By Steven Northover

On this day, one year ago, Liverpool found themselves at the top of the Premier League, seven points ahead of Chelsea in second, and also at the top of the revamped Champions League, and if I remember rightly, the weather was quite mild for December. 

Fast forward 365 days, and Liverpool find themselves eighth, 11 points below leaders Arsenal and seemingly stuck in an endless spiral of poor form and false dawns. 

With the exception of the first five games of the season, Liverpool have seemed completely lost, devoid of ideas, and lacking the confidence that led them to roar to the title last season.

So What Has Gone Wrong?

It's tempting to go into a deep dive and examine the minutiae of Liverpool’s season, to compare goals scored versus goals conceded and even analyse the dreaded XG. 

But that would be missing the fundamentals of what made Liverpool ‘Liverpool’, that is to say, they're just not as intense as they were in previous seasons. 

Take, for example, the recent loss to Nottingham Forest. 

For the first 33 minutes, Liverpool were on top. They dominated possession, and prodded and probed Forest defence. As fewer and fewer chances were created, players got desperate with a sudden rush of long shots from outside of the area - almost all of which ballooned into the stands. 

It was the look of a team that had run out of ideas, it is something that permeated the season - even during those early successful matches - bit more than anything else, Liverpool seem to lack the intensity that League winning teams should be known for. 

Like most teams that come Liverpool, Sunderland used a ‘low block’ defence that restricted attacks into their area. Indeed, in the first half Sunderland had more touches in the Liverpool penalty area, than Liverpool had in theirs. 

Almost metronomically, Liverpool would have the lion share of possession, find themselves marauding forward, only to be restricted by an apparently impenetrable Sunderland defence. 

Now, credit where credit is due, Sunderland are very much the surprise package of the season, and very much warrant their place in the top half of the table. But they are still Sunderland - a promoted Championship side who earned their right to be in the Premier League via the playoffs, and Liverpool are still the champions, so should have been able to at least dominate the match, let alone win it. 

Liverpool’s problem this season is that individual players seem to have lost the ‘spark’ that made them such powerhouses last term. The narrative always points to Mo Salah, who scored just five times this season and seems to have completely lost his spark of recent years. 

But that would be a disservice to Mohammad, and football is a team game - Liverpool’s problems are across the board. They don't score enough, they concede too many, and every single player seems entirely devoid of confidence that it effectively feels like every game will end with a loss. 

And that is down to the management. 

Football teams, especially the successful ones, play in the image of their manager - it's his final decision as to how a team plays, what tactics are used, and who is on the lineup. 

From the outside, Arne Slot seems to either not trust or have no faith in certain players. A good example is Federico Chiesa. 

Chiesa’s appearances in the first season were restricted by a lack of fitness following a prolonged ACL injury he locked up whilst still in Italy. 

This season, aside from the occasional niggles any player gets through a campaign, he is as fit as he's ever been. Despite this, he has started just six games this season. 

He is very much back up for Mo Salah, and in a normal season, such a restricted appearance record would go unnoticed. 

But Salah’s performance this season is well documented, and almost every game Chiesa comes into ends with some sort of important input from the Italian - his goal line clearance, after running the entire length of the Anfield turf on Wednesday night is a good example. 

Slot’s inability, or unwillingness to change his tactics is having a massive detrimental effect on how Liverpool play. With no change in players, the style of play doesn't change, with no change in tactics, the same patterns of play remain. 

Slot and Liverpool need to fundamentally change the way they play or this season could get very messy, very quickly. 

There are some bright sparks, obviously, Florian Wirtz seems to be finally finding his feet in the league, and Dominik Szoboszlai remains by far Liverpool’s best player this season. But that shouldn't paper over the cracks that many players seem to have lost their way this season, or that a manager that seemed to have the club, league, and half of Europe in the palm of his hand a year ago, now seems out of ideas and (say it quietly) has appeared to be losing the dressing room.