Soccer-Liverpool season that promised so much lurches towards crisis

(Reuters) - Widely tipped to be champions Manchester City's closest challengers for the Premier League title, Liverpool's fourth defeat of the season on Saturday has instead seen their campaign lurching towards crisis.

Liverpool only lost two league games last season as they came agonisingly close to an unprecedented quadruple of trophies, losing to Real Madrid in the Champions League final and finishing one point behind City.

Looking to build on their exploits, Liverpool spent big on Uruguayan striker Darwin Nunez - the second most expensive player in their history at an initial 75 million euros ($74.51 million) - and brought an end to a painful contract saga by getting Mohamed Salah to sign a new deal.

The season therefore promised so much, with almost every single pundit predicting them or City would become eventual champions, with the other finishing second.

City have kept up their end of the bargain, winning nine of their 12 games so far to sit two points behind leaders Arsenal. Liverpool, however, have fallen off a cliff.

"Clearly as a team something's not going right, it's not going as well as we want it to go," Liverpool defender Trent Alexander-Arnold said on Saturday after his side's 2-1 loss to Leeds United, their first home league defeat since March 2021.

"I'd say we all believe in ourselves, we believe in the way we play, we believe in the squad and what we can achieve, but I think when you do get setbacks, it can potentially make you second-guess yourself and question things.

"We must make sure we put it right, especially next week against Tottenham (Hotspur), top-four rivals. We kind of need to go there and get some points if we've got any chance of reaching our aims and aspirations for the season."

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