And once again, you find yourself lamenting the fact that you’re looking for everything to come from Steven Gerrard.
He had a rare bad game and he will obviously bounce back but that just exacerbates Liverpool’s problem.
Where does the quality come from?
The issue I had about Alonso departing initially was Gerrard suffering from not being fed in those areas in just behind Torres and I feel that was what caused his frustration against Villa.
He had to go looking for the ball in an area where Villa were ganging up ready to ambush him and he never freed himself up to play the game he wanted to.
But believe it or not, despite all the concerns I have after what was a damaging home defeat, I have to say that it’s not all doom and gloom.
And I definitely don’t think Liverpool’s title challenge should be written off.
Okay, so they might have already lost as many as they did last season, but Manchester United lost twice as many games and still won the league.
The fact is, it was the draws that did the damage and now Liverpool have lost a couple of games, you can cope with that if you get a few more wins rather than draws.
I still believe it’s possible because, as I said last week, when a new season kicks off, everything is magnified.
Defeats are a major crisis, wins mean you’re the best team in the world.
Tottenham have won three out of three and people are asking, can they win the Premier League? Well, no they can’t.
But if Liverpool are to look like convincing contenders again, they need to do what all sides with ambitious of chasing the title do – and that’s respond to defeat in the right way.
They did it last week against Stoke – and they need to do it at Bolton on Saturday to get the Villa flop well and truly out of their system.
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