Liverpool's Season Becoming a Broken Record After Defeat at Man Utd

There’s a famous line from the poem O Me! O Life! by Walt Whitman that cries, “the powerful play goes on, and you may contribute a verse.” In the microcosm of Liverpool Football Club, that contribution must wait until January—for the root of this season’s bad form is the personnel.

Sunday’s 3-0 defeat at Manchester United in the Premier League was inevitably met by frustration from Liverpool supporters, with two constants becoming all too familiar—defensive frailties and lack of ammunition. 

Brendan Rodgers said the game summed up Liverpool’s season, telling Sky Sports, per This Is Anfield (h/t Press Association):

"

I thought we did enough to win the game. We created enough chances to win the game, but we also made defensive mistakes.

It probably epitomised our season. We're not prolific enough in terms of goalscoring.

"

At the back, Martin Skrtel underperformed again, struggling to keep up with United’s swift counter-attacks.

Alex Livesey/Getty Images

Dejan Lovren, the £20 million summer signing brought in to fix Liverpool's leaky defence, appears to have made things worse, looking out of his depth and prone to costly errors. His poor clearance helped United and Robin van Persie score the third goal of the afternoon.

While Alberto Moreno was initially deployed as a left wing-back, it became clear early on that defensive duties were required of him. However, he continues to show a weak understanding in this area and was arguably to blame for Wayne Rooney's opener.

Brad Jones was expected to play behind a defence he has little experience with, and his inclusion ahead of Simon Mignolet surely raises doubts about the Belgian's future at the club.

Positively, Liverpool did create chances at Old Trafford and showed movement up front. However, they were still lacking the confidence to complete those moves, which was the downfall of the Reds’ afternoon.

Throughout the game, Raheem Sterling was a threat to United, getting into very advanced areas of the pitch, but his poor finishing meant there was nothing to show for it.

Yet, relying on the youngster, who turned 20 last week, once again demonstrates Liverpool’s lack of squad depth, despite so much money being spent in the summer.

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Mario Balotelli’s second-half introduction following an injury lay-off added more physicality and penetration in attack, but a final product continues to elude the Italian. 

Rodgers will again face questions over why recognised strikers such as Fabio Borini and Rickie Lambert aren’t starting, but if the options he has aren’t good enough, he inevitably has to explore different options.

This piece is a reflection of most of the Liverpool post-match comments that have come before it this season—the same points being made again and again, match after match. The Reds are becoming negatively predictable.

The above image of the Liverpool players' despair, Steven Gerrard's hands on his hips and a team-mate's head bowed, is symbolic of the campaign so far.

But Liverpool supporters must have patience for now. Rodgers’ recent tinkering and tactical experiments have only gone to prove he needs better players to reach the heightened expectations of this season.

There is little sign that anything will improve in the next few weeks, and without the ability to make those personnel changes, can there be a realistic expectation of a change of fortunes for the Reds?

All eyes will be on Rodgers and Liverpool in the January transfer window.