It’s funny how quickly the conversation shifts once a season gets moving. At the start, plenty of us would have looked at a combined XI with City or Arsenal and backed a fair few Liverpool lads to get in. Now people talk like that was never the case.
That’s why the frustration hits the way it does. It’s not simply that results haven’t been good enough. It’s that the performances have looked even worse than the scorelines at times. When you feel a side is going backwards rather than having an off day, supporters are going to get edgy, and rightly so.
It’s the regression more than the results
We can all accept football goes in cycles. Even the best teams have dips. But this feels like a sudden regression, and that’s what has people talking about coaching, tactical set-up, and what the staff are asking players to do.
When the structure isn’t right, everything looks harder: pressing becomes a second late, distances open up, and you end up relying on individual quality instead of the team doing the heavy lifting. You can see why fans point to coaching first, because the shape and rhythm are meant to be the safety net.
Too much churn, not enough settled rhythm
It’s not only on tactics though. Too many changes to the first XI was always going to bite us. Even good players need time to learn each other’s habits, especially in a side that’s meant to play at tempo and win the ball back quickly. Constant tweaks can turn “options” into a lack of clarity.
And it’s not like other clubs have signed nothing but world beaters either. Chelsea, Spurs, United, even Arsenal at times, they’ve all brought in players who’ve taken time or haven’t hit. The difference is that Arsenal and City have had a stronger framework still standing, so new lads are added into something that already works.
The old reliables don’t look so reliable
There’s another part of it that’s harder to dress up: some of the players we’ve leaned on for years look like they may have peaked last season. For whatever reason, they’re not at the same level now, and when your dependable core drops off together, you feel it everywhere.
Truth is, that overlap, poor coaching, too much chopping and changing, and a few key players not hitting their usual standards can all be true at the same time. That’s how you end up underperforming, and even feeling like your league position flatters you a touch because so many sides around you have been inconsistent too.
So yes, it’s not “we should definitely win the league”. It’s that Liverpool should be in the title conversation far deeper into a season than this, and the standard on the pitch should reflect that.
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