As Jordan Henderson limped off after 29 minutes and Nat Phillips ran on, Liverpool turned to their 18th different centre-half partnership of the season. And in that bald statistic lies the ruins of Liverpool’s title defence.
Of course, there are other mitigating factors that have contributed to their decline. The fact that they have stopped creating chances might worry Jurgen Klopp more.
And it’s also arguable that a club the size of Liverpool should have made a better fist of this injury crisis. Certainly we can imagine the conversations between Klopp, Sporting Director Michael Edwards and Fewnay Sports Group president Miek Edwards might have been spirited as they discussed reinforcements in January.