Liverpool fans had hoped that a 2-1 defeat at Old Trafford – contrasting with the prior 5-0 thrashing of the Red Devils last term to an epic degree – would be the spark that truly kickstarted their campaign.
As it turned out, two successive wins over Bournemouth and Newcastle proved only to be something of a false dawn as a goalless stalemate at Goodison Park preceded our 4-1 humbling in Naples.
For some social media users, our latest defeat has inspired impressive levels of toxic negativity, in addition to commentators revaluating their original positions of the kind of the season Jurgen Klopp’s men were set to enjoy this year.
The reality remains, however, that the quadruple-chasing side we’d amassed in 2021/22 hasn’t simply become an extremely poor collection of individuals overnight, though, there are clear concerns that need to be addressed.
Prime amongst them is the midfield, which has been practically non-existent for much of the season, leaving the backline exposed and the forward line often isolated.
Harking back to 2017, however, some fans may remember a similar watershed moment early on in Jurgen Klopp’s tenure at Anfield in the 4-1 defeat to Mauricio Pochettino’s Tottenham.
A shambolic display against Spurs invited questions of the German’s revolution having come to an end before it had even reached its apex – after the visit to Italy, the 55-year-old faced similar doubts and was actually questioned whether he feared being next in line for the sack after Thomas Tuchel was given the boot by Chelsea.
Let’s make this abundantly clear right now: it would take a run of poor results of such despairingly dismal quality for a far prolonged period before FSG even considered the prospect of handing the manager a P45.
We know for a fact we can expect some changes in his side come the hosting of Ajax next week – indeed, Klopp confirmed the club would need to ‘reinvent’ itself to overcome the current challenges facing it.
Some suspect that could mean something as drastic and daring as a formation change (perhaps a 4-2-3-1) to get the best out of our currently fit and available options in the squad.
At the absolute least, we know each and every single player not on the injury table will have been on the receiving end of a serious conversation from the boss and his coaching staff about their contributions this season.
There’s plenty of video evidence around suggesting Klopp will have a lot ammunition at his disposal to get his point across – hopefully, the lessons will stick just as well as they did after our Tottenham humbling.
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