"Defending like a child", the devastating critique of Liverpool

A 4-1 defeat does not respect names, it does not tolerate prestige, it is one of those defeats that makes any manager, be it Carlos, Juan or Jurgen Klopp, tremble, and especially if that defeat is in the Champions League, and even more so if that defeat is the faithful sentence that a team like Liverpool, with Luis Díaz showing his face, is far from what it was, from what it is.

Crisis is a terrifying word, but it is the diagnosis for those teams that drown in a bad game and that melt away in the haze of bad results, as is the case with Liverpool, which today is a team with twisted feet, of obnubilated bodies. A team that does not recognise itself in the league table: if Klopp looks at what they are doing, perhaps he does not understand that strange 7 next to the name of his team.

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As if that reverse start in the Premier League wasn't enough, the Champions League opener was hell. Napoli gave them a run for their money as if the team in red was not the English Liverpool, but an ordinary Liverpool, the one with 2 wins in 7 games.

But there are clues: repeated injuries and the departure of Sadio Mané. Injuries like that of Thiago Alcantara affected the scaffolding of the machine. It was like taking the armour off the tank. And without Mané, it was like plugging the cannon. Thiago is coming back, but Mané is an anecdote. Liverpool will have to survive without him. Uruguayan Darwin Núñez arrived, preceded by a great season in Portugal.

"It's disgraceful" 

Jamie Carragher, a legend in the club's defence, has already torn the team apart: "It's disgraceful," he says. "They defend like children," he bellows. "If they keep playing like that they're going to be in big trouble," he predicts. Knowing what is wrong with Liverpol, the same side that finished runners-up in the Champions League and Premier League last season, is an indecipherable conundrum.