What to make of Liverpool’s season after FA Cup elimination
This is Anfield
Before this season, if we knew Liverpool would keep virtually the same squad that finished second in the Premier, buy one of the best young strikers in the world in Darwin Nuñez, and acquire Cody Gakpo after the World Cup performance he put on, we would think that Liverpool would be neck-in-neck for the title again. However, at the time of writing this, they only have a shot at one trophy this season.
How did this happen?
Liverpool has had no luck with injuries for almost the entire season. There have been few occasions where their entire squad has had no injuries, especially to their best XI. Initially, Luis Diaz went down with his knee injury in early October when Liverpool lost to Arsenal. Diogo Jota also went down with his calf injury after their win over the current champions Manchester City in mid-October.
The Mirror
That left only Nuñez and Mohamed Salah as Liverpool's only prominent scoring threats. That not only puts a lot of pressure on them, but it makes it tougher on them physically because Liverpool doesn't have that one or two other options that can come in and rotate when someone's not in form.
It's tough for someone like Nuñez, who already was coming in with the pressure of being that great number nine player, to compete with Erling Haaland and City. Moreover, being bought for a lot of money at the time, he still had to learn a whole new language and get accustomed to the lifestyle in a new place.
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And while it's true that many new players have to do that, they threw him right into the fire because of the unfortunate number of injuries. Presently, it seems like Gakpo is going through some growing pains after scoring a couple of times; he is still trying to find out how he fits in with the rest of the team.
However, it hasn't all been about injuries. The level of the Premier League has somehow increased with new managers coming in and more world-class players joining these already good teams. You see teams like Newcastle in the top four and Manchester United coming out of nowhere and surging to the top four after a rough couple of months under Erik Ten Hag.
Many of these teams got much more fresh energy into their squads, whereas Liverpool stayed content with what they had. It was only really Nuñez and Fabio Carvalho who could come in right away and make an impact on the squad.
Insidesport
At a big club like Liverpool, there has to be more than that to keep the energy levels high and keep the players competing for their starting spots. Manchester City just won the league again, and they went out and still signed Haaland. Arsenal, who are top of the league, brought in Gabriel Jesus and Oleksandr Zinchenko from Manchester City, Ben White from Brighton, and brought back Saliba from his loan over in France.
I could go on about Manchester United and other clubs around the world who are having great seasons. The main point is that Liverpool missed a chance to improve in the summer and winter. The transfer window closed last week, so their ability to bring in some fresh faces to rejuvenate the team isn't great.
As February starts, Liverpool has been eliminated from the Carabao Cup, they are ninth in the league, and they were just beaten in stoppage-time to eliminate them from the FA Cup. That only leaves them with a shot at the Champions League, with their last 16 draw coming up against the current champions, Real Madrid.
I talked about the injuries before. Ibrahima Konate recently suffered a hamstring injury and will most likely miss both matches against Real Madrid. That means Liverpool would be without Konate, Jota, Diaz, and Virgil van Dijk.
Getting back in the picture to finish in the top four would be a great comeback. Liverpool sits 13 points behind Manchester United with one game less than them right now, but hey, the way they are playing, it's hard to see a way that Liverpool could get Champions League football next season without winning it this year.
There's no outright solution for Jürgen Klopp, who faces his biggest hurdle during his time at Liverpool; this season could be his mulligan year to face all the criticism from the fans and take it and learn from it.
Next season, they will have an opportunity to come back with a bang because of how much better the other teams will be. If they can get the right players in during the summer and earn victories right off the bat next season, they'll get back to being the Liverpool side we saw last season.
