Liverpool and their supporters should be rightly worried about how long their humiliating run of form will carry on for.
The top six in the Premier League have opened up a chasm on the rest of the league cutting them adrift by 10 points.
The worrying statistic for Liverpool supporters however is that this is April, and they are not one of those six clubs.
They are not even in seventh, and depressingly they sit behind rivals Everton and find themselves in eight place.
Only three games ago, Kenny Dalglish was pledging that the club would fight back and battle for fourth, by going on a 10 game winning streak.
His ambitions look far too lofty now, having since lost three in succession, including an embarrassing 2-1 home defeat to relegation battlers Wigan Athletic.
Few would argue that the club are displaying relegation form, having earned just eight league points in 2012.
On 42 points, Liverpool are just 14 above 18th placed QPR, and while of course they face no scenario of being dragged into a survival battle, they are now looking like sitting ducks as the teams below them attempt to crack the top 10.
They are 11 points behind sixth placed Newcastle and 31 points behind league leaders Manchester United, which will stretch to 34 if United beat Blackburn tonight.
There is now no question that Kenny Dalglish has failed to take the club forward, and another season like this could see him heading for the exit door irrespective of cup success.
Swansea City in 11th are just three points behind Liverpool, while Norwich City are also just three behind, and Stoke City four.
Liverpool have an interesting run of games, next against Aston Villa, who are also struggling for form, and at the end of the season host Chelsea before travelling to Swansea on the last day.
That game against the Swans could be decisive in which one makes the top 10.
The Reds are so focused on the FA Cup – and previously the Carling Cup- they have allowed their league form to disintegrate. The FA Cup will continue to distract them, whether they like it or not, such will be the intensity of the semi-final against local rivals Everton.
Yes they will win games in the league still this season, but will they win enough to prevent them slipping into the bottom half?
With only a three point gap on teams in the lower half, you have to ask how motivated Liverpool will be, compared to hungry, success-starved teams below them who will want to claim Liverpool’s scalp and boast they have finished above them.
Will Liverpool slip into the bottom half of the table at the end of the season?
image: © Vincent Teeuwen
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