When things are going well, it can sometimes feel as though the next match can’t come quickly enough. For an in form side that rhythm of play, prepare, go again can be exhilarating. For a side struggling as Liverpool are at the moment, on the other hand, it can start to feel exhausting.
They’ve lost six of seven in all competitions. They’ve dropped four straight in the Premier League. They’ve been knocked out of the League Cup and dropped from first to seventh in the table, level with upcoming opponents Aston Villa, a side fair happier to be where they are than the Reds.
“It’s maybe a sign it is better to do it the way they did it than the way we did,” manager Arne Slot noted at his pre-match press conference, highlighting the differing trajectories of the two sides’ seasons to date, with Villa starting slowly before finding their feet while his team have dropped off.
“If you don’t win in the beginning, people say maybe they don’t have the same team as last season and then they start to win and everything is positive again. With us, I think it’s exactly the opposite. We are both on the same points and apart from Arsenal, I think many teams are around the same.”
There might be some truth in that as it concerns the nature of narrative in sport, but any attempts to soft-pedal just how bad October has been for a Liverpool side that came into the season as defending champions and invested £400M-plus in players will likely raise a few eyebrows.
Still, it’s true the Premier League is the toughest in the world. Even bottom-half sides are tactically well drilled, fit and talented, and capable of causing any other side trouble on their day. It’s true that the margins are incredibly, at times excruciatingly, thin. And things can also change in a hurry.
“It tells you how hard the Premier League is,” Slot added of the pack chasing current leaders and title favourites Arsenal. “Every game, maybe apart from Palace because in the first half we could have been two or three-nil down and maybe Brentford, we deserved much more than we got.
“We hardly conceded a chance, even this week [in the League Cup]. They had three big chances, and all three went in. But I don’t see us conceding lots of chances, so I don’t see a reason to change our play style completely, but we need to do better in not conceding goals, that is for sure.”