‘The whole system has failed’: five Liverpool fans on the Reds’ rocky start

It’s been a perfect storm of several issues, making for a decline that few predicted. Last season was relentless, with Liverpool playing all 63 games possible and missing out on the two big trophies. That will have hurt and I think there has been a mental and physical hangover.

Picking themselves up and going again, following such an intense campaign, has proved extremely challenging. Meanwhile, individuals have struggled for form. Trent Alexander-Arnold’s woes are the most high profile, but Virgil van Dijk, Fabinho, Jordan Henderson and Mohamed Salah have also been short of their best. Darwin Núñez has struggled to get going, too, after his £85m arrival from Benfica.

The system as a whole has failed, with the midfield offering the defence nowhere near enough protection, and intensity lacking throughout the team – a top-quality midfielder simply had to be signed – while confidence has also evaporated.

Liverpool will come good, even if that means not winning the title or even finishing in the top two this season. But it will take time for them to return to their swashbuckling best, and fresh legs are required in January and next summer.

Liverpool’s early-season problems have been down to several factors. First, a shortened pre-season coming straight off the back of an exhausting campaign. Then you have the likelihood of a number of players suffering an emotional hangover after going so close to winning the Premier League and Champions League but ending up with neither.

There has been a clear legginess and lack of intensity, while a midfield injury crisis hasn’t help matters. Tactical tweaks to the system haven’t worked the way Jürgen Klopp intended either, with Alexander-Arnold often playing too far inside and Salah being