Hitting a Rough Patch

It seems to Yours Truly that every now and then, his favourite team Liverpool will run into some sort of hiccups.

Regardless of how good they have been playing.

Case in point this year: After winning their first five Premier League matches of the season, they stumbled to Crystal Palace (who has soon become their arch-rival instead of other traditional powerhouses) in the sixth game, and then Turkish side Galatasaray in the Champions League.

And Yours Truly is also pessmistic about their upcoming league game at Chelsea this weekend.

It is blindingly obvious that their star player, Mohamed Salah, is not at his best. Apart from the early flurry against Atletico Madrid in which he picked up an assist and a goal within the first six minutes, he has apparently lost his edge as opponents have finally figured out how to keep him at bay. And Alexis Mac Allister is not doing any better either. He gives away possession easily and has given the defence even more headache.

While they did spend a lot of money over the summer, it is still too early to tell if the money is well-spent. Florian Wirtz does show some flair and skills that everyone expects of him. Hugo Ekitike is a better goal getter than the departed Darwin Nunez, and Alexander Isak still needs time to gel with his teammates. Hopefully they will figure things out quickly.

At the other end of the pitch, it is more worrying. Virgil Van Dijk is still a very good defender, but does have momentary lapses which is concerning. His defensive partner Ibrahima Konate has been a ticking timebomb. So is Joe Gomez, the next guy up in the pecking order. Things could have been better with the planned addition of Marc Guehi from Crystal Palace, but the deal collapsed at the last minute. Thus, Italian teenager Giovanni Leoni became the only defensive addition of note this past summer, but he was lost to a season-ending knee injury in their league cup game against Southampton. So Liverpool fans, including Yours Truly, have been keeping their fingers crossed that Konate or Gomez will do a proper job somehow, someway, at least until the next transfer window opens in winter.

In the midfield, Dominik Szoboszlai has become the star of the squad, and his versatility is shown when he ocassionally fills in at the defence admirably. But he did concede the penalty unnecessarily. against Galatasaray in that midweek defeat. Curtis Jones is okay, and Wataru Endo is still an effective closer, but Liverpool lacks the one midfield maestro that will keep their engine running smoothly. Perhaps Wirtz will finally prove his worth one day?

Goalkeeper Alisson is still solid, but has picked up an injury and will be out for a while. In come Giorgi Mamardashvili who was shaky in the pre-season your in the Far East. So the jury is still out on him.

How will they respond after these two defeats? Hopefully they will be fine. However, Yours Truly can no longer stand their poor form that he has avoided watching them live on TV in recent weeks, lest he suffers further heartbreaks.

He just hopes that winter will come soon enough for Liverool to finally get some much needed defensive reinforcements.

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