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Only a few weeks back, the Merseyside club seemed set to claim back-to-back Premier League titles and possibly another Champions League trophy. Their capacity to secure victories despite not peak displays seemed like the hallmark of genuine champions.

However, subsequently the tide turned. The Anfield side persisted with average showings and started dropping points. At the same time, Arsenal, renowned for their stubborn defense and squad depth, started narrowing the distance at the top.

Defining a Crisis in Today's Game

Can a trio of consecutive defeats represent a collapse? As with most football debates, it depends completely on your definition of the key term. Was the United midfielder world class? What does "elite" actually mean? Is the Birmingham club a major team? What constitutes "big"? Is the Old Trafford outfit returned to prominence? Well, maybe that is a question we can answer.

For a club of Liverpool's stature and previous campaign's excellence, a minor setback appears a reasonable description. During a radio show, former forward Neil Mellor was asked how many losses in a row would cause alarm. His answer was six. At present, they are halfway to that point.

Identifying the Tactical Problems

There are clear footballing issues. Integrating new signings like Milos Kerkez and Jeremie Frimpong, who offer a different style to previous stalwarts Andy Robertson and Trent Alexander-Arnold, creates a difficulty. Similarly, blending in a gifted attacking midfielder like Florian Wirtz has reportedly unbalanced the engine room. Experts of the Bundesliga note that Wirtz is a creative player who improves those around him, connecting play seamlessly rather than imposing himself on the game.

Furthermore, a host of players who excelled last season—such as Mo Salah, Ibrahima Konaté, Alexis Mac Allister, and Conor Bradley—are now below their best. In fact, most of the team is. Yet every one of them have one profound, fresh experience: the tragic death of their teammate and friend, Diogo Jota.

The Unseen Impact: Grief on the Field

It has been just more than three short months since the devastating passing of their teammate. While the wider world moves on rapidly, shifting focus to global events, the club's players carry on training and playing each day in the absence of their mate.

This is impossible to gauge how every individual and staff member is dealing from one day to the next. It requires a significant amount of projection. Perhaps Salah didn't track back in a particular match because he was tired. But maybe his form is down a few percentage points due to the fact he misses his friend.

The London club's head coach, Enzo Maresca, spoke insightfully before a fixture, making a comparison to his personal experience of the loss of a teammate, Antonio Puerta, when at Sevilla. "How they are performing this season is fantastic," he said of Liverpool. "Especially after Jota's loss. I lived exactly the same thing when I was a player 20 years ago."

"It's not easy 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 daily that spot vacant. So you must be very strong. And this is the reason why for me they are performing not good, even better than good. Because they are trying to deal with a problem that is not easy."

As explained well on a well-known fan podcast, the memory triggers are constant. The players are reminded by his song in the first half, they see his empty locker in the changing room. In the middle of games, a through ball might be played and the realization arises: 'Oh, Diogo would have reached that.' If Salah showed emotion in front of the Kop a matches ago, it signals that everything is far from normal.

The Limits of Punditry and Personal Grief

Having reporting on football for twenty years, one comes to believe there is a fundamental superficiality in most punditry. We simply do not know how an player is coping at any given time and how that affects their play. Jota's death is one of the most stark illustrations. We know a tragic event occurred, and we comprehend the nature of grief. But further lies an intangible level of effect on different people at the organization. It is very possible that some of the players themselves don't truly understand its influence from one day to the next.

How the press reports on this and how fans dissect displays is clearly not the most important factor. On a practical level, bringing up Jota's death is difficult to do in a brief soundbite before moving on to on-field issues. Beyond this particular tragedy and beyond Liverpool, it would seem strange to preface every critique of a player with an acknowledgment that we are largely ignorant about their private circumstances—be it their parental relationships, personal struggles, or relationship problems.

An ex- professional player, Nedum Onuoha, recently spoke on radio about how his mother's passing halfway through his career affected his passion for the game. "I lost some joy in football as much," he stated. "Some of the highs and the low points that come with it didn't really feel the same any more." And that was many years into his profession; for Liverpool and Jota, it has been just three months.

The Final Point

Therefore, regardless of what Liverpool achieve in the coming months—if it's something or failure—whether or not we don't mention it whenever we analyze their fixtures, even if it is not the sole reason for their eventual outcome, we must remember that a few weeks ago they suffered the loss of not just a exceptional footballer, but, more importantly, they said goodbye to a dear friend.