Liverpool defender Trent Alexander-Arnold has blamed a lack of consistency for his team's struggles to replicate last season's quadruple push.
Jurgen Klopp's Reds won both domestic cups last term, as well as reaching the Champions League final and finishing second in the Premier League. This time, though, they are almost certain to end the season empty-handed after a number of setbacks.
Liverpool sit sixth in the table ahead of Sunday's game at home to Manchester United, with a 21-point gap to league-leaders Arsenal. They were also eliminated from the FA Cup by Brighton and the Carabao Cup by Manchester City, while a 5-2 first-leg defeat at home by Real Madrid leaves their Champions League hopes hanging by a thread.
"It's difficult because, as you said, we aren't really playing too different," Alexander-Arnold told JOE when quizzed on the struggles. "It's just not clicked at times.
"We've not been able to string together too many good results and there hasn't been that much consistency over the course of the season. That's probably the biggest problem, it's lack of consistency.
"But it's something we're trying to pick up on. We've got four good results in the league on the bounce now, and it's something that we want to build on and push towards the end of the season for."
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Since losing 3-0 at Wolves in early February, a result which prompted manager Klopp to question his team's sluggish form, the Reds have turned things around defensively. They have taken 10 points from a possible 12, including an impressive win at high-flying Newcastle, while registering four clean sheets in a row.
That record will be put to the test against Manchester United on Sunday. Erik ten Hag's team have scored in every single game since the World Cup, last drawing a blank on October 16.
The Red Devils also beat Liverpool when the teams last met, back in August, to deliver Ten Hag his first Premier League win. Both games last season went Liverpool's way, though, by an aggregate scoreline of 9-0.
“What I enjoy most is there are so many things that are much more important than football in life, but we all pull ourselves out of this sometimes not so nice reality and dig ourselves into this game," Klopp said ahead of the upcoming clash.
“Then football is the most important thing for these 95, 98 minutes. The whole world will watch it, I will watch it! I want to win so I don’t have to look in your faces after a defeat, but on top of that there are five million reasons I want to win this!”
