Three games, two defeats and six points adrift of the Premier League's pace-setters are hardly the criteria Liverpool would have wished for at the start of the season they were supposed to end their 20-year wait for the title.
Yossi Benayoun has insisted that Rafael Benítez's players still think they "can win the title", the Israeli adamant that "we believe we are strong enough, even if maybe we cannot lose any more games".
Glen Johnson, equally defiant, remains convinced their rivals "will drop points, because the likes of Aston Villa and Tottenham can beat anybody".
Yet that should not detract from the scale of the problems facing Benitez and his squad.
Outplayed at White Hart Lane and out-thought at Anfield for the first time in 18 months, Liverpool must find an answer to their mounting problems if they are to live up to their pre-season billing as champions in waiting.
The numbers game
As Benítez pointed out on Monday night, it is inherently flawed to suggest that Liverpool, who finished second last season, are suddenly incapable of competing for a slot in the top four simply because their side are much the same as they were last year.
The loss of Xabi Alonso aside, Liverpool are not exactly a shadow of their former selves. Alvaro Arbeloa has been upgraded for Glen Johnson and Benítez's first XI on Wednesday – plus the injured Fabio Aurelio, Daniel Agger and Alberto Aquilani and substitutes Ryan Babel and Albert Riera – still provide a spine as good as any in the country.
The problem lies in the outlying areas. Liverpool's bench is populated by promising youngsters and substandard squad men. As he cast his eye over his substitutes on Wednesday, it is hard to believe that Benítez would feel he had the firepower to turn the game around.
Benítez, it has been noted, is alone among managers in that he only ever wins. If Liverpool lose, the blame inexorably shifts to the club's owners, Tom Hicks and George Gillett, for not providing their manager with the requisite financial support.
Culpability, though, must be shared. Benítez has only been able to spend what he has raised, but his decision not to cash in on the likes of Andriy Voronin and Andrea Dossena has deprived his side of the infusion of quality it needed.
The missing midfielder
One player who was sold this summer, Alonso, has achieved by leaving what he failed to do during his five years on Merseyside: demolishing the myth of Liverpool as a two-man team.
For half a decade, Alonso was Liverpool's secret heartbeat, dictating the pace and tempo of their play. Few noticed, preferring instead to highlight the contributions of Steven Gerrard and Fernando Torres, perpetuating the idea that without their strike duo, Liverpool would struggle. As soon as Alonso left, though, the obituaries poured in, stating that Benítez's two-man team would be bereft without the Basque.
The Liverpool manager is right to suggest that how keenly Alonso's departure will be felt can only be judged when Aquilani is fit. There remains the possibility that by the time he is, though, too much ground may have been lost in the title race.
The missing midfield
Before Aquilani appears, Liverpool must learn to live within their means. Benítez's side have yet to adapt their style to deal with life after Alonso.
Lucas Leiva, much-maligned and much-improved, has borne the brunt of the criticism, but in truth the Brazilian international has been among Liverpool's best players in the nascent campaign. The problem is more one of structure than personnel.
Like his midfield partner, Javier Mascherano, Lucas is used to playing deep, coming short for his defenders to pick up the ball and begin attacks. Lacking the passing range of Alonso, though, he has found himself playing sideways more often than forward, a situation exacerbated by Gerrard seemingly fitting in against Aston Villa as an auxiliary striker.
Steven Gerrard
The Liverpool captain is usually immune to criticism, but his performance against Aston Villa was among the worst he has produced under Benítez. All players are entitled to off nights and it is testament to Gerrard's consistency that his lows are so noticeable.
His display, though, brought back memories of Basle in 2002, when the midfielder was substituted at half-time after a listless showing which he has since admitted was due to personal problems. The parallels with a sluggish start to this season are obvious.
Gerrard has had a difficult summer, and it would be understandable if the stress of his trial has affected his performances. That there is nobody available to take the weight of expectation from him is an indictment of Liverpool's strength in depth.
Set-pieces
Benítez, whenever he chooses to leave England, is unlikely to want to hear the words 'zonal marking' ever again. The statistics over the last five years prove that the manager's favoured system is no more or less flawed than man-to-man marking, yet there is room for concern that all five of the goals conceded by the Spaniard's team this season have come from set pieces.
Little or nothing could be done about Ashley Young's penalty, Lucas's own goal or Benoit Assou-Ekotto's thunderbolt, of course, but the fact the fouls central to each goal were unnecessarily conceded means all three were thoroughly avoidable.
Benítez has built his success on a sound defence but his side have now looked vulnerable from set pieces for more than a year. Zonal marking may or may not be to blame, but the Spaniard is open to criticism until he finds a solution.
