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Just a couple of weeks ago, the Merseyside club seemed set to secure back-to-back Premier League championships and potentially another Champions League trophy. The team's capacity to win without optimal performances seemed like the hallmark of genuine title-winners.

However, then the tide turned. Liverpool continued with mediocre performances and began losing matches. At the same time, Arsenal, renowned for their stubborn defense and squad depth, started narrowing the gap at the summit.

Understanding a Crisis in Modern Football

Does a trio of consecutive defeats represent a crisis? As with most football debates, it depends entirely on your interpretation of the key term. Was the United midfielder elite? How do you define "elite" actually signify? Is the Birmingham club a major team? What constitutes "major"? Is the Old Trafford outfit back? Alright, maybe that's one we can answer.

At a team of Liverpool's stature and previous campaign's excellence, a minor setback appears a reasonable assessment. On a recent radio show, former forward Neil Mellor was asked how many losses in a row would cause alarm. His reply was six. At present, they are midway to that threshold.

Identifying the Tactical Issues

There are clear footballing issues. Integrating recent signings like Milos Kerkez and Jeremie Frimpong, who provide a different skill set to previous key players Andy Robertson and Trent Alexander-Arnold, creates a challenge. Likewise, blending in a gifted attacking midfielder like Florian Wirtz has reportedly unbalanced the engine room. Experts of the Bundesliga point out that Wirtz is a technical talent who improves those around him, linking play seamlessly rather than imposing himself upon the game.

Additionally, a host of players who shone last season—such as Mo Salah, Ibrahima Konaté, Alexis Mac Allister, and Conor Bradley—are currently underperforming. Actually, most of the team are. Yet they all share one significant, recent experience: the tragic death of their teammate and friend, Diogo Jota.

The Invisible Impact: Grief on the Pitch

It has been just more than three short months since the tragic loss of their friend. While the outside world progresses rapidly, diverting attention to global matters, Liverpool's players continue going to work day after day without their mate.

This is impossible to gauge how every player and member of the backroom team is dealing on any given day. There is a significant amount of projection. Perhaps Salah didn't track back in a recent match because he was tired. Or maybe his performance level is down a few per cent because he is grieving for his friend.

The London club's head coach, Enzo Maresca, spoke eloquently before a recent, drawing a comparison to his personal experience of the loss of a teammate, Antonio Puerta, while at Sevilla. "How they are doing this campaign is fantastic," he said of Liverpool. "Especially after the tragedy. I went through exactly the same experience when I was a player 20 years ago."

"It's not easy for the squad, it's not easy for the organization, it's not easy for the coach when you arrive at the training ground and you find daily that place vacant. So you have to be incredibly resilient. And this is the reason why for me they are performing not well, but exceptionally well. Because they are trying to deal with a problem that is not easy."

Just as summarized well on a well-known fan podcast, the reminders are constant. They hear his chant in the 20th minute, they notice his unused locker in the dressing room. In the middle of matches, a pass might be played and the thought arises: 'Ah, Jota would have reached that.' If Salah showed emotion in front of the Kop a matches ago, it indicates that all is not all right.

The Limits of Punditry and Human Emotion

Having covering football for two decades, one comes to believe there is a fundamental superficiality in most analysis. We simply cannot know how an player is feeling at any specific time and how that impacts their play. Jota's death is one of the most stark illustrations. We are aware a terrible thing happened, and we comprehend the nature of grief. Beyond that lies an immeasurable layer of effect on different people at the club. It is very possible that some of the squad personally do not fully understand its effect from one day to the next.

How the press covers this and how supporters dissect displays is obviously not the primary factor. On a practical basis, mentioning Jota's death is difficult to accomplish in a short segment before moving on to on-field issues. Beyond this specific event and outside Liverpool, it would seem bizarre to preface each criticism of a player with an admission that we know so little about their personal lives—be it their family situation, personal challenges, or marital problems.

An ex- professional player, the defender, recently spoke on a broadcast about how his mother's passing midway through his playing days impacted his love for the game. "I lost some joy in football as much," he said. "Some of the high points and the lows that come with it didn't really feel the same after that." And that was half a career; for Liverpool and Jota, it has been just three months.

The Concluding Thought

Therefore, whatever Liverpool achieve in the coming months—be it success or if it's nothing—even if we don't mention it whenever we discuss their fixtures, even if it isn't the cause for their final result, we should not forget that a few weeks ago they lost not just a brilliant player, but, more importantly, they said goodbye to a friend.