What had seemed a sticky patch for Jurgen Klopp and Liverpool now appears to be something more significant.
It would be stretching things somewhat to signal a crisis but with the loss of their best chance of silverware coming on the back of serious damage being done to their title aspirations, it is clear that a season that promised so much is now in grave danger of falling apart at the seams.
The vibrancy of autumn is gone. In its place is a slog, the kind that makes every game difficult regardless of the quality of opposition.
On Saturday, Liverpool succumbed to Swansea City. On Wednesday night it was Southampton. Even the prospect of reaching a Wembley final and the likelihood that they would be facing Manchester United was not sufficient to shake Liverpool from their mid-winter malaise. This is a slump, of that there is no question.
A defining week threatens now to be defined in a way that no one at Liverpool had wanted. While a third successive defeat is unthinkable, particularly given Wolves of the Championship are next up in the FA Cup, after that Liverpool face Chelsea in a game that will determine whether they are able to continue holding onto the coat tails of the Premier League leaders. On this form, the fear must be that they will be cast adrift.
How it came to this is a question that Klopp will have to answer another day. For now, he must deal with fixtures coming thick and fast in a way that he so detests. There is no time to stop, to think or to hold inquests but there is an increasingly urgent need for solutions to be found. If not, all of that early promise will come to nothing and while Liverpool suffer, others will thrive.
Southampton are the latest to do so having come through a two-legged semi-final without conceding a goal to a team that had been free scoring until mid-December. For Claude Puel, their manager, a 2-0 aggregate win over Liverpool extended his own unbeaten run against the Merseyside club to a fifth match.
This was a red letter day for the Frenchman and for his team and regardless of Liverpool’s appeals for a penalty when Shane Long appeared to handle, no one could claim that it was one that they didn’t deserve.
That Long settled the tie in stoppage time added to Liverpool’s pain but theirs was an anguish that has been coming throughout a month in which they have lost their form and the momentum that had been propelling them. This was another performance that had few redeeming features as they were held at arm’s length for long spells, with the few occasions that they were able to penetrate being undermined by Daniel Sturridge’s seemingly irreversible decline which makes him a pale imitation of the fleet-footed forward of three years ago.
There can no longer be any debate about whether Liverpool have lost their rhythm. The combination of blustery winds and plunging temperatures might have ensured conditions were not conducive to playing free-flowing football but Liverpool’s problems during the first half were more of their own making than the elements. With passes going astray and fluency lacking, the hosts were disjointed in a way that would not have been imaginable just a matter of weeks ago.
Sadio Mane’s involvement in the Africa Nations Cup continues to hit them as hard as had been expected but it was a current Southampton winger who could have inflicted even greater damage only for Dusan Tadic to show the alert Loris Karius just enough of the ball for the goalkeeper to make a smart save. Steven Davis had an even better chance soon after but his shot from close range flew into the Kop.
The prevailing theme of the first leg was being continued with Southampton creating but not taking chances. That Liverpool were relying on the profligacy of their opponents to keep their Wembley hopes alive told its own story. At the other end of the pitch, Klopp’s team were creating little, a situation that did not appear to be being helped by Daniel Sturridge’s presence as a central attacker, a role that may be the best one for him but which has not brought out the best in those around him for some time.
In the face of such a limited threat, Southampton’s task was relatively straightforward as they sat deep with little fear of being outmanoeuvred and countered in the knowledge that there were gaps to exploit. It took until the 54th minute before the visitors were seriously troubled and even then it was largely of their own doing as Fraser Forster spilled Emre Can’s shot only to scramble back and claw the ball from his goal line.
That scare triggered a spell of Liverpool pressure which should have led to the game’s opening goal only for Sturridge to miss the target from close range, a trick he repeated soon after.
Those were the best chances that Liverpool had created over the two legs and by making the most of neither, they made their exit from the competition inevitable. Long’s late goal might have sealed Southampton’s progress but Liverpool already seemed resigned to their own fate before then. It is not just a semi-final that they have lost, Liverpool have also lost their way.Â
