Six reasons for Liverpool to feel uneasy following that Old Trafford capitulation

While it would be a knee-jerk too far to suggest that their season is over, Liverpool have a work to do after their loss to Manchester United.

So it’s the morning after the night before, and in a break with recent tradition following matches between Liverpool and Manchester United, it’s Liverpool supporters who awoke with something of a sore head. Losing this match was a double-whammy for Liverpool supporters. Not only is losing to Manchester United a matter of local pride wounded, but the nature of their defeat also pointed to broader problems which may have been overlooked a little over the last few months.

It’s important not to jerk those knees too harshly. One swallow does not a summer make, and Liverpool’s injury list does make for pretty unpleasant reading. What went wrong at Old Trafford could be recovered in a couple of weeks, and for those of us who tipped Liverpool to perform strongly again this season – the core of this team, let’s not forget, came within a couple of points of winning the Premier League title and the final of the Champions League last season – their early-season slump has definitely come as a surprise.

1) This result cannot be considered a one-off
This may have been Liverpool’s first competitive defeat of the season, but it’s not quite enough to chalk this down as some sort of accident of fate and move quickly on. Losing to Manchester United should also be taken in the context of failing to get a win from either of their first two matches against Fulham and Crystal Palace, so putting this result solely down to Manchester United’s surprisingly high energy levels is a tad misleading.

Liverpool have now fallen behind in their last seven consecutive Premier League matches, and while the fact that they didn’t lose any of the previous six prior to their trip to Old Trafford could be interpreted – as Jurgen Klopp has done before – as them being ‘mentality monsters’, to do so does rather gloss over the fact that league title contenders probably shouldn’t be falling behind in seven consecutive matches.

That Liverpool should have finally ended this statistical anomaly by losing at Old Trafford may be considered unfortunate, but it can hardly be considered unexpected that if you keep on falling a goal behind in league matches you will most likely stop winning them, even if you don’t lose them all.

Liverpool’s style of football under Jurgen Klopp has been all about shock and awe, overrunning…