Red alert: Why have Liverpool been so bad in 2021?

Another weekend of Premier League action, another defeat for Liverpool FC.

Of all the things that we have encountered in an admittedly unprecedented year of sport on and off the pitch, Liverpool's fall from runaway champions to almost quite literally the worst team in the division may be the most unforeseen.

Only goal difference separates Jurgen Klopp's spiralling side from basement-dwelling Sheffield United at the bottom of the form table after a dramatic fall from grace in 2021.

The Reds were top of the tree at Christmas but six consecutive home defeats – for the first time in their 129-year history – have seen them tumble out of contention for not only the defence of their title but also the Champions League qualification places.

The most recent loss, to lowly Fulham on Sunday afternoon, was the latest in an increasingly long line of flat, uninspiring performances at Anfield where a Mario Lemina goal for the visitors was enough to secure all three points against a team that has now gone 11 hours without a goal from open play.

"Conceded a goal, didn't score, lost the game," was Klopp's blunt assessment afterwards as he vainly searches for an answer to why the best team in the league has so spectacularly imploded in just two short months.

For journalists it is a similar post-mortem with readers desperate for analysis and explanations for just what has gone wrong and, more pressingly, what can be done to fix it.

Could it be an ever-lengthening injury list that has seen a number of key players sidelined for much of the season? Is it a lack of investment from the owners to leave a thin squad in need of bolstering now pushed to breaking point? Is it a natural result of the most unique of seasons with no supporters in stadiums sapping so much of the energy out of players and watchers alike?

Or is it Klopp himself and a message that was once so vibrant and revolutionary five years ago now gone stale after all lands have been conquered and trophies won?

Maybe the most logical conclusion to come to is that it’s a case of all of that and more, a perfect storm of what could go wrong having gone wrong.

Will they be able to get themselves out of it? That's a question that neither journalists nor Klopp himself will be able to answer for sure.

Yours,

Ben Burrows

Sports editor