Liverpool are “still a very good team” despite being a “country mile off” their usual standards this season, according to Graeme Souness.

The former Reds player/manager claims that, while he can’t see Jurgen Klopp’s side winning the title this campaign, they have shown in the past that they can recover from bad starts:

“If you’re a top player it doesn’t go overnight, it’s not like a switch, so it’s still in them somewhere. They are still a very good team. I remember when I was at the club, we lost at home to Man City on Boxing Day and we went to 12th in the league, and people had written us off, the empire is crumbling, it’s now Man United’s turn… and then we ended up going on to win the title.”

“I’m not saying this Liverpool team can do that… but I’d also like to point out that last January they were 14 points adrift of Man City and people were writing them off, and they ended up losing the league by one point. So you don’t become a bad team overnight, but I will accept that they are a country mile off where they have been over the last five or six years.”

While Liverpool did go through a poor patch of form last season, this recent slump seems to have a lot more in common with the difficulties they had during 2020/21 when they lost six home games in a row.

The rut has truly set in, with Klopp even admitting himself that players are lacking in confidence. Sometimes, just one result can change the course of the season but you do feel any hopes of winning the Premier League have all but been extinguished already.

The Reds may have a game in hand, but they trail Arsenal at the top by eleven points, while the gap to City is ten. It is a huge gulf to bridge even this early in the campaign.