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Just a few weeks back, Liverpool appeared destined to claim back-to-back Premier League championships and potentially another Champions League trophy. Their ability to secure victories without peak displays felt like the hallmark of genuine title-winners.

However, then the momentum shifted. Liverpool continued with average showings and started dropping matches. Meanwhile, Arsenal, known for their stubborn backline and strength in depth, began closing the distance at the top.

Defining a Slump in Modern Football

Does three consecutive defeats constitute a crisis? As with many football debates, it depends completely on your interpretation of the key word. Is Paul Scholes elite? What does "elite" even mean? Are Aston Villa a major club? What defines "big"? Are Manchester United returned to prominence? Well, perhaps that's a question we can settle.

At a team of this club's size and last season's brilliance, a minor setback appears a fair assessment. On a recent broadcast, former forward Neil Mellor was questioned how many defeats in a row would cause alarm. His reply was six. Currently, they are halfway to that particular threshold.

Pinpointing the Tactical Problems

One can observe obvious footballing issues. Integrating new signings like Milos Kerkez and Jeremie Frimpong, who offer a distinct style to departed stalwarts Andy Robertson and Trent Alexander-Arnold, creates a difficulty. Likewise, blending in a talented playmaker like Florian Wirtz has reportedly disrupted the midfield. Observers of the Bundesliga note that Wirtz is a technical player who elevates those beside him, connecting play seamlessly rather than forcing himself on the game.

Additionally, a host of individuals who excelled last season—including Mo Salah, Ibrahima Konaté, Alexis Mac Allister, and Conor Bradley—are currently below their best. In fact, the majority of the team are. Yet every one of them have one profound, fresh event: the tragic death of their teammate and friend, Diogo Jota.

The Unseen Effect: Grief on the Pitch

We are now just over three short months since the tragic loss of their teammate. While the outside world moves on quickly, shifting focus to other events, the club's players continue training and playing day after day in the absence of their friend.

This is not possible to gauge how each individual and staff member is coping from one day to the next. There is a significant amount of projection. Maybe Salah didn't track back in a particular match simply he lacked energy. But maybe his form is down a few per cent due to the fact he is grieving for his friend.

The London club's head coach, Enzo Maresca, commented eloquently before a recent, drawing a parallel to his own experience of the loss of a teammate, Antonio Puerta, while at Sevilla. "The way they are performing this campaign is fantastic," he said of Liverpool. "Especially after Jota's tragedy. I lived exactly the same experience when I was a player two decades past."

"It is difficult for the squad, it's not easy for the club, it's not easy for the manager when you arrive at the training complex and you find every day that spot empty. 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 handle a problem that is not easy."

As explained well on a well-known supporter's show, the memory triggers are constant. The players hear his song in the first half, they see his unused peg in the dressing room. In the middle of games, a pass might be made and the thought arises: 'Oh, Diogo would have been there.' If Salah was seen crying in front of the Kop a matches ago, it signals that all is not normal.

The Limits of Football Analysis and Personal Grief

After reporting on football for twenty years, one realizes there is a fundamental lack of depth in the majority of punditry. We simply do not know how an player is coping at any given moment and how that affects their performance. Jota's passing is one of the clearest examples. We know a tragic event occurred, and we comprehend the concept of sorrow. Beyond that lies an intangible layer of impact on different individuals at the organization. It is highly likely that some of the players personally don't fully understand its influence from one day to the next.

The way the media reports on this and how supporters analyze displays is obviously not the primary thing. On a practical level, bringing up Jota's passing is difficult to accomplish in a short segment before moving on to on-field concerns. Beyond this specific event and outside Liverpool, it would seem strange to preface each critique of a footballer with an acknowledgment that we know so little about their private circumstances—be it their parental situation, personal challenges, or relationship problems.

An ex- professional footballer, Nedum Onuoha, lately talked on a broadcast about how his mother's death midway through his playing days impacted his passion for the game. "I lost some joy in football as much," he said. "The highs and the low points that come with it no longer felt the same any more." And that was half a career; for Liverpool and Jota, it has been just three short months.

The Final Point

Therefore, whatever Liverpool accomplish in the coming months—if it's something or failure—whether or not we omit reference to it whenever we analyze their matches, even if it isn't the cause for their eventual outcome, we should not forget that a few weeks ago they suffered the loss of not just a brilliant player, but, crucially, they lost a dear friend.