Mentality Mice Meek Surrender at Anfield

Liverpool 1-2 Man City | 24 points in the last 20 Premier League games for the Reds

Feb 08, 2026

This collapse felt depressingly familiar because it’s become routine. Go ahead, retreat into yourself, stop playing, stop thinking, stop believing. Liverpool used to smell blood in moments like that. Now they smell fear, and fear is cultural. It doesn’t arrive by accident. It’s learned, tolerated, then normalised.

This team has a weak mentality that flows downhill. Arne Slot, Richard Hughes and Fenway Sports Group are no longer abstract decision makers hiding behind process and patience. They are active participants in what we are watching. Squad neglect, timid in-game leadership, and a tolerance for failure dressed up as transition have fused into something rotten.

The moment Liverpool went 1-0 up, the game plan dissolved. No authority. No bravery. No control. Heads dropped, lines sank, and the bench froze. This isn’t bad luck or fine margins. It’s habit. It’s what this team has been coached to become when pressure arrives.

I read this morning, from a brilliant journalist who is also a friend, that Slot’s biggest problem is that he is not Jürgen Klopp. That misses the point entirely. His problems are bigger and far more urgent. This side cannot see out games, cannot manage momentum, cannot sustain performance beyond short bursts. That’s exposed leadership.

Numbers matter because they strip away excuses. Liverpool have six wins, six draws, eight defeats, and twenty-four points from their last twenty league games. For context, Roy Hodgson took twenty-five points from his twenty league matches. Let that sink in.

If you think this is good enough, Arne Slot, Richard Hughes, Michael Edwards, Mike Gordon, FSG, journalists, fans, then your bar is too low for this club.

Post-Match Podcasts

Trev Downey is joined by Dave Hendrick and Jim Boardman on Post-Match RAW with fast reaction to Liverpool’s 1-2 loss against Manchester City in the Premier League - Listen Now