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Just a couple of weeks back, the Merseyside club appeared set to claim back-to-back Premier League championships and potentially a further Champions League crown. Their capacity to win without peak displays felt like the hallmark of genuine champions.

However, subsequently the tide shifted. Liverpool continued with average showings and started dropping matches. At the same time, Arsenal, known for their resolute defense and squad depth, started narrowing the gap at the summit.

Understanding a Crisis in Today's Game

Does a trio of consecutive defeats represent a crisis? As with most sporting discussions, it depends entirely on your interpretation of the key word. Is Paul Scholes elite? How do you define "world class" even signify? Is the Birmingham club a major club? What defines "big"? Are Manchester United returned to prominence? Well, perhaps that is one we might answer.

At a team of Liverpool's size and previous campaign's brilliance, a minor crisis seems a reasonable assessment. During a broadcast, ex- striker Neil Mellor was asked how many defeats in a row would trigger alarm. His reply was six. Currently, they are halfway to that particular threshold.

Pinpointing the On-Pitch Problems

There are obvious tactical problems. Assimilating new additions like Milos Kerkez and Jeremie Frimpong, who provide a distinct style to previous key players Andy Robertson and Trent Alexander-Arnold, creates a difficulty. Similarly, incorporating a gifted attacking midfielder like Florian Wirtz has reportedly unbalanced the engine room. Observers of the Bundesliga note that Wirtz is a creative talent who elevates those around him, connecting play effortlessly rather than forcing himself upon the game.

Additionally, a host of individuals who shone last season—such as Mo Salah, Ibrahima Konaté, Alexis Mac Allister, and Conor Bradley—are currently underperforming. Actually, most of the squad is. And they all share one profound, recent event: the passing of their teammate and friend, Diogo Jota.

The Invisible Impact: Loss on the Field

It has been just over three months since the tragic passing of their friend. While the wider world progresses rapidly, shifting focus to global events, Liverpool's squad continue training and playing day after day without their mate.

It is not possible to know how each individual and member of the backroom team is coping on any given day. There is a great deal of speculation. Perhaps Salah didn't track back in a particular match because he lacked energy. But maybe his form is down a small per cent because he misses his pal.

Chelsea's head coach, Enzo Maresca, spoke eloquently before a recent, drawing a parallel to his personal experience of losing a fellow player, Antonio Puerta, while at Sevilla. "How they are performing this campaign is fantastic," he said of Liverpool. "Particularly after the loss. I went through a very similar thing when I was a player two decades past."

"It's not easy for the players, it's not easy for the organization, it's not easy for the coach when you arrive at the training complex and you find every day that place vacant. So you have to be incredibly resilient. And this is the explanation why for me they are doing not good, even better than good. Because they are attempting to handle a situation that is not easy."

Just as explained well on a well-known fan podcast, the reminders are constant. The players are reminded by his chant in the first half, they notice his empty locker in the changing room. Even during games, a pass might be played and the realization arises: 'Ah, Diogo would have reached that.' If Salah showed emotion in front of the Kop a matches ago, it indicates that everything is not normal.

The Boundaries of Punditry and Human Emotion

After reporting on football for two decades, one realizes there is a fundamental superficiality in the majority of punditry. We genuinely cannot know how an individual is coping at any specific time and how that affects their performance. Jota's death is one of the most stark illustrations. We are aware a tragic thing occurred, and we understand the nature of sorrow. But further lies an immeasurable layer of impact on different people at the club. It is highly likely that a few of the players personally do not truly understand its effect from one moment to the next.

How the media reports on this and how fans dissect displays is clearly not the primary thing. On a practical level, mentioning Jota's death is difficult to accomplish in a short segment before moving on to tactical concerns. Outside of this specific tragedy and outside Liverpool, it would seem strange to qualify every critique of a player with an admission that we are largely ignorant about their private circumstances—be it their parental situation, personal struggles, or relationship difficulties.

A former professional footballer, Nedum Onuoha, recently spoke on radio about how his mother's death halfway through his playing days affected his love for the game. "I didn't enjoy football as much," he said. "The high points and the lows that come with it no longer felt the same any more." And that was many years into his profession; for Liverpool and Jota, it has been only three months.

The Concluding Thought

Therefore, regardless of what Liverpool achieve this season—if it's something or failure—whether or not we omit reference to it whenever we analyze their matches, and even if it is not the sole cause for their final outcome, we must remember that a few weeks ago they lost not just a brilliant player, but, crucially, they said goodbye to a friend.