In one sense, Jurgen Klopp can rest easy: his Liverpool legacy won't be defined by this aberration of a season.
He will always be the manager that returned the Reds to the summit of English football as Premier League champions, with a Champions League title cementing his place in club legend.
Last season almost saw Klopp lead Liverpool to a sensational quadruple, but 2022-23 is proving a sorry sop of a campaign.
Seven and a half years into his reign, Klopp might be surviving on goodwill at present. Fortunately for the former Borussia Dortmund boss, that is in abundant supply, but this drifting ship needs to be turned around and he knows it.
Here's the crux: Liverpool have played seven games in 2023 and made a wretched mess of most of them. They have won only once, and now an eight-game run lies ahead of them that looks critical to their hopes of salvaging anything from the season.
Unless Klopp's team perk up their ideas during this run, the manager might consider walking away. Perhaps he might even be pushed. That sounds like wild talk, given all he has achieved, but Liverpool are going backwards at an alarming rate.
Ahead of Monday's derby against Everton, Stats Perform looks at this unfolding crisis.
What's the state of play?
It's grizzly. Liverpool sit 10th in the Premier League after 20 games and have been eliminated from the FA Cup and EFL Cup, knockout competitions they won last season.
They came through the Champions League group stage, but Real Madrid stand in their way of going any further. Madrid, remember, beat Liverpool in last season's final, and while Carlo Ancelotti's team are certainly not firing on all cylinders this season, they sit second in LaLiga.
Klopp's mood has unsurprisingly not been as buoyant as in previous campaigns, and the crotchety way he has dealt with some reasonable questions from reporters of late has pointed to the strain this might all be taking.
He might turn this all around of course, as six months of underachievement does not undo all his previous work, but football is a results business and the FSG owners expect the club to be performing on and off the field.
There is a sense of gloom about Liverpool, defeats to the likes of Brighton and Hove Albion and Wolves no longer comes as surprises, and something has to change sharpish.
Stats Perform AI gives them just a 15.6 per cent chance of finishing in the top four. They are likelier to finish in eighth or ninth place (a combined 16.6 per cent), according to that data modelling.
Can Klopp rise again?
Liverpool are winless in their four Premier League games so far in 2023 (D1 L3), and have scored just once. They have only endured a longer winless run at the start of a calendar year once in the Premier League era – a five-game stretch in 2017 (D3 L2).
They turned it around that time and won nine of their next 14 league games (D3 L2) to secure a fourth-placed finish, but such lofty heights look beyond them this season. Those competing for the Champions League places are all in a healthy state, and Liverpool are spluttering like a sick hound.
Winning the Champions League looks like the only route for Liverpool to get back into UEFA's most lucrative club competition next season. Winning the Champions League also looks a million miles beyond them.
A reset of some sort is needed, and implementing that in the middle of the season is desperately difficult.
Fellow mid-table toilers Chelsea have brought in a mental skills expert from the New Zealand rugby team, in the hope he will coax the best out of a talented group, and Liverpool might also consider a jolt from an outside influence.
Liverpool's next eight games are treacherous. After Everton, they travel to fourth-placed Newcastle United, and then comes the Anfield first leg against Madrid.
Four Premier League games follow, with trips to Crystal Palace and Bournemouth sandwiching home games against Wolves and Manchester United. Then comes the Madrid second leg at the Santiago Bernabeu.
If Klopp picks up a good handful of Premier League wins and gets past Madrid, it's happy days again. But if not...
If Klopp goes, then who comes in?
Every sturdy operation needs a succession plan in mind, in boom times and bad, so Liverpool will have firm ideas about the type of manager they would be targeting next.
When they hired Klopp in October 2015, he was unmistakably a rising star of the coaching world, a two-time Bundesliga winner and a Champions League runner-up. Many clubs had looked at him, and Liverpool's decision to take the plunge paid off handsomely.
There are certain names that spring to mind when it comes to out-of-work bosses who could fancy Liverpool: Mauricio Pochettino, Thomas Tuchel, Zinedine Zidane, Luis Enrique. Atletico Madrid's Diego Simeone might be seeking a fresh start at the end of this season.
Then there are the Liverpool favourites who have dipped a toe into coaching but would only be contenders on a wing and a prayer: Xabi Alonso and former Reds captain Steven Gerrard.
