Rating Liverpool's season so far: Darwin's development, Fabinho's struggles and Salah keeps on scoring

A season which promised everything has so far turned out to be a fairly mixed bag, as far as Liverpool are concerned.

As the Premier League breaks for the World Cup, the Reds sit sixth in the Premier League table, 15 points off top spot and facing a battle even to finish in the top four.

So consistent and so reliable for so long, Jurgen Klopp’s side have been anything but so far. They may have secured qualification for the Champions League last 16 with some comfort, but domestically theirs has been a campaign of disappointment, with moments of promise overshadowed by a series of underwhelming performances and morale-sapping defeats. 

Already, they have lost twice as many league matches (four) than in the whole of last season, but the recent trend, at least, is upward, with a first away win of the campaign at Tottenham followed up by a 3-1 victory against Southampton on Saturday.

The expectation is that they will improve after the World Cup, when key players should return from injury and when they have traditionally come on strong in recent years, but the fact that the idea of a title challenge at Anfield already feels like it is off the table tells you just how much they will need to.

Here, GOAL takes a look at the first three-and-a-half months of 2022-23…