A cloud of depression over Anfield

Confused thinking, deteriorating displays and disquiet grumblings in the Kop – have Liverpool hit rock-bottom?

It is rare that an entire football club exhibits most of the symptoms of clinical depression. A lack of confidence; an irritability; a feeling there is no future, or not one to enjoy anyway; an inability to perform even the simplest task; a mood of incessant misery. Liverpool Football Club ticks all the boxes.

The sense of fatalism is so advanced that setbacks can be both shocking and utterly unsurprising. As Blackpool joined lower league teams Reading and Northampton Town among the unlikely victors at Anfield in 2010 - registering a 2-1 win on Saturday - it was notable that the visitors display precisely the qualities Liverpool lack: buoyancy, fearlessness, adventurousness. No praise is too high for the improbable collection of cast-offs and cut-price signings yet it is easy to conclude that it wasn't Blackpool winning as much as Liverpool losing. Their self-destructive streak is that pronounced.

Perhaps posterity's verdict will be that it was a dysfunctional club the moment the American profiteers, Tom Hicks and George Gillett, bought Liverpool in February 2007. It is over the past 14 months that it has become apparent, however, cemented by the fact three directors have vowed to stop a fourth, Hicks, buying out the other, Gillett. A £237 million (Dh1.37 billion) loan has to be renegotiated later this month and the managing director, Christian Purslow, has had to deny that administration is imminent.

The backdrop has become part of the picture; impossible to ignore even before the fans took to the streets in protest. It explains why Xabi Alonso and Javier Mascherano, who both left for the Spanish league, were not replaced by players of the same calibre and why a transfer-market profit was made in both 2009 and 2010. Now the mediocre form means the asset strippers are left with assets of depreciating value. Champions League football already looks a pipe dream, players' prices plummet with every evidence of underachievement.

Dissent against the owners is nothing new. A public vote of no confidence in the manager is unheard of at Anfield; whatever reservations are held tend to be voiced privately or away from the ground. Yet the chants of "Dalglish" from fans in the Kop, in reference to club legend Kenny, in the final few minutes of the defeat to Blackpool were an indictment of Roy Hodgson. His troubled start is both an indication of an awkward inheritance and a sign that his much-criticised predecessor, Rafa Benitez, wasn't the sole problem.

For some supporters, Benitez's popularity was ring-fenced by the 2005 Champions League trophy. Hodgson has no such safeguard and scrutiny of his short reign is far from flattering. For a manager whose sides are notable for their defensive and positional discipline, Liverpool were shambolic against Blackpool, with Glen Johnson erring for both goals and the creaking back four afforded little protection.

A clarity of thought tends to characterise his management, yet an £11m central midfielder - Raul Meireles - is being deployed on the right and Christian Poulsen, possibly the least ambitious passer of a ball Anfield has witnessed, is an ineffective, plodding presence in the middle. Both are Hodgson signings, both yet to make an impact.

Neither Benitez nor Gerard Houllier were cavalier coaches but the excessively cautious approach employed at Birmingham City - a 0-0 draw - and in the first half at Old Trafford against bitter rivals Manchester United - a 3-2 defeat which could have been 6-2 - appears an admission of low expectations. Hodgson's teams tend to be balanced, yet last week Sunderland were the tactically coherent, well-organised side at Anfield.

His tetchiness and defensive interpretations of events do not serve to reassure. The first seven games suggest that, for all his experience, Hodgson is struggling with both the expectations and the demands of the job.

The consequence of seven matches of confused thinking, deteriorating displays and frequent rethinks is that Liverpool find themselves in the relegation zone. When great institutions sink, there is always the temptation to think that they have reached rock-bottom. Such assumptions could have been made when Northampton, who play three divisions below the Premier League, knocked Liverpool out of the Carling Cup. Yet that was the second-string side; Blackpool beat the first team. And Liverpool, like a manic depressive, threaten to get lower still.

>>>

Last week, Carlo Ancelotti was praising Manchester City for their power in midfield when Chelsea were beaten at Eastlands. Fast forward eight days and his trio of Michael Essien, John Obi Mikel and Ramires were similarly effective against Arsenal, with the Brazilian capping the most impressive display of his brief Chelsea career by winning possession for the opening goal.

>>>

The fixture list pitted Sunderland against Manchester City, Arsenal, Liverpool and Manchester United in their first seven matches. That they have emerged unbeaten from those four games is a fine achievement for Steve Bruce. One of the peculiarities of the run is that it has come with his £13m record buy Asamoah Gyan on the bench and Darren Bent alone in attack. Given the excellence of the central midfield trio of Jordan Henderson, Steed Malbranque and Lee Cattermole, it would be harsh to drop any to incorporate a second striker. It is the right sort of dilemma to have, though.

>>>

A slightly stranger sight of a striker on the bench at the Stadium of Light was that of Dimitar Berbatov among the Manchester United replacements in the 0-0 draw against Sunderland. As an international break beckons and Berbatov no longer plays for Bulgaria, it was especially odd.