The maddening thing about Liverpool conversations when results turn is how quickly we forget context. Not excuses, context. We’ve seen seasons derail before, and there’s usually a pretty obvious cocktail behind it: injuries, churn, ageing legs, and the hangover that comes after pushing a great side right to the edge.

Take 20/21. Yes, the centre-back situation was the headline, and it was brutal. But it’s also true we still had the core of a very special team not long removed from being champions. And yet the drop-off was massive, and it didn’t happen because everyone suddenly forgot how to play. It happened because when the foundation of your side collapses, the rest of it wobbles too. One problem becomes three. Confidence gets brittle. Roles change. The dominoes go.

We’ve seen the hangover season before

Then you look at 22/23 and you can see why it felt like the wheels came off. The season before, we were chasing everything, right to the final days. When you spend a year living at that intensity, some lads don’t bounce back the same way. It’s not even always about effort. Sometimes the body just starts sending different messages. A yard goes missing. Recovery takes longer. The small injuries linger.

Football has a cruel way of making “fine” look like “finished” overnight, especially in the Premier League, where every week is a knife fight.

This time it’s not just one position

The argument now is that it’s not as simple as “we lost the centre-backs”. You can point to losing a right-back, a left-winger, two centre-forwards, and still having that familiar issue where availability bites you. If Joe can’t stay fit, that’s effectively losing an option before a ball is kicked. And if Ibou’s level drops or his focus goes, you feel it immediately because that position punishes mistakes.

Add in a couple of players who might be going over the hill in terms of age or fitness, and you’re suddenly asking the side to cover a lot of ground with less margin for error.

Don’t make the loudest fans the decision-makers

That’s why the reaction matters. Right now it can feel like the manager and squad are walking through a storm, and some of the noise around it is pure Statler and Waldorf. Cheap laughs, easy groans, and the same old lines on repeat. Truth is, constant crisis mode doesn’t fix anything, it just makes the air heavier.

And for anyone itching to rip it all up after a few months, have a look at the clubs who live like that. The churn becomes the culture. Liverpool have built better standards than that. Be demanding, absolutely. Just don’t be reckless with it.

Written by D-day: 13 January 2026

Tags: efl injury