“Now I’m free, free-falling,” as Tom Petty in the Heartbreakers once sang back in the 1980s. The 2016-17 Liverpool FC season is in total free fall. This endeavor has gone completely off the rails, and who knows when they’ll be able to get it back right again.
January has been an absolutely calamity for the Reds as they now crashed out of the FA Cup today; right on the heels of their elimination from EFL Cup at the hands of Southampton Wednesday.
Liverpool now have just one win in their last eight across all competitions.
Here is the list of results for Jurgen Klopp’s side this month:
Jan 2 @ Sunderland 2-2, D
Jan 8 Plymouth 0-0, D
Jan 11 @ Southampton 0-1, L
Jan 15, @ Manchester United 1-1, D
Jan 18 @ Plymouth, 1-0, W
Jan 21 Swansea City 2-3, L
Jan 25, Southampton 0-1, L
Today, Wolverhampton Wolves 1-2, L
To some degree, the potential for major trouble was obvious upon glimpse of the month’s slate. No one expected this kind of total catastrophe though.
In only the first match on that list did they have Sadio Mane, and it was anticipated that his absence would create major issues. Mane creates and does things for the Reds that no one else on the current roster can do.
Daniel Sturridge was relied upon to help fill the void, but he’s failed in that regard.
He’s regressing in form, now goalless in last six matches. He’s been widely criticized for a lack of pace, and was called out by club icon Jamie Garaggher.
Although he did have an assist today (only his second on the entire season), he has just six goals on 52 shots in 20 games this season. Sturridge seems slower and a shell of the player he was when he was alongside Luis Suarez and Raheem Sterling.
It looks like he’ll be sold this summer. It also doesn’t help that Philippe Coutinho is only at 75% right now. Liverpool have been leaky at the back all season long, but they’ve consistently been able to score, and therefore find success in spite of those shortcomings.
Now they can’t seem to score when opponents drop back eight, and with those goals drying up, it’s been catastrophic.
Before the holidays, there were once second in the Premier League table and looking like Chelsea’s main threat for the league crown. Then they suffered through a ridiculous fixture congestion during the holiday period, and they haven’t recovered.
Never in Europe this season, out of the FA Cup and EFL Cup, the only thing left for Liverpool to play for is the top four.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, partnered with FOX Sports Engage Network. and News Now. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, Bold and the Chicago Tribune’s RedEye publication, appears regularly as a guest on CGTN America, WGN CLTV News and KOZN 1620 The Zone.
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