Five games, three defeats: is Liverpool's title challenge over already?
Brendan Rodgers admits his team "can't even entertain talk" of challenge at the moment
Coping with tricky Premier League fixtures a few days after Champions League exertions is a knack Liverpool must learn quickly if this campaign does not become a second-rate sequel to last season’s thriller.
On the evidence of a 3-1 defeat at West Ham United on Saturday they have some way to go.
Liverpool expended more energy than they would have liked to see of Bulgarian champions Ludogorets Razgrad in midweek, needing a last-gasp Steven Gerrard penalty to get their first Champions League campaign since 2009-10 off to a winning start.
It was evident against West Ham, particularly in a careless opening seven minutes in which they all but surrendered any hope of bouncing back from last weekend’s home defeat by Aston Villa.
The bubbles that traditionally greet West Ham before kickoff were still floating around Upton Park when an unmarked Winston Reid nodded in after a corner was headed back across goal by the equally unmarked James Tomkins.
It got even worse five minutes later when Diafra Sakho’s flighted cross aimed at Enner Valencia went straight in, sending the home crowd wild.