Liverpool’s slump: What has gone wrong for the Premier League champion?

At the start of the season, it was easy to think Liverpool might stroll to another Premier League title.

The defending champion won its first five league games, plus the two it played in other competitions.

It beat nearest challenger Arsenal in the third game of the season, then watched Mikel Arteta’s side draw with Manchester City and fall further behind.

Fast forward to Monday, and – after a 3-2 defeat to Brentford – Liverpool has now lost four straight games in the Premier League, just the fourth time in history that a defending champion has gone on such a poor run of form, per Opta.

It is as many defeats as Arne Slot’s team suffered in the whole of last season, when it won the league with four games to spare.

So, why is a team which dominated the Premier League last season enduring a losing streak? The answer lies in both its tactics and in the tragedy which befell the club over the summer.

An embarrassment of riches

Coming off the back of such a successful season, the Reds looked primed to challenge for titles again, adding some of the most exciting attacking talent from across Europe to its squad. The club broke its own transfer record twice to bring in Florian Wirtz and then Alexander Isak, either side of the addition of another forward, Hugo Ekitiké.

They replaced the likes of Luis Díaz, Darwin Núñez and Harvey Elliott, who all left for sizeable fees.

With such upheaval in the front line, some teething problems are understandable. But very few predicted this kind of slump.

“It’s always a bit of a bumpy road if you change,” said Slot after his team’s defeat to Brentford. “That is not so surprising. But four (league) losses in a row?”

The tactical problem, it would appear, comes not from how Liverpool has changed its forward line, but how it has replaced defenders Trent Alexander-Arnold – who left for Real Madrid – and Andrew Robertson, who remains at the club but is now 31 and no longer first choice.

To explain it in NFL terms – where Alexander-Arnold was essentially a quarterback, playing passes forward from deep, his replacement Jeremie Frimpong is more of a wide receiver, looking to get on the end of passes much higher up the field.

“I would probably say that Liverpool have got the summer wrong, to be honest,” soccer tactics writer Josh Williams tells CNN Sports.

“You’ve got so many players in there now, specifically bought from the summer, who have clashing interests,” he adds. “It’s kind of like a team of forwards at the moment. And it sounds good and looks good on paper, but then in practical reality, you start craving the balance. And Liverpool haven’t got the balance.”

On top of that imbalance, the Reds seem to have been caught out by a significant shift in game plan from many of the league’s other managers.

In signing players like Wirtz, Liverpool doubled down on shorter, more intricate passing. But elsewhere, other teams are now far more reliant on set pieces and long balls.

“We spent a lot of last season watching this trend towards more physical football in the Premier League, and Liverpool managed to deal with it, rise above it, and win the league,” Neil Atkinson, host and CEO of The Anfield Wrap, tells CNN Sports. “But for me, it was only ever going one way.”

The effectiveness of a direct style of play against Liverpool is not lost on Slot, who admitted after the defeat to Brentford that he had not yet worked out a way to combat it.

“Teams have a certain playing style against us, which is a very good strategy to play, and we haven’t found an answer yet,” he told reporters.

Tragedy on Merseyside

The elephant in the room, of course, is the tragic death of Diogo Jota. The former Liverpool player died in a car accident along with his brother, André Silva, in July.

“It was always going to be a difficult season. I’ve mentioned it from the very start already,” Liverpool captain Virgil van Dijk told reporters in early October. “So we have to go over this, we have to go through this, as one.”

Liverpool fans’ song for the Portuguese forward can still be heard in the 20th minute of every game – to mark the shirt number Jota wore.

When it was sung after the Reds’ opening night win over Bournemouth, Mohamed Salah – who had spoken of his fear at returning from the summer break without Jota – appeared to be holding back tears as he clapped along to the chant.

The Egyptian, who finished last season as the Premier League’s top goalscorer and top assist maker, has struggled on the pitch this season and had to wait until Saturday’s defeat at Brentford for his first non-penalty goal in the league.

It is an uncomfortable conversation to have, but Jota’s death has also impacted Liverpool in a far more mundane way – the Portuguese forward was an excellent player with an instinctive eye for goal.

“You can point at the tragic death of Diogo Jota and that is undoubtedly a factor in a number of ways here,” says Atkinson. “It’s also a factor in why Liverpool may well be an attacker down.”

In the wake of Jota’s death, Slot spoke of his desire for his players to take inspiration from the forward’s attitude on the field.

“We are in a very difficult time, so let’s try to do what Diogo did so many times,” he wrote. “If it’s so difficult then try a little bit harder or just keep on going and try to make it work.”

Liverpool’s season is not over. Other teams have come back from seven points down to win the Premier League in the past, and that is not to mention the Reds’ chances in the Champions League, where they have claimed two wins from three.

But things are certainly difficult now. It remains to be seen whether Liverpool can make it work.

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