OK, so far we're not very good. What are the reasons and how do we fix it?

We could stop selling our best players.

Every time it looks like we are about to step up a level or put something special together it gets taken apart.
Most frustrating thing about being a Liverpool fan lately.

Alonso
Mascherano
Torres
Suarez

Looking at Alonso going to Bayern and breaking passing records in the role we deploy Gerrard.
Looking at us struggle, with Sturridge out, now that Suarez is gone.
Looking at the age build up of the squad, and seeing exactly the same thing is going to happen.

Sign them young.
Sell at their peak.
Start again.

This all over, 100%. Great post. Sums everything up perfectly.

I hate the fact we're now relying on poor old Sterling to do something special, or Sturridge.

Markovic and Balotelli look so off the pace it's scary.

United spend big on the replacement players

Do they?

They didn't spend big on the likes of Beckham, Scholes, Neville etc.

Ronaldo wasn't "big" money.

They spent money on RVP but saved on not buying a central midfield for years.

Fair enough the likes of Stam, Rooney, Van Nistelroy and Ferdinand cost them money but we have spent comparable amounts.

International break didn't help, we are always sh*t for a month or so after the early season one, happened for the last few years now, players always get injured on them too.

Sadly, I don't think this is the only reason we are doing so sh*t at the moment.

Reason 1 - Our defence is absolute sh*te.

Fix - F**k Pascoe out and get a defensive coach in as soon as possible.

Reason 2 - Mignolet has become complacent.

Fix - Get a quality keeper in to provide competition.

Reason 3 - One up front is not working.

Fix - We need another top quality striker to account for injuries as Brendan doesn't seem to trust Borini or Lambert to partner Balotelli.

Reason 4 - Too many players being chopped and changed, no continuity to forge team cohesion.

Fix - Pick your best eleven and persevere with it.

Fix - Pick your best eleven and persevere with it.

This should always be your default position.  We are a shambles at present

Makes you wonder, when our next win and clean sheet will come from, without meaning to sound too gloomy.

Makes you wonder, when our next win and clean sheet will come from, without meaning to sound too gloomy.

Probably when we next play Spurs.

Total lack of confidence and belief at the moment. Not gelling as a unit, not even the regular players. The new lads seem like strangers apart from Lallana.
 We don't press teams high enough or quick enough, and are slow to respond to counters.
We just need to have more belief in each other, keep pressing the opposition and don't let them settle on the ball. If we let them come at us and concede, we then have no idea how to break them down when they go defensive. The answer is to pressure them from the off and keep them on the back foot. Teams make mistakes when under pressure. That seems to be us at the moment and we need to turn it around.

Play 2 up front and stop with this 1 up front bullshit!

Once again I think there is some understandable over-reaction, but it IS over-reaction nonetheless. We lost 1-0 away in a Champions league game to a decent team, and really if we'd capitalised on openings we could and should have got something.

Short term, (and I'm saying this as someone who only weeks ago advocated his signing) we have to get Balotelli out of the team. We all know He isn't very good, but as our only forward who has any energy Borini must play. We know his first touch is like a through ball, but the fact is he'll run till he drops which is what we need right now. Equally, Markovic shouldn't be in the team at the moment, so Lallana must play, ditto Moreno.

I say all this because the "take one game at a time" mantra is much more important when you're losing than it is when you're winning. WBA at home Saturday is our most massive match of the season so far, an absolutely huge game. If matters not a jot if we know Borini isn't the long term answer, or if we know Markovic "just needs time". Frankly I'm not interested in the long term as of now, we just need to win on Saturday.

Our best chance of doing that is to return to the high energy, high octane style which has brought us success in the past. Me, I'd play Borini on his own up top but whatever, anyone who can't or won't put a lung busting shift in shouldn't play. I don't care how we win lads, just win.

We just need to become hard to beat for the next few games and nick a 1-0 win. Confidence can come later.

I think the thought that we had built a big enough, or good enough, squad has been pulled apart very quickly.
Two key injuries and the season is at risk of falling apart.

With Sturridge and Allen in the team it was looking like the flowing/attacking football we know and love.
Without them it's quickly become disjointed. No fluidity up top and the same defensive weakness as last season.

We're already putting too much on Sterling and it's starting to show.
Last season he flourished while Sturridge and Suarez took the spotlight away from him.

Reasons:-
1)not enough people want us to be "very good".
2)We've sold a team of galatacticos..
.. and bought a team of cheapos/youngster to sell on at some pt.
3)footballing success REALLY doesn't matter. "You only need to make it look like you are trying" (tw*t Hicks)
4)As I one of our posters said earlier, list the players we've sold, and you've got the best team in Europe.
List what we've signed... and you've got something that looks pretty midtable.
5)the company makes ever more money, by offering ever less. yet fans are addicted to support at all costs, and their passion is used against them. effectively the old bird is held hostage... again.

