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If Liverpool were to continue to leak goals at its current rate, Arne Slot's defense would ship more than 60 this season in the Premier League. Right now, it has a negative goal difference.
After a run of eight defeats in 11 games in all competitions — Eintracht Frankfurt, Aston Villa and Real Madrid being the only victories in that period — it is obvious that something has gone very wrong. Things are so bad, in fact, that trying to work out how to fix them is almost a problem too big to comprehend.
Slot is under pressure to find some wins and some consistency from somewhere. But the idea that he might be fired, though it has been suggested in some quarters, remains incredibly premature.
Things are bad, yes. The suggestion, however, that Slot only won the Premier League title a few months ago because he inherited a strong squad of players from Jurgen Klopp, remains ludicrous.
In the two campaigns leading up to that point, Liverpool had finished fifth and third. Slot came in, signed only Federico Chiesa, and got considerably more than Klopp had managed from several players in the team that he took on.
Ryan Gravenberch was transformed at the base of the Liverpool midfield, and Mohamed Salah had the best season of his career. As much as Slot should be under pressure to find solutions now, he should also take credit for that.
His tactical changes — being more calm and controlled — got the best out of key men, ensured that the players largely remained injury-free, and took Liverpool in a different direction.
He was being hailed for implementing sensible tweaks by many of the same people who might now be keen to paint those actions as happy accidents.
Winning the Premier League title is a major achievement, not least in a manager's first year at the helm. Suggesting anything other than Slot being in line for credit is simply rewriting history.
It is worth pointing out that since then, Liverpool has had to attempt to come to terms with a tragedy, and is still integrating a number of players — including the clearly unfit Alexander Isak — after a summer of unprecedented changes.
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Liverpool spent big in the summer, and while things have not clicked into place yet — and it shouldn't look as much of a mess right now as it does — there is still a good chance that the likes of Isak and Florian Wirtz will prove successful.
If they do, the rest of the team around them will suddenly look very different.
"You are responsible when you're winning, but you're also responsible when you are losing," Slot said in his post-match press conference. He is absolutely right.
Whatever happens in the next few months, what the Liverpool head coach did in his first campaign will remain intact. The question now is how quickly he can address a worrying slide.
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