Sourness sets in early for Liverpool

Premier League: West Ham 2 Liverpool 2

Was it really only ten games ago that Liverpool were on course for a clean sweep of trophies as a parting gift for manager Jurgen Klopp? Was it only six games ago they were on a run of seven wins and a draw in eight Premier League games? You know, the good old days before touchline rows between manager Jurgen Klopp and star forward Mohamed Salah, and disappointing 2-2 draws away to West Ham?

It might be reading too much into a situation to claim that team morale at Anfield has collapsed in the wake of defeats against Manchester United, Crystal Palace, Atalanta and Everton that have effectively ended Liverpool’s chances of adding any trophies to the League Cup. But the body language was dreadful in the Liverpool technical area on Saturday as Darwin Nunez had to intervene in what looked like a frank exchange of views between Klopp and Salah.

Educated guesses suggest that Salah was unhappy at being given only 11 minutes off the bench, even though Liverpool were leading when he was summoned. The confrontation seemed to begin over nothing, a misunderstanding over a missed handshake on a crowded touchline, but it escalated quickly. Klopp claimed it had all been sorted out but Salah was the first to leave the field at the final whistle and later said: "If I speak there will be fire”.

That was not all. As Klopp admitted, missed chances were causing visible annoyance. “I told the boys that the worst thing we do, and I don’t understand it, is that after every chance we miss, you can see everybody like throwing their arms up and stuff like this (raising his eyes) but a chance is the closest thing you can get to a goal so you have to be there more positive, we have to accept these kind of