Wolves quick out of the blocks to deepen gloom for woeful Liverpool

Liverpool’s winter of gloom continues to plumb new depths. Their third thudding away defeat in a row was nailed on once Craig Dawson put Wolves two up before Jürgen Klopp’s players could hit any sort of stride. Nothing about what happened before or after it flattered an excellent home side, who profited from an early Joël Matip own goal and rounded things off through Rúben Neves.

Perhaps Klopp will point to a smattering of second-half chances but the fact is that Liverpool only brightened up once the game had already happened to them. Reverses at Brentford, Brighton and Molineux within five weeks, nine goals conceded and one scored, are no coincidence. This is a crisis and there will be no easy way out.

Of the £75m Wolves spent on new arrivals during January the £3.3m paid to West Ham for Dawson was outwardly the least noteworthy. But by the 12th minute of his debut he had buried their second goal and it was no more than a rampant opening deserved: Liverpool were outplayed, outpassed and beaten to every contest during that spell and had no answer to their hosts’ bright, snappy approach play.

There had been warning signs even before the opener, Matheus Cunha forcing Alisson to beat away a long shot and Pablo Sarabia dragging wide on his first start since arriving from Paris Saint-Germain. Sarabia would probably have been ruled offside had he scored but there was no conjecture around his next contribution.

A clipped left-footed pass sent Hwang Hee-chan away down the inside-right channel, aided by hesitancy from Matip. The defender would be doubly punished: Hwang looked to cut the ball back sharply but it pinged off Matip at a zany angle and flew in via the far post. Barely five minutes had been played but it had been