Top of the table at Christmas, Liverpool find themselves in the middle of it by March. Their title defence was over by the end of January, and even the idea of a top-four finish looks fanciful now.
At this rate, they’ll do well to make the top 10. The question now, if we even dare ask, is just how bad can things get?
There is an assumption that it simply has to improve, that the quality of the players and the manager will eventually tell, that things will click and the luck will turn.
But what if it doesn’t? What if it gets worse before it gets better? It couldn’t, could it?