Feuding James Milner and Virgil van Dijk a clear sign Liverpool know they have big problems

Jurgen Klopp began the season saying he wanted Liverpool’s players to be angry with the world.

On a sobering evening at Old Trafford, their fury was directed at each other, Virgil Van Dijk and James Milner’s constant bickering symptomatic of a disjointed performance and poor start to the season. 

The heart of this Liverpool team is malfunctioning. Klopp must quickly find a fix to prevent this season’s domestic ambitions being rapidly revised. 

Maybe the post-Sadio Mane world is bleaker than first imagined. Perhaps their indifferent form can, as Klopp suggests, be attributed to a ‘witch’s curse’ injuring key players.

Then there are the chronic slow starts - conceding the first goal in seven consecutive Premier League games - which are not sustainable.

A more compelling argument is the risk Liverpool downplayed at the start of the season - that their title credentials would be undermined by a failure to strengthen in midfield - has bitten back sooner than Klopp thought plausible. To be outrun, out-muscled and generally overpowered by a Manchester United team they defeated 9-0 on aggregate last season was reflective of diminished power through Liverpool’s spine.

“Where is the need for a midfielder?” Klopp asked before the start of the season, irked by the suggestion his club was inviting trouble by pinning their faith in the untried, the unreliable or the injury prone. Klopp listed everyone at his disposal.

“Fabinho, Henderson, Thiago, Milner, Keita, Curtis Jones, Harvey Elliott, Fabio Carvalho, Oxlade-Chamberlain. Now you tell me what kind of player we are missing?” he said.

Since then, four have been injured and at Old Trafford, the midfield thoroughbred of the last four years, Fabinho, began on the bench. Liverpool