recent developments at Liverpool suggest this poor start could be more than just a blip.
It’s been a quiet summer in the transfer market for the Reds, who seemed largely ready to rest on their laurels after coming so close to the quadruple last season.
That’s not exactly an unfair assumption to make, but in football it’s always a risky move, especially in the Premier League where your rivals are never standing still. Despite their poor start prior to last night’s game, Man Utd have shown they’re likely to be a different prospect under Erik ten Hag, while surprise early league leaders Arsenal also look transformed after an excellent transfer window.
So what’s gone wrong at Liverpool, and how seriously should their fans be concerned about the campaign ahead?
Midfield problems
Klopp will rightly point out that his side are suffering with injuries at the moment, particularly in midfield. Liverpool started with a midfield three of Jordan Henderson, James Milner and Harvey Elliott at Old Trafford, with Fabinho only fit enough to make the bench, while both Naby Keita and Thiago Alcantara are currently out of action.
Even before taking those injuries into account, this is arguably a position LFC have needed to strengthen for a while; in recent times, the goals have come from the front three, while the creativity tends to come from attacking full-backs Trent Alexander-Arnold and Andrew Robertson.
Klopp’s midfield is not really supposed to be anything too flashy, but that lack of a Plan B – a goal-scorer from the middle of the park – seems to be starting to hurt the team, with all the best sides needing a backup plan if the first approach isn’t working. With Darwin Nunez now suspended, that’s a major spanner in the works as he’d been brought in as the main goal threat up front, but there’s really nothing in place to cope without him while he’s out.
Liverpool don’t panic buy – they’ve shown in the past that they’ll wait for the right player if they have to, as most notably happened with Virgil van Dijk. Still, it’s bordering on just plain stubbornness if the club refuse to invest in a new midfielder before the end of the summer. There simply has to be someone out there who would have been a better option in this game than a 36-year-old James Milner.
Ageing squad
And Milner is far from the only player who may be over the hill in this Liverpool squad. It’s an ageing side in general, with the likes of Mohamed Salah, Virgil van Dijk, Joel Matip, Jordan Henderson, Roberto Firmino and Thiago Alcantara all 30 or over. Alisson is close behind, aged 29. Fabinho and Andrew Robertson are both 28.
This might not exactly be an emergency situation, but it’ll be far from comforting reading for Liverpool fans, with this golden generation now arguably past the very peak of its powers, and likely to be very hard to replace.
Missing Mane
Speaking of being hard to replace, there is surely no doubt that Sadio Mane is being missed more than many perhaps expected.
The Senegal international moved to Bayern Munich this summer and has started brightly in Germany, having had perhaps his most influential season in a Liverpool shirt last year as well.
There’s not much that can be done if a player is unhappy and wants to leave, so perhaps the sale had to be done for the good of the harmony of the squad. Still, there’s no question that Klopp will be wishing Mane had been ready to stay a bit longer. While not as flashy as Salah, how often did the former Southampton man score important winning goals or opening goals for this side? As exciting as Luis Diaz has been, can he really step up and perform at such a high standard as consistently as Mane did?
Lingering disappointment
There may have been a trophy parade at the end of last season, but do you really think there’ll have been a feeling of celebration in that Liverpool squad after their quadruple dreams were crushed in their final two games of the campaign?
Klopp’s side came so close to winning the title as they beat Wolves at Anfield on the final day, only for a late Manchester City turnaround to see them clinch the title by just a point – a familiar story that becomes harder to write off as just bad luck when it’s repeated so often.
Liverpool were then unlucky in the Champions League final, putting in a better performance than Real Madrid for much of the game, and with goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois in stunning form to help the Spanish giants to a 1-0 win. Still, Reds fans will know their team is capable of better than that. It’s a third European final defeat for Liverpool under Klopp, and it was a third final last season in which they failed to score, requiring penalties after two 0-0 draws against Chelsea in both their domestic cup final victories.
After coming so close to immortality but ultimately missing out, it can be hard to pick yourself up again. Klopp is better than most at firing his players up and getting another level out of them, but how many times can he keep that up? And how much harder is it when all the other issues above are factored in to?
We’ve seen teams win the title after poor starts like this – Manchester United notably drew their first two games and lost their third in 2007/08 before going on a remarkable run that saw them win the Premier League and Champions League double. Perhaps Liverpool can do that too, but for now it’s hard to see these deep-rooted problems going away.