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Only a couple of weeks back, the Merseyside club appeared set to secure back-to-back Premier League titles and potentially a further Champions League trophy. Their capacity to secure victories despite not peak performances seemed like the hallmark of genuine title-winners.

However, then the momentum turned. The Anfield side continued with mediocre performances and started dropping points. At the same time, Arsenal, known for their stubborn defense and squad depth, started narrowing the distance at the summit.

Defining a Slump in Today's Game

Can three consecutive losses represent a crisis? As with many football debates, it hinges completely on your definition of the central word. Is Paul Scholes world class? How do you define "world class" even signify? Are Aston Villa a major club? What constitutes "big"? Is the Old Trafford outfit back? Well, maybe that's one we might settle.

For a club of Liverpool's stature and last season's excellence, a mini setback appears a reasonable description. On a recent radio show, ex- forward Neil Mellor was asked how many defeats in a row would trigger alarm. His answer was six. Currently, they are halfway to that threshold.

Pinpointing the On-Pitch Issues

One can observe obvious footballing problems. Assimilating new signings like Milos Kerkez and Jeremie Frimpong, who provide a different style to departed key players Andy Robertson and Trent Alexander-Arnold, creates a difficulty. Likewise, blending in a gifted playmaker like Florian Wirtz has reportedly unbalanced the engine room. Observers of the Bundesliga note that Wirtz is a technical talent who improves those beside him, connecting play effortlessly rather than imposing himself on the game.

Additionally, a host of individuals who excelled last season—such as Mo Salah, Ibrahima Konaté, Alexis Mac Allister, and Conor Bradley—are currently underperforming. In fact, the majority of the squad are. And they all have one profound, fresh event: the tragic death of their teammate and companion, Diogo Jota.

The Unseen Impact: Grief on the Field

It has been just more than three short months since the devastating loss of their friend. While the wider world moves on rapidly, shifting focus to global matters, Liverpool's players continue training and playing each day without their mate.

It is not possible to know how each individual and member of the backroom team is dealing from one day to the next. It requires a great deal of projection. Maybe Salah failed to defend in a recent match simply he was tired. Or perhaps his performance level is down a few percentage points because he misses his friend.

The London club's head coach, Enzo Maresca, commented insightfully before a recent, making a comparison to his personal experience of losing a teammate, Antonio Puerta, while at Sevilla. "How they are performing this season is remarkable," he said of Liverpool. "Particularly after the tragedy. I went through a very similar thing when I was a player two decades past."

"It is difficult for the players, it's not easy for the organization, it's not easy for the manager when you come to the training complex and you find every day that place vacant. So you must be very strong. And this is the explanation why for me they are doing not good, even better than good. Because they are attempting to handle a problem that is not easy."

Just as explained succinctly on a popular fan podcast, the memory triggers are constant. The players hear his chant in the first half, they notice his empty peg in the dressing room. In the middle of games, a pass might be played and the thought arises: 'Ah, Diogo would have been there.' If Salah showed emotion in front of the Kop a matches ago, it signals that all is not normal.

The Limits of Punditry and Human Emotion

Having covering football for two decades, one realizes there is a inherent superficiality in the majority of analysis. We genuinely cannot know how an player is feeling at any specific moment and how that impacts their play. Jota's passing is one of the most stark examples. We are aware a terrible thing occurred, and we understand the concept of grief. Beyond that lies an immeasurable layer of impact on different people at the organization. It is highly likely that a few of the squad themselves do not fully grasp its influence from one moment to the next.

How the press reports on this and how fans analyze performances is clearly not the most important factor. On a practical level, bringing up Jota's death is challenging to do in a short segment before moving on to tactical issues. Beyond this specific event and beyond Liverpool, it would seem bizarre to qualify each criticism of a player with an acknowledgment that we know so little about their personal lives—be it their parental relationships, personal challenges, or relationship problems.

An ex- professional footballer, the defender, recently spoke on radio about how his mother's death halfway through his career impacted his love for the game. "I lost some joy in football as much," he stated. "Some of the high points and the low points that come with it no longer felt the same after that." And that was many years into his profession; for Liverpool and Jota, it has been just three months.

The Concluding Thought

So, regardless of what Liverpool achieve in the coming months—be it success or failure—whether or not we don't mention it every time we analyze their matches, and even if it isn't the cause for their final outcome, we should not forget that a short time ago they lost not merely a exceptional footballer, but, crucially, they said goodbye to a friend.