Over the past fortnight, Liverpool have dropped four points against Leicester and West Ham. From August to February, Liverpool hadn’t surrendered a single point against a side from outside the top six. 

So far this season, Jurgen Klopp has rotated his squad impeccably, to the point where nobody can find a problem. Through a tough winter where Liverpool had to find the balance between the Premier League and Champions League, they remained unbeaten. In this time, Manchester City lost to Chelsea, Crystal Palace and Leicester. 

Through his time at Liverpool and past experiences with Borussia Dortmund, Klopp has understood what it takes to have a fully rotated and fit squad for the upcoming spell of a campaign. 

Earlier in the season, Klopp rotated the squad correctly, right up until Liverpool faced Manchester City on January 3. Looking back, it was almost as if Klopp had laid a marker down on that game saying: ‘Be in touch with them and go from there’. That was the game when the first part of the squad process stopped, and this has led to Liverpool currently find themselves in no man’s land. 

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With the Reds having winnable games on paper between their fixtures from against City to Bayern, you can see the reasoning behind this strategy. 

The next matches Klopp has laid a marker next to is the Champions League last 16 first leg and Manchester United away. These are the games where Liverpool start to flick the switch again and push on for the remainder of the season. This is the point where Liverpool look to each other and say: ‘We are here now, let’s do this’. 

Along the way, Liverpool have been unfortunate with injuries, it happens. Trent Alexander-Arnold, Dejan Lovren, Georginio Wijnaldum and Jordan Henderson are all due to be back for Bayern Munich, with Joe Gomez out for the foreseeable future. This is one of the reasons Liverpool have dropped points against Leicester and West Ham. 

With Trent out, James Milner and Jordan Henderson have both put shifts in at right-back. It was apparent to see that Palace, Leicester and West Ham all targeted this position. First Wilfried Zaha, and then Felipe Anderson. Both wingers consistently made it a one-on-one battle with Milner, and always got white chalk on their boots, taking the Reds star out wide; it was smart and worked effectively. 

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This current spell is the first time Liverpool have looked light in numbers. Through winter, fans couldn’t believe how good the squad looked; after years of having a bench full of people who couldn’t make an impact, we now had Xherdan Shaqiri coming on and scoring two against United and Divock Origi scoring against Everton. 

However, the past 10 days have shown how specific injuries can halt progression. Liverpool have a squad of 16 players, whereas Manchester City have a team of 18 to 20. At some time, it will show. They have previously looked light on their feet with consistent injuries to Kevin de Bruyne and Benjamin Mendy, and Liverpool have taken advantage. 

It should be pointed out, though, that Liverpool haven’t been beaten in recent outings. Despite the various meltdowns on social media, the Reds have not been defeated. 

Against Leicester we should have been, they missed three clear chances and defended well. Claude Puel has always taken the approach that Carlos Carvalhal said about ‘Putting a Formula 1 car in London traffic’. 

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At the London Stadium, Liverpool looked laboured and slow. Adam Lallana and Naby Keita were given chances to show that they should be starting, and at times did, but not enough. 

It was a learning curve that should teach the Reds not to overreact. Manchester City lost both games in similar fashion, to Leicester and Palace, whereas Liverpool have drawn. Two disappointing draws? Yes. But don’t overreact. 

The recent fixtures should act as big learning curves for the fans. The Leicester and West Ham games showed that Liverpool fans need to get out of this negative mentality. 

This is one of the best Liverpool sides in recent times and people are not enjoying it, because of nervousness and negativity. Replace that pessimism with emotion. Every home and away game, replace it. Liverpool fans are the ultimate ’12th man’ cliche. No other supporters can have as great an impact on both sets of players during a game.

As fan organisation @SpionKop1906 said on Twitter…