Klopp's assistant Pep Lijnders might enter the conversation, too, if a change happens.
Yet maybe Liverpool will be seeking a figure more in the 2015 Klopp mould, a coach on the rise who can point to experience and success, and precious few scars.
Roberto De Zerbi at Brighton has beaten Liverpool twice this year, while Brentford's Thomas Frank dished out a 3-1 defeat to the Reds, and their respective sides sit sixth and seventh.
Eddie Howe at Newcastle is probably out of reach, and that factor alone puts Liverpool's decline into black and white.
New England Revolution 1-4 Inter Miami: Messi at the double as Herons run riot
Lionel Messi scored twice and laid on a goal for Luis Suarez as Inter Miami retained their three-point lead at the Eastern Conference summit with a 4-1 win over the New England Revolution.
A franchise-record crowd of 65,612 people witnessed a flying start from the Revs as they took the lead within just 37 seconds at Gillette Stadium. Carles Gil pounced on some sloppy play from Miami to tee up Tomas Chancalay, who lobbed Drake Callender for the opener.
However, Miami roared back with Messi leading from the front. They had a deserved equaliser just after the half-hour mark, Messi slotting home after latching onto Robert Taylor's throughball.
Messi had his second after 67 minutes, producing another composed finish after former Barcelona team-mate Sergio Busquets split the New England backline.
Messi was involved in another two goals as Miami added some gloss to the scoreline late on; his first-time shot was saved by Henrich Ravas but Benjamin Cremaschi was on hand to score on the rebound after 83 minutes, then the Argentine teed up Suarez for a curled finish five minutes later.
Miami stay three points clear of Supporters' Shield holders FC Cincinnati at the top of the East, with the Orange and Blue keeping pace by beating the Colorado Rapids 2-1 on Saturday.
Data Debrief: Messi rolls back the years
Ahead of Saturday's game, some feared Miami boss Gerardo Martino would opt to rest Messi after speaking of the risks of fielding the eight-time Ballon d'Or winner on New England's artificial pitch.
However, Messi came through 90 minutes with another mesmerising performance. He has now recorded a goal involvement in 10 straight club matches for the seventh time in his glittering career, last doing so for Barcelona between September and December in 2018.
Al-Khaleej 0-1 Al-Nassr: Ronaldo misfires on return as Laporte nets winner
Cristiano Ronaldo returned from suspension but failed to find the net as Al-Nassr secured a 1-0 win over Al-Khaleej on Saturday, with Aymeric Laporte coming up with the decisive goal.
Ronaldo was in action for the first time since being sent off for an elbow in a 2-1 Saudi Super Cup loss to Al-Hilal earlier this month, with his initial two-match ban being reduced to one on appeal.
He missed three good chances as Al-Nassr threatened to fall further behind runaway Saudi Pro League leaders Al-Hilal, but former Manchester City defender Laporte spared his blushes by nodding Marcelo Brozovic's deep free-kick into the bottom-left corner with 68 minutes gone.
Al-Nassr remain nine points adrift of Al-Hilal at the summit in spite of their win, with Jorge Jesus' team unbeaten through 28 games this season as they close in on a record-extending 18th title.
Data Debrief: Ronaldo misfires on return
Ronaldo was presented with the Saudi Pro League's Player of the Month award for March ahead of kick-off, having scored four goals in three league appearances last month.
However, his sights were off on Saturday as he failed to net despite three of the visitors' four big chances, as defined by Opta, falling his way. He led all players on the pitch for expected goals (1.27 xG), shots (five), shots on target (three) and touches in the area (nine) without reward.
Huddersfield all but relegated from Championship while League Two play-off spots decided
Huddersfield Town saw their relegation from the Championship all but confirmed after a 1-1 draw with fellow strugglers Birmingham City on Saturday.
The Terriers avoided a defeat that would have seen them relegated on Saturday, but even a win on the final day over promotion hopefuls Ipswich Town will not be enough unless they overcome a huge goal difference of 15 goals with Plymouth Argyle.
Birmingham remain in the other relegation place and now must beat Norwich City to stand a chance of staying up with Sheffield Wednesday, Plymouth and Blackburn Rovers also still in danger.
At the other end of the table, the Canaries dropped points in a 2-2 draw with Swansea City, leaving the door open for Hull City, who face Ipswich Town later today.
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