Liverpool's 2-1 defeat at the hands of Manchester United on Monday night leaves them 14th in the table, with just 2 points taken from their opening three Premier League matches.
City already have Title Initiative
No one knows better than Jurgen Klopp how hard it is to beat Manchester City to the title. So to be handing your main rivals a 5 points lead at this early stage of the season could already spell trouble for the Reds.
So what has gone wrong for Liverpool? And why have they been so poor this season?
Already media talk has centered around the loss of Sadio Mane and the on field altercations that took place at Old Trafford.
Starting with Mane, and any team will miss him. He was front and center of just about everything Liverpool have achieved over the past 5 years. He is already showing the Bundesliga and Bayern Munich fans what he is capable of. And is anybody really surprised by that?
Elsewhere, players will always argue amongst themselves when goals are conceded. So what happened between James Milner and Virgil van Dijk at Old Trafford is nothing exceptional.
Klopp was most likely more impressed that the players cared. He certainly wouldn't have been impressed with the defending, that's for sure.
Sloppy Liverpool
A combination of Mane leaving and a sloppy start to the season is probably what's behind the poor form. Liverpool were lacklustre against Fulham, ill disciplined against Crystal Palace, and just poor against Man Utd.
All that along with the loss of Mane has led to a poor start. That's pretty much it. Anybody talking about the demise of Liverpool is jumping the gun.
Latest Premier League Betting
Liverpool are now out to 7/1 to win the Premier League. That's a substantial drift since the start of the season, when they are around the 11/5 mark (depending on which bookmaker you use).
Klopp’s team are still second in the betting. But they are now way behind Pep's Manchester City team, who are 1/3.
Odds courtesy of Betfair Sportsbook, more details of this bookmaker can be found at our Betfair Review.