During Friday’s pre-match press conference, Jurgen Klopp raised a salient point. ‘Could Liverpool use the positive victory away to Ajax as a turning point in their season?’ was the question sent Klopp’s way. The Liverpool manager replied by highlighting that similar questions regarding other possible junctures have been raised, and squandered, during the past couple of weeks.

In short, Liverpool are taking one step forward and two steps back. They have failed to grasp the opportunity to build momentum from their scattered triumphs. Liverpool’s midweek 3-0 win in Ajax, booking their place in the Champions League round of 16, came after losing to Nottingham Forest and preceded another defeat to Leeds United.

Saturday’s defeat to Jesse Marsch’s side was different, however. Liverpool had already lost three of their opening 11 league games (against Manchester United and Arsenal along with Forest) but the 2-1 reverse against Leeds came at Anfield, thus bringing an end to their 29-game unbeaten home league run and had Virgil van Dijk experiencing his first home league loss since joining the club in January 2018.

Whereas previous defeats have come on the road, Liverpool were left stunned at Anfield after Crysencio Summerville clinched an 89th-minute winner. Rodrigo had given Leeds an early lead before Mo Salah quickly levelled the scores.

What frustrated Klopp most was that his team failed to grab control of the game during the 75 minutes of parity. Having shrugged off the fourth-minute calamity of Joe Gomez’s poor backpass and Alisson’s slip, which allowed Rodrigo an easy tap in, and found the back of the net themselves, the home team were unable to control proceedings.

Liverpool have lost four of their opening 12 league games (Getty)

One would have assumed Leeds to have folded after holding the lead for only 10 minutes but that would do a disservice to Marsch’s team. Although Leeds started the weekend in the bottom three having failed to win since August, their performances have warranted more points than those accumulated — as pointed out by Klopp prior to the game.

The basketball match which ensued with end-to-end play and more than the odd mistake saw Liverpool ruffled, even though Illan Meslier was called upon to keep Leeds in the contest by denying efforts from Salah, Darwin Nunez and Roberto Firmino.

A lack of anticipation on Liverpool’s part was also apparent in Summerville’s goal when Thiago Alcantara, Van Dijk and Gomez all surrounded the Dutch attacker in the penalty area, but were too slow to prevent the 21-year-old from taking a few touches before prodding beyond Alisson. Liverpool have often been a yard short this season.

Even though Liverpool’s sequence going into this game was their best of the campaign, four wins from their last five in all competitions, there remains a lack of conviction and a sense that they are currently a team trying to rediscover themselves or, even, reinvent themselves.

Klopp has often called for consistency, something which has not been assisted by the team’s poor injury record this term, but has now seen his side lose twice as many games in the first 12 league games of this season as they did in 38 last season; they are 13 points behind Manchester City at the top of the table and eight adrift of the top four.

Virgil van Dijk suffered his first home league loss since joining in 2018 (Getty)

Currently, the main focus is finding form rather than targeting a top-four finish. “We cannot qualify for the Champions League if you play as inconsistent as we do in the moment,” said Klopp. “We have to fix that and then anything is possible.”

'Lose to Spurs and our season is over'

With two more league outings to come before the World Cup break, a visit to Tottenham Hotspur next weekend and then a hosting of Southampton six days later, the prospect of time away from the domestic spotlight may serve Klopp and his players well.

Trent Alexander-Arnold admitted that confidence is creaking and a win at Spurs is a must. “I’d say we all believe in ourselves, we believe in the way we play, we believe in the squad and what we can achieve,” he said.

But I think when you do get setbacks, it can potentially make you second-guess yourself and question things. Clearly, as a team something’s not going right, it’s not going as well as we want it to go. 

“That’s something for everyone to think about, that's something for everyone to address and make sure we put it right, especially next week against Spurs, top-four rivals. We kind of need to go there and get some points if we've got any chance of reaching our aims and aspirations for the season.”

On the eve of his 21st birthday, Summerville struck a precious Leeds winner (Getty)

Leeds, meanwhile, will aim to build on this precious victory. They hadn’t tasted victory over Liverpool in 21 years and Marsch came into the contest under pressure, although he proclaimed the board had been supportive during the series of eight games without a win that saw the team fall into the bottom three.

The relief that poured out of the Leeds manager was noticeable. “Everybody has made a big deal about firing me, but the board and I have been unified and we’ve stuck together,” said a jubilant Marsch.

My feeling is that we shouldn’t be in the situation we’re in, but we are. I’ve tried to stay calm, but I’ve also tried to push. The players have stepped up big today.

Liverpool have failed to grasp season-changing moments so far this term, Leeds will hope to differ.

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