Perfect storm leaves Klopp's Liverpool in real danger

Watching Liverpool limp their way to a fortuitous FA Cup third round draw with Wolves during the week, it was striking just how far Jurgen Klopp's side have fallen in the space of six months.

In May of last year, Liverpool were a second-half Aston Villa collapse and a masterclass of goalkeeping from Thibaut Courtois away from winning everything that club football had to offer them.

The drop-off since those final closing stages of the 21/22 campaign has been dramatic and seems to have come at the worst possible time for the club, but the warning signs have been there for a while.

Momentum carried the Reds through the business end of the last campaign but even back then things were creaking in the heart of the team. Their tendency for going behind early to sloppy goals in games was already becoming a habit last April, as was their vulnerability to quick counter attacks.

At their best, Klopp’s Liverpool have always been a well-oiled machine, capable of utterly overwhelming their opponents but after a period of neglect to some very important cogs, Klopp and his side are at a crossroads and solutions to their many problems aren’t obvious.

Liverpool have gone from a side that imposes themselves on their opponents to one that looks constantly vulnerable and in danger of being bullied and overwhelmed.

Their recent 3-1 defeat to Brentford was a perfect example of just how far Liverpool’s standards have slipped and how they’ve lost the aura of fear – teams like Brentford are no longer wary of going toe-to-toe with the Reds and know they can physically overwhelm them.

Klopp may well point to his side’s injury list and admittedly he has been hamstrung by a growing number of absentees. Virgil van Dijk has just joined the likes of Luis Diaz,