Mistakes on the pitch could spell bigger worries as not reaching the Champions League would hit the transfer budget hard
If football really was the simple game of cliche, it would be easy for Liverpool to identify a single issue, work out a solution and put it right. This, after all, is the team that have, for five years, been consistently the second-best side in England. Yet, after a shambolic defeat at Brentford, they lie 15 points behind the leaders, Arsenal, and, more pertinently, four points off Manchester United in fourth, having played a game more. What must be most troubling is the sense of plates across the stage stopping spinning as Jürgen Klopp dashes frantically between them.
Klopp, addressing rumoured interest in Enzo Fernández and Moisés Caicedo, had warned that the club are not able to play Monopoly. What has been especially impressive over the past few years is the way Liverpool have achieved that level of consistency without ostentatious spending. And that is also why Champions League qualification is so essential; if revenue drops, so too does their capacity to spend and, with the club in significant transition, that could have serious consequences. It doesn’t take much for virtuous circles to become vicious.
