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Liverpool Echo
Liverpool Echo
Sport
Paul Gorst

VAR, injuries and defensive issues can't excuse Liverpool for embarrassing Leicester collapse

So just where do Liverpool go from here?

How on earth does Jurgen Klopp pick his players' chins off the canvas after this latest capitulation?

For the second week in a row, the champions folded quicker than a cheap deck chair to throw away any progress that had previously been made.

This collapse was somehow even more perversely impressive than the one at Anfield last week when they tossed aside a 1-1 scoreline inside 10 calamitous minutes against Manchester City.

This time, they managed to see three goals rattled past them in even quicker time as a second-half onslaught from Leicester saw them go from a goal down to 3-1 up in just seven minutes.

Yes, a VAR decision once more sided against them in controversial circumstances as Daniel Amartey was ruled to be onside as James Maddison fizzed an equaliser into the bottom corner.

Yes, injuries once more conspired against them as James Milner was forced off and Divock Origi was unable to make the trip with a hamstring injury.

And yes, a patched-up defence meant Jurgen Klopp was forced to name his 13th different centre-back partnership of the season.

But all that does little to excuse just how spectacularly Liverpool lost their way here at the King Power.

And while there may be some legitimate gripes over the ongoing nonsense that surrounds just what exactly offside is in the modern game, the manner of how they caved in following Leicester's equaliser was embarrassing.

A third howler in two games from Alisson Becker followed as he and deubtant Ozan Kabak collided to give Jamie Vardy the easiest goal of the season before Harvey Barnes slotted home a third.

After losing four times in two full Premier League seasons - half of those coming after the title had already been wrapped up - the Reds have now been beaten four of their last six.

Top-four hopes are not hanging by a thread just yet, but it would take a huge turnaround to finish above that position now.

Third-place Leicester now sit six clear of the Reds and Klopp is now looking below him as the chasing pack prepare to take advantage of this disastrous run of form that has left this campaign in tatters.

Now, it is all about salvaging something from the wreckage.

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