We’ve been spoilt by Liverpool this season, we really have.
And a further unwanted reminder of that came at Stamford Bridge on Tuesday with a 2-0 FA Cup fifth round defeat against Chelsea.
A third loss in four, Jurgen Klopp’s European and world champions are proving themselves to be, well, mortal like the rest of us.
Nobody can win forever, after all.
Yours truly was on ratings duty for the ECHO once again and found the performance, while better than at Watford, still lacking in key areas.
Neco Williams was given the top score with 8, predominantly on the strength of a fine first-half performance.
Sadio Mane was the only other player above average, scoring 7.
At the other end of the scale, Adrian, Fabinho and Divock Origi all registered just 5. Not an easy evening for them, for sure.
What everyone else said
Of course, other ratings are available. But the national media seemed to take a scattergun approach to evaluating the performance of Liverpool’s players.
The Mirror considered Mane top with 7 but scored Adrian and, somewhat surprisingly, both Williams and Minamino 5.
The Mail do things by halves and Mane, Van Dijk and Williams were ahead on 6.5 while Adrian was given 4.
The Express thought Robertson and Jones were best on 7 but Fabinho scored 4.
The Daily Star went with Van Dijk leading the way with 7 while Adrian registered a lowly 4.
Meanwhile, The Times put Williams, Mane and Minamino first with 7 while Adrian, Fabinho and Lallana scored 5.
Finally, the number-crunchers at WhoScored.com calculated Van Dijk best on 7.03. Fabinho was last with 5.49.
