This incarnation of Liverpool must be officially declared over. Kaput. Done

Say what you like about Liverpool this season – and Football Daily gets the distinct feeling there have been a few rumblings – but their ability to repeatedly locate new depths to plumb with sonar-like precision has been second to none. They lost at Old Trafford to a Manchester United team who had just been gubbed 4-0 at Brentford. They were defeated by a random rabble cosplaying as Nottingham Forest, all of whom had only just met each other 15 minutes before kick-off. They were also beaten by Brentford, for the first time since 1938. They’ve been routed by Brighton and Wolves, lost at home to Jesse Marsch’s Leeds, and arguably worst of all, were unable to beat an Everton team set up by Frank Lampard. Oh Jürgen! How has it come to this?

Yet all that pales into insignificance after last night’s fiasco against Real Madrid at Anfield. It was a strange game, in so much as Liverpool were excellent for 15 minutes and little short of appalling for the other 75, and extremely fortunate that the visitors, of whom they were supposedly peers, declared at five with a quarter of the match still to play. Had the European champions kept up the rate at which they were ripping through what served as the home defence during the second half, the final score would have been 2-8. So, small mercies: at least Liverpool avoided a humiliation of Bayern-Barça proportions, and still hold the record for this season’s biggest Big Cup away win, that 7-1 rout of Rangers at Ibrox. Yes, Liverpool’s season has been really weird, hasn’t it.

If last night’s capitulation wasn’t embarrassing enough, footage emerged on the internet of Phil Babb in a television studio somewhere, criticising Liverpool’s setup ahead of Éder Militão’s goal. Schooled in the art of