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Just a couple of weeks back, the Merseyside club seemed set to secure back-to-back Premier League titles and potentially another Champions League trophy. The team's ability to secure victories without optimal displays felt like the hallmark of genuine champions.

But, subsequently the tide turned. Liverpool continued with average showings and began dropping points. At the same time, the North London club, renowned for their stubborn backline and strength in depth, started closing the gap at the summit.

Defining a Crisis in Today's Game

Can a trio of straight losses constitute a crisis? As with most sporting discussions, it depends completely on your interpretation of the key term. Is Paul Scholes elite? How do you define "world class" even signify? Is the Birmingham club a major team? What defines "big"? Is the Old Trafford outfit back? Well, maybe that is a question we might settle.

At a team of this club's size and last season's excellence, a mini setback appears a reasonable description. During a radio show, ex- forward Neil Mellor was asked how many defeats in a row would cause alarm. His answer was six. At present, they are halfway to that particular threshold.

Pinpointing the On-Pitch Problems

One can observe clear tactical issues. Integrating recent signings like Milos Kerkez and Jeremie Frimpong, who provide a distinct skill set to previous stalwarts Andy Robertson and Trent Alexander-Arnold, presents a difficulty. Likewise, incorporating a talented playmaker like Florian Wirtz has reportedly unbalanced the engine room. Observers of the Bundesliga note that Wirtz is a technical talent who elevates those beside him, linking play effortlessly rather than imposing himself upon the game.

Additionally, a number of players who shone last campaign—including Mo Salah, Ibrahima Konaté, Alexis Mac Allister, and Conor Bradley—are currently below their best. Actually, the majority of the squad are. Yet they all share one significant, recent event: the tragic death of their colleague and friend, Diogo Jota.

The Invisible Impact: Grief on the Field

We are now just more than three months since the tragic loss of their friend. While the wider world progresses quickly, diverting attention to global events, Liverpool's players continue training and playing each day in the absence of their mate.

It is not possible to gauge how each player and member of the backroom team is coping on any given day. There is a great deal of speculation. Maybe Salah didn't track back in a particular match simply he lacked energy. Or perhaps his form is down a small per cent because he misses his pal.

The London club's head coach, Enzo Maresca, spoke eloquently before a fixture, drawing a parallel to his personal situation of losing a teammate, Antonio Puerta, while at Sevilla. "The way they are performing this season is remarkable," he said of Liverpool. "Particularly after Jota's loss. I went through exactly the same experience when I was a player two decades past."

"It is difficult for the players, it's not easy for the club, it's not easy for the manager when you arrive at the training ground and you find daily that place vacant. So you have to be very strong. And this is the reason why for me they are doing not good, even better than good. Because they are trying to handle a situation that is not easy."

As summarized well on a popular fan podcast, the reminders are ongoing. They are reminded by his chant in the first half, they see his unused locker in the changing room. In the middle of matches, a pass might be played and the thought arises: 'Ah, Jota would have reached that.' When the Egyptian was seen crying in front of the Kop a few games ago, it signals that everything is far from normal.

The Boundaries of Football Analysis and Personal Grief

After covering football for twenty years, one realizes there is a fundamental superficiality in the majority of analysis. We simply cannot know how an player is feeling at any given time and how that affects their performance. Jota's death is one of the clearest examples. We are aware a terrible event occurred, and we understand the concept of sorrow. But further lies an intangible level of effect on various people at the organization. It is very possible that a few of the players themselves do not fully understand its influence from one day to the next.

How the press covers this and how supporters analyze displays is clearly far from the primary factor. On a functional basis, bringing up Jota's death is difficult to accomplish in a short soundbite before transitioning to on-field concerns. Beyond this specific tragedy and beyond Liverpool, it would seem bizarre to qualify each criticism of a footballer with an acknowledgment that we are largely ignorant about their private circumstances—be it their family relationships, health struggles, or marital difficulties.

An ex- pro footballer, the defender, recently talked on radio about how his mother's death midway through his career affected his passion for the game. "I lost some joy in football as much," he said. "The highs and the low points that accompany it no longer felt the same after that." And that was half a career; for Liverpool and Jota, it has been only three months.

The Final Point

So, whatever Liverpool accomplish this season—if it's something or if it's nothing—whether or not we omit reference to it every time we analyze their matches, even if it is not the sole reason for their final outcome, we should not forget that a short time ago they suffered the loss of not merely a brilliant player, but, more importantly, they lost a friend.