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Just a couple of weeks back, the Merseyside club appeared destined to claim back-to-back Premier League championships and possibly another Champions League crown. The team's ability to secure victories without optimal displays seemed like the hallmark of true title-winners.

However, then the tide turned. Liverpool persisted with average showings and began dropping matches. At the same time, the North London club, renowned for their stubborn backline and strength in depth, started narrowing the distance at the summit.

Defining a Slump in Modern Football

Can a trio of consecutive losses represent a collapse? As with many football debates, it depends completely on your interpretation of the key word. Is Paul Scholes elite? What does "world class" even signify? Is the Birmingham club a major team? What constitutes "major"? Are Manchester United back? Alright, perhaps that is one we can answer.

For a club of Liverpool's stature and previous campaign's brilliance, a mini crisis appears a reasonable description. On a recent broadcast, former striker Neil Mellor was asked how many losses in a row would cause panic. His reply was six. Currently, they are halfway to that particular threshold.

Identifying the On-Pitch Issues

One can observe clear footballing problems. Integrating recent signings like Milos Kerkez and Jeremie Frimpong, who offer a distinct skill set to previous stalwarts Andy Robertson and Trent Alexander-Arnold, presents a challenge. Similarly, incorporating a gifted attacking midfielder like Florian Wirtz has reportedly disrupted the engine room. Observers of the Bundesliga point out that Wirtz is a technical talent who improves those around him, linking play effortlessly rather than forcing himself upon the game.

Furthermore, a number of players who excelled last season—such as Mo Salah, Ibrahima Konaté, Alexis Mac Allister, and Conor Bradley—are now underperforming. Actually, most of the team are. Yet they all have one profound, fresh event: the tragic death of their colleague and companion, Diogo Jota.

The Unseen Effect: Loss on the Field

It has been just more than three months since the tragic loss of their friend. Although the outside world moves on quickly, shifting attention to other matters, the club's squad carry on training and playing day after day without their mate.

It is impossible to gauge how each individual and member of the backroom team is dealing from one day to the next. It requires a significant amount of projection. Maybe Salah didn't track back in a particular match because he was tired. But perhaps his performance level is down a few per cent because he misses his friend.

The London club's head coach, Enzo Maresca, commented insightfully before a fixture, drawing a parallel to his own situation of the loss of a fellow player, Antonio Puerta, when at Sevilla. "The way they are performing this campaign is remarkable," he said of Liverpool. "Particularly after the tragedy. I lived a very similar experience when I was a player 20 years ago."

"It is difficult for the squad, it's not easy for the organization, it's not easy for the manager when you come to the training complex and you see every day that spot empty. So you have to be very strong. And this is the explanation why for me they are performing not good, even better than good. Because they are attempting to deal with a problem that is not easy."

Just as explained well on a popular fan podcast, the memory triggers are ongoing. The players hear his chant in the 20th minute, they notice his unused peg in the changing room. Even during matches, a through ball might be made and the realization arises: 'Oh, Diogo would have reached that.' If Salah was seen crying in front of the Kop a matches ago, it signals that all is far from normal.

The Boundaries of Football Analysis and Human Emotion

After covering football for twenty years, one comes to believe there is a fundamental lack of depth in most punditry. We genuinely cannot know how an player is coping at any specific time and how that impacts their performance. Jota's passing is one of the most stark examples. We are aware a terrible thing occurred, and we comprehend the nature of grief. But further lies an intangible level of impact on different people at the organization. It is very possible that some of the squad personally do not truly understand its effect from one day to the next.

How the media reports on this and how fans dissect performances is clearly not the primary thing. On a functional basis, mentioning Jota's death is challenging to accomplish in a brief segment before transitioning to tactical issues. Outside of this particular event and outside Liverpool, it would seem strange to preface every criticism of a footballer with an acknowledgment that we know so little about their private circumstances—be it their family relationships, personal challenges, or marital difficulties.

An ex- professional footballer, the defender, lately spoke on radio about how his mother's death midway through his career impacted his passion for the game. "I lost some joy in football as much," he stated. "The high points and the lows that come with it didn't really feel the same any more." And that was half a career; for Liverpool and Jota, it has been just three months.

The Concluding Thought

Therefore, regardless of what Liverpool accomplish this season—be it success or if it's nothing—even if we omit reference to it whenever we discuss their matches, and even if it isn't the reason for their eventual outcome, we should not forget that a short time ago they lost not merely a exceptional player, but, crucially, they said goodbye to a dear friend.