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Just a couple of weeks back, Liverpool appeared set to claim back-to-back Premier League championships and potentially another Champions League trophy. Their ability to secure victories despite not peak performances seemed like the hallmark of true title-winners.

But, subsequently the tide turned. The Anfield side continued with mediocre showings and began losing points. At the same time, the North London club, known for their resolute backline and squad depth, started closing the gap at the summit.

Understanding a Slump in Modern Football

Can a trio of straight defeats constitute a crisis? As with most football debates, it hinges completely on your interpretation of the central term. Is Paul Scholes elite? How do you define "elite" even mean? Are Aston Villa a big team? What defines "big"? Are Manchester United returned to prominence? Well, maybe that's one we can settle.

For a club of Liverpool's size and previous campaign's excellence, a minor setback appears a reasonable assessment. On a recent radio show, former forward Neil Mellor was questioned how many losses in a row would cause panic. His reply was six. At present, they are midway to that point.

Pinpointing the On-Pitch Issues

There are clear tactical issues. Assimilating recent additions like Milos Kerkez and Jeremie Frimpong, who provide a different style to previous key players Andy Robertson and Trent Alexander-Arnold, creates a difficulty. Similarly, incorporating a gifted playmaker like Florian Wirtz has reportedly unbalanced the midfield. Experts of the Bundesliga point out that Wirtz is a creative player who elevates those beside him, linking play effortlessly rather than forcing himself on the game.

Furthermore, a host of players who shone last season—including Mo Salah, Ibrahima Konaté, Alexis Mac Allister, and Conor Bradley—are currently underperforming. In fact, most of the team are. And they all have one profound, fresh event: the passing of their teammate and companion, Diogo Jota.

The Unseen Effect: Loss on the Field

It has been just more than three short months since the devastating loss of their teammate. Although the wider world moves on quickly, shifting focus to other matters, Liverpool's players carry on going to work day after day without their friend.

It is not possible to know how each player and member of the backroom team is coping on any given day. It requires a great deal of projection. Maybe Salah failed to defend in a particular match because he lacked energy. Or maybe his performance level is down a few per cent due to the fact he is grieving for his pal.

Chelsea's head coach, Enzo Maresca, spoke insightfully before a fixture, making a comparison to his personal situation of losing a teammate, Antonio Puerta, when at Sevilla. "How they are performing this season is remarkable," he said of Liverpool. "Particularly after the loss. I lived exactly the same experience when I was a player two decades past."

"It's not easy for the players, it's not easy for the organization, it's not easy for the manager when you come to the training ground and you see daily that place empty. So you have to be incredibly resilient. And this is the reason why for me they are performing not good, but exceptionally well. Because they are attempting to deal with a situation that is not easy."

Just as summarized succinctly on a popular fan podcast, the memory triggers are ongoing. The players are reminded by his song in the first half, they see his unused peg in the dressing room. In the middle of matches, a through ball might be played and the thought arises: 'Oh, Diogo would have reached that.' If Salah showed emotion in front of the Kop a matches ago, it indicates that everything is not all right.

The Limits of Football Analysis and Human Emotion

Having reporting on football for twenty years, one comes to believe there is a inherent superficiality in the majority of punditry. We genuinely cannot know how an player is feeling at any specific moment and how that affects their performance. Jota's passing is one of the clearest illustrations. We know a terrible thing occurred, and we comprehend the nature of grief. But further lies an intangible level of impact on different individuals at the organization. It is highly likely that a few of the squad personally don't truly understand its effect from one moment to the next.

How the press reports on this and how fans dissect displays is clearly far from the primary factor. On a functional basis, mentioning Jota's passing is difficult to do in a brief soundbite before moving on to tactical concerns. Beyond this specific event and outside Liverpool, it would seem strange to qualify each critique of a footballer with an acknowledgment that we are largely ignorant about their personal lives—be it their parental relationships, health struggles, or marital problems.

An ex- professional footballer, Nedum Onuoha, lately talked on a broadcast about how his mother's death midway through his career affected his love for the game. "I lost some joy in football as much," he said. "Some of the high points and the lows that accompany it no longer felt the same any more." And that was many years into his profession; for Liverpool and Jota, it has been only three months.

The Final Point

So, whatever Liverpool accomplish this season—be it success or if it's nothing—even if we omit reference to it every time we discuss their matches, even if it is not the sole reason for their final result, we should not forget that a short time ago they lost not just a brilliant player, but, more importantly, they said goodbye to a dear friend.