Inside Liverpool's nightmare season: How Klopp's 'mentality giants' became also-rans in space of five months

• Published date: 14 January 2023
• Publication title: Nigeria - The Nation

Injuries, transfer errors and behind-the-scenes uncertainty have resulted in a dramatic and devastating dip in form.

It feels like a lifetime ago now, but Liverpool actually went into this season riding a wave of optimism.

Having narrowly missed out on the most remarkable of quadruples in May, Jurgen Klopp's side looked as if they were ready to roll once more by the time July came around.

Victory over Manchester City in the Community Shield at Leicester's King Power Stadium suggested the Reds had lost none of their hunger or spark.

New signing Darwin Nunez marked his debut with a goal, ensuring an instant rapport with the travelling Kop, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Mohamed Salah were also on the scoresheet, while City new-boy Erling Haaland was shackled well by Virgil van Dijk and Co. at the other end.

'We're ready to go again,' declared Klopp, who looked like a man at ease with the world, and with himself.

Fast forward five months, and the landscape has shifted considerably. That early-season hope has long since evaporated, each disjointed performance and underwhelming result serving to chip away at the confidence, belief and aura of a side once labelled - and correctly so too - 'mentality giants' by its manager.

Liverpool lost only four times in 63 games in all competitions last term, but they have already lost six of 27 this time around.

They have won less than half of their Premier League matches, decimating their title chances and leaving them facing an uphill battle to secure even the 'minimum aim' of Champions League qualification.

They travel to Brighton this weekend, and it's difficult to make a case for them being favourites.

How did it come to this? How did the mood around Anfield change so quickly, after the heady heights of spring and summer?

Early cracks and momentum lost

It all started down at Craven Cottage, you could say. Six days after that Community Shield win, Liverpool headed to Fulham looking to underline their status, once more, as one of the teams to beat in this season's Premier League. Klopp named something like his strongest XI, with only Joel Matip and Roberto Firmino coming into the side which had started the Champions League final against Real Madrid in May. Nunez, the £64 million ($78m) summer arrival from Benfica, began on the bench, ready to cause carnage once his opponents tired and the game opened up.

The rest of Liverpool's bench, though, hinted at some of the problems to come. It contained the likes of Sepp van den Berg, Luke...