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Just a couple of weeks back, Liverpool appeared destined to claim back-to-back Premier League championships and potentially a further Champions League trophy. The team's capacity to win despite not peak displays felt like the mark of genuine champions.

But, then the tide turned. Liverpool persisted with mediocre performances and started losing points. Meanwhile, Arsenal, renowned for their resolute defense and squad depth, started closing the gap at the top.

Understanding a Slump in Today's Game

Does a trio of straight defeats constitute a crisis? As with many sporting discussions, it hinges entirely on your interpretation of the central term. Was the United midfielder world class? What does "world class" actually signify? Are Aston Villa a major club? What defines "major"? Are Manchester United back? Alright, maybe that's one we might settle.

For a club of Liverpool's size and previous campaign's excellence, a mini setback seems a reasonable description. During a broadcast, former forward Neil Mellor was questioned how many losses in a row would cause alarm. His answer was six. Currently, they are midway to that particular threshold.

Pinpointing the Tactical Problems

There are clear footballing problems. Assimilating recent additions like Milos Kerkez and Jeremie Frimpong, who provide a different style to departed stalwarts Andy Robertson and Trent Alexander-Arnold, creates a challenge. Similarly, incorporating a gifted playmaker like Florian Wirtz has reportedly disrupted the midfield. Observers of the Bundesliga note that Wirtz is a creative player who elevates those beside him, connecting play effortlessly rather than imposing himself on the game.

Additionally, a number of players who shone last season—such as Mo Salah, Ibrahima Konaté, Alexis Mac Allister, and Conor Bradley—are now underperforming. In fact, most of the squad are. Yet every one of them share one significant, fresh event: the passing of their teammate and friend, Diogo Jota.

The Invisible Impact: 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 rapidly, shifting attention to other matters, the club's squad carry on going to work each day without their friend.

This is not possible to know how every player and staff member is dealing on any given day. It requires a significant amount of projection. Maybe Salah didn't track back in a recent match simply he was tired. Or maybe his form is down a small per cent because he is grieving for his pal.

Chelsea's head coach, Enzo Maresca, spoke insightfully before a fixture, making a parallel to his personal situation of the loss of a fellow player, Antonio Puerta, while at Sevilla. "The way they are performing this campaign 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 squad, it's not easy for the club, it's not easy for the manager when you come to the training ground and you find every day that place vacant. So you have to be incredibly resilient. And this is the reason why for me they are performing not good, even better than good. Because they are attempting to deal with a situation that is not easy."

As summarized well on a well-known supporter's show, the memory triggers are constant. The players are reminded by his song in the 20th minute, they see his empty locker in the dressing room. In the middle of games, a through ball might be played and the realization arises: 'Oh, Jota would have reached that.' When the Egyptian showed emotion in front of the Kop a few games ago, it indicates that everything is far from normal.

The Boundaries of Football Analysis and Personal Grief

Having covering football for twenty years, one comes to believe there is a fundamental superficiality in most punditry. We genuinely cannot know how an individual is coping at any given moment and how that affects their performance. Jota's death is one of the clearest examples. We know a terrible thing happened, and we comprehend the concept of grief. Beyond that lies an immeasurable layer of impact on different people at the organization. It is very possible that a few of the squad themselves do not fully understand its influence from one moment to the next.

How the media covers this and how supporters dissect displays is obviously far from the most important factor. On a functional level, bringing up Jota's death is difficult to accomplish in a brief segment before transitioning to on-field issues. Beyond this specific event and beyond Liverpool, it would seem strange to qualify each critique of a footballer with an admission that we are largely ignorant about their personal lives—be it their parental situation, health challenges, or marital difficulties.

An ex- pro player, the defender, recently spoke on radio about how his mother's death halfway through his career affected his love for the game. "I didn't enjoy football as much," he stated. "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 just three months.

The Concluding Point

Therefore, regardless of what Liverpool achieve this season—be it success or if it's nothing—whether or not we omit reference to it every time we discuss their fixtures, and even if it isn't the cause for their eventual result, we should not forget that a few weeks ago they suffered the loss of not merely a brilliant footballer, but, crucially, they lost a friend.