By Tahmid Habib

Harry Maguire's late dagger completes brutal collapse as four straight defeats confirm crisis is real.

There are defeats that sting. There are defeats that hurt. And then there's this, a 2-1 home loss to Manchester United that didn't just wound Liverpool, it exposed every fragile nerve ending in a side that's completely lost its way. Four straight defeats. At Anfield. Against them. This isn't a blip anymore. This is a full-blown crisis!

The atmosphere crackled with electricity before kick-off, as the Anfield faithful were desperate to roar their team back to life. That hope lasted all of 48 seconds. United struck immediately, catching Liverpool's defence napping and silencing the Kop before most fans had even found their seats. It was the nightmare scenario, and everything that followed felt inevitable.

Liverpool had possession, Liverpool had pressure, but United had the one thing that mattered: belief. While the Reds huffed and puffed, their attack blunted by fear and hesitation, Man United sat back with the smug satisfaction of a side that knew exactly what was coming. For 76 minutes, Liverpool battered away at Man  United's door with all the menace of a strong breeze.

Then Cody Gakpo finally found the breakthrough, and Anfield erupted. The energy shifted. The press intensified. For those precious few minutes, it felt possible. That's what makes what happened next so devastating. Seven minutes later, Bruno Fernandes whipped in a cross and Harry Maguire, rose unchallenged to
head home another goal for United. The silence that followed wasn't just disappointment.  The silence that followed wasn't just disappointment. It was the sound of belief dying in real time.

What's most damning isn't that Liverpool lost. It's how they lost. They had control within their grasp and simply let it slip through their fingers like sand. The defensive lapses, the toothless attack until desperation kicked in, the complete absence of the mentality that once made Anfield a fortress, it all points to something fundamentally broken.

This was the moment for a response. After Palace, after Galatasaray, after everything, this was supposed to be where Liverpool planted their flag and declared the slide over. Instead, they've confirmed they're in freefall with no idea how to pull the ripcord. Losing to United at Anfield doesn't happen by accident. It happens when a team has lost its edge, its confidence, its identity. The quality might still be there on paper, but on the pitch? Right now, Liverpool look like a side going through the motions, hoping for miracles rather than creating them.

Four defeats in a row aren’t just statistics. It's a statement about where this team is mentally. And with each passing game, the gap between what Liverpool think they are and what they're showing grows wider. The Kop deserved better. The badge deserved better. But most painfully, this performance confirmed what every Red has been dreading: this isn't just bad form. This is a team that's genuinely lost, with no clear path back to the standards that once made them feared across Europe.

The season's still young, but the damage being done right now might not be so easily repaired.