🔗 Share this article

Only a few weeks back, Liverpool appeared set to claim back-to-back Premier League titles and potentially another Champions League crown. The team's capacity to win without peak displays felt like the hallmark of genuine title-winners.

But, subsequently the momentum turned. Liverpool persisted with mediocre performances and began losing matches. Meanwhile, the North London club, known for their stubborn defense and squad depth, started narrowing the gap at the summit.

Defining a Crisis in Today's Game

Can a trio of consecutive losses constitute a crisis? Like many sporting discussions, it depends entirely on your definition of the central word. Is Paul Scholes world class? How do you define "elite" even signify? Is the Birmingham club a major team? What defines "big"? Is the Old Trafford outfit back? Alright, maybe that is a question we might answer.

At a team of Liverpool's stature and last season's excellence, a minor crisis seems a reasonable assessment. On a recent broadcast, ex- forward Neil Mellor was questioned how many defeats in a row would trigger panic. His reply was six. Currently, they are midway to that threshold.

Pinpointing the Tactical Problems

There are obvious tactical issues. Integrating new additions like Milos Kerkez and Jeremie Frimpong, who provide a distinct skill set to departed stalwarts Andy Robertson and Trent Alexander-Arnold, presents a difficulty. Similarly, incorporating a talented playmaker like Florian Wirtz has reportedly disrupted the engine room. Experts of the Bundesliga point out that Wirtz is a creative player who improves those around him, connecting play effortlessly rather than imposing himself upon the game.

Furthermore, a host of individuals who shone last season—such as Mo Salah, Ibrahima Konaté, Alexis Mac Allister, and Conor Bradley—are now below their best. In fact, the majority of the team is. Yet they all have one significant, recent event: the passing of their colleague and friend, Diogo Jota.

The Unseen Effect: Loss on the Field

It has been just more than three months since the tragic loss of their friend. While the wider world moves on quickly, diverting focus to global matters, Liverpool's players continue going to work day after day without their friend.

This is impossible to know how every individual and staff member is coping from one day to the next. There is a significant amount of projection. Perhaps Salah didn't track back in a particular match simply he lacked energy. Or maybe his performance level is down a few percentage points due to the fact he misses his friend.

Chelsea's head coach, Enzo Maresca, commented insightfully before a fixture, drawing a parallel to his own experience of losing a teammate, Antonio Puerta, while at Sevilla. "How they are performing this season is remarkable," he said of Liverpool. "Especially after the loss. I went through a very similar thing when I was a player two decades past."

"It is difficult for the squad, it's not easy for the club, it's not easy for the coach when you come to the training ground and you find daily that place empty. So you have to be incredibly resilient. And this is the explanation why for me they are doing not well, even better than good. Because they are trying to handle a problem that is not easy."

As explained well on a well-known supporter's show, the reminders are constant. They hear his chant in the 20th minute, they see his empty locker in the dressing room. In the middle of matches, a through ball might be played and the thought arises: 'Ah, Jota would have reached that.' When the Egyptian was seen crying in front of the Kop a matches ago, it signals that everything is not all right.

The Limits of Football Analysis and Personal Grief

After covering football for twenty years, one realizes there is a fundamental lack of depth in most analysis. We simply do not know how an individual is coping at any specific moment and how that impacts their performance. Jota's passing is one of the clearest examples. We know a tragic thing occurred, and we understand the nature of sorrow. But further lies an intangible level of impact on various people at the club. It is very possible that some of the players personally don't fully understand its influence from one moment to the next.

How the media reports on this and how supporters dissect performances is clearly not the primary thing. On a practical basis, bringing up Jota's passing is challenging to do in a short segment before moving on to tactical concerns. Outside of this particular tragedy and outside Liverpool, it would seem strange to preface every criticism of a footballer with an acknowledgment that we know so little about their private circumstances—be it their parental situation, personal struggles, or marital difficulties.

A former pro player, the defender, recently spoke on radio about how his mother's passing halfway through his career affected his passion for the game. "I lost some joy in football as much," he stated. "The highs and the lows that accompany it didn't really feel the same any more." And that was half a career; for Liverpool and Jota, it has been only three months.

The Concluding Point

Therefore, whatever Liverpool achieve in the coming months—be it success or if it's nothing—whether or not we omit reference to it whenever we analyze their fixtures, even if it isn't the cause for their eventual result, we must remember that a few weeks ago they suffered the loss of not merely a exceptional footballer, but, crucially, they lost a friend.