Following on from today’s 4-1 defeat at Manchester City, Caoimhe O’Neill vividly summed up how Liverpool’s fortunes have declined over the last 12 months.
When the Reds drew 2-2 at the Etihad Stadium in this fixture just under a year ago, it kept them only one point behind their table-topping opponents and preserved their hopes of an unprecedented quadruple of trophies.
Fast forward to April 2023, and Jurgen Klopp’s side are out of every knockout competition in which they’ve featured this season and labouring in seventh at best by the end of today, with at least one of Brighton or Brentford (potentially both) certain to overtake them in the table.
The drop-off has been stark, and O’Neill may well have encapsulated the thoughts of many a Liverpool supporter with her post-match verdict.
The Athletic journalist tweeted: “This time last year Liverpool fans didn’t want the season to end. Now the end can’t come soon enough.
“A summer rebuild is one of the only things giving #LFC fans hope for the future. Even then there’s no guarantees that will happen in the way supporters want.”
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It seems staggering to think that it’s been just 44 weeks since Liverpool were in a Champions League final, one we probably would’ve won had Thibaut Courtois not been in the form of his life.
It’s almost a year to the day since the masterclass performance against Man City in the FA Cup semi-finals at a sun-kissed Wembley – the contrast between that and today’s meek surrender against the same opponents could hardly be starker.
The gap to the top four might currently be seven points, but the table would suggest that the possibility of us having no European football at all next season – never mind no Champions League football – is far from unthinkable.
O’Neill’s point about the possible summer rebuild being a rare crumb of comfort is apt, with there perhaps being a sense among some fans to take more interest in what may happen next term rather than suffering through the remainder of the current campaign.
What today – and indeed much of 2022/23 – has shown is that Liverpool could certainly do with a busy summer on the transfer front, with a group of players who’ve brought us so much joy in recent years now finding it near-impossible to replicate the standards they’ve set previously.
You can see O’Neill’s tweet below, via @CaoimheSport on Twitter:
This time last year Liverpool fans didn’t want the season to end. Now the end can’t come soon enough.
A summer rebuild is one of the only things giving #LFC fans hope for the future. Even then there’s no guarantees that will happen in the way supporters want.
— Caoimhe O'Neill (@CaoimheSport) April 1, 2023