New year, same old problems. And doesn’t Jurgen Klopp know it.
The Liverpool boss cut a hugely frustrated figure as he prowled the technical area in almost disbelief as his team crumbled to a new low of a rollercoaster campaign.
Clearly, it will take a lot more than a different calendar to cure the ills that continue to plague this infuriatingly inconsistent Reds team.
But what can change? What can be done to ensure Liverpool aren’t cut adrift in the race for Champions League qualification?
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The timing of this season’s worst loss at Brentford was particularly worrying given it came mere days after Klopp admitted he doesn’t expect to “splash the cash” in this month’s transfer window with calls for a new midfielder growing louder. The answers, then, are seemingly going to have to come from within.
Cody Gakpo, the one guaranteed new face, will help. So too will the return of some more experienced heads in James Milner and Roberto Firmino. But keeping Liverpool in the top-four hunt before Diogo Jota and later Luis Diaz return is by no means a certainty.
The first half here was shocking. There had been obvious signs in Friday’s win over Leicester City that Liverpool were operating nowhere near their best.
But that couldn’t explain an opening 45 minutes in which the Reds looked alarmingly short of tempo, pace, appetite, energy, application, quality, commonsense, composure and, yes, heart. They were lucky to be only 2-0 down – a few more inches and it would have been double that.
Sure, there was no doubt a rocket – and more besides – fired up the backside of the players and, buoyed by a trio of changes, Liverpool are least flickered with some desire. But after Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain gave hope of an unlikely comeback, they too soon ran out of ideas.
Of real concern now is an issue Alisson Becker hinted at over the weekend - the mentality of the players. This looks a Liverpool team psychologically spent, almost fed up with how the season has been going. They just didn’t fancy it here until it was far too late, and that’s unforgivable. Brentford, basic but enthusiastic in approach, just wanted it more. And, tactically, they looked like they knew what they were doing. That Liverpool didn't for significant parts of this game - and not just this one - is on Klopp and his coaching staff.
This in some ways was a microcosm of the campaign to date, the Reds inept during the first part before some much-needed signs of improvement.
Klopp and his players will hope the season doesn’t echo the conclusion here, his team embarrassed, humiliated and beaten.
Regardless, a long, long five months await. It will determine whether it’s the beginning of the end for this Liverpool vintage, or the end of a very difficult beginning for a new-look team.
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