I think the title needs to be changed to "we're not very good. should we do something about it, or wallow in mediocrity and also ran status forever. If so, what should we do about it".

We just need to become hard to beat for the next few games and nick a 1-0 win. Confidence can come later.

.

That means not conceding goals. Something bar Spurs we seem incapable of doing. The goal against Basel? Migs fault IMO. Enrique would've hoofed it away if Simon hadn't fumbled a save...

.

That means not conceding goals. Something bar Spurs we seem incapable of doing. The goal against Basel? Migs fault IMO. Enrique would've hoofed it away if Simon hadn't fumbled a save...

Not much Migs could do with that one, that goal was squarely down to Skrtel trying his usual WWE act instead of attacking the ball with his head.

Brendan tends to be a better coach than he is a scout. The players he has brought to this club, Sturridge and Coutinho aside, have been awful. Admittedly he did want a good few players who he was not able to bring in but still, there is no excuse.

The more we field a team with predominantly players signed by Rodgers, the worse we tend to do.

He's looking more and more out of his depth as the day goes by. At the moment the fans seem more clued up than Rodgers himself.

Skrtel trying his usual WWE act instead of attacking the ball with his head

I wonder if this is a "tactical instruction" passed down to the player...

Migs wasn't at fault for that goal, it was our "dont look at the ball whatever you do" defending style.

So how do we fix this? Asked the OP!

I'm not a manager, so I wouldn't know entirely. But I have an opinion.

1. Continuity - to me this is of the utmost importance. Find your best XI, and stick with it. Do not drop players after one bad performance. It forces them to lose their confidence and self-belief.

2. Drop Balotelli - he is disruptive to our style of play. He walks around too much in offside positions, and he doesn't work hard enough to close down the opposition. Also when in possession, if he gets a nudge he'd rather go down and win the free kick opposed to shrugging off a bad challenge and advancing forward in attack. His tendency to go down gives the opposition the chance to regain in numbers and defend against our useless set pieces.

3. Drop Markovic. For now, the boy has no confidence in himself. He is seemingly our worse transfer of the summer and I say that with confidence. He does need playing time, but no with us. Send him out on loan in January and let him get valuable experience at a club like Sunderland. Players need to hit the ground running at Liverpool, so we cannot afford to be patient in this respect.

4. Improve on central midfield come January. Gerrard and Henderson have been below par this season. Lucas and Allen are not much better still. These are average footballers. We need world class midfielders. Midfielders form the core of your team and without that core quality, everything else you will be capable of doing will be severely undermined.

5. Buy a world class forward in January. No more hunting for bargains or young players with this so called potential. We need players to hit the ground running. We need to start signing better players. It is that simple. Manchester United signed Juan Mata last winter due to their shoddy start. We need to do something very similar this winter if our poor form continues.

6. Bring in Steve Clarke as a defensive coach. Time for Brendan to swallow some pride and accept that he is not perfect.

1.   It took us a season under Brendan to learn how to build the team around Suarez. As I’ve said before, it may take at least that time again to build our new team and way of playing. You don’t just lose on of the best players in the world and carry on as though nothing has happened.

2.   We have a lot of new players who are still figuring out the best way to play with each other. We aren’t going to blow our rivals out of the water with spending – that means we have to make up value with coaching. That takes time.

3.   The team has been centred around Gerrard whose deficiencies do not make up for the positive aspects in his game once he gets tired – which happens when he hits two games a week.

4.   Our transfers have not been good enough value for money.

5.   The biggest problem we have is that we are naïve with our play. We crack under pressure, we’re not canny with our organisation, we don’t see games out and we throw men forward at the wrong times. That comes down to the captain in my view – running league games is entirely different to cup matches.

6. Bring in Steve Clarke as a defensive coach. Time for Brendan to swallow some pride and accept that he is not perfect.

It's something very difficult to do. We might either need Kenny to push through this decision at board level, or counsel BR to face up to his weakness.

1.   It took us a season under Brendan to learn how to build the team around Suarez. As I’ve said before, it may take at least that time again to build our new team and way of playing. You don’t just lose on of the best players in the world and carry on as though nothing has happened.

2.   We have a lot of new players who are still figuring out the best way to play with each other. We aren’t going to blow our rivals out of the water with spending – that means we have to make up value with coaching. That takes time.

3.   The team has been centred around Gerrard whose deficiencies do not make up for the positive aspects in his game once he gets tired – which happens when he hits two games a week.

4.   Our transfers have not been good enough value for money.

5.   The biggest problem we have is that we are naïve with our play. We crack under pressure, we’re not canny with our organisation, we don’t see games out and we throw men forward at the wrong times. That comes down to the captain in my view – running league games is entirely different to cup matches.

Disagree with no.2

Look at Southampton and West Ham. Made as many changes as we have and are performing to a higher standard. I agree that it isn't favourable buying a shed load of players, but nor is it when they are frighteningly average players carrying world class price tags.