The aftershocks of last month's elimination from the Champions League were expected to be most damaging in the Anfield boardroom but yesterday came confirmation that Liverpool's players have been racked with self-doubt by it.
Gerard Houllier's side have taken one point from their last five league games and Vladimir Smicer blames it on the 3-3 draw against Basel that relegated them to the UEFA Cup. "It was a big disappointment to go out of the Champions League but maybe it has affected us more than we expected," he said.
"We started wondering whether we were good enough as a team or not and there was possibly too much thinking. It has certainly affected our league form. But I don't want it to be used as an excuse for us losing four games out of five in the league. We have to be mentally stronger and show more belief in ourselves."
This evening Liverpool attempt to secure their berth in the fourth round of the UEFA Cup against Vitesse Arnhem, a task made easier by the visitors' appalling recent form.
Rather than exorcising their own bad results, Liverpool's slender 1-0 win in the Gelredome a fortnight ago was symptomatic of the slump Houllier's side are enduring. Vitesse, 12th in the Dutch league with three defeats in four, were outclassed but were still spared a spanking by the visitors' increasingly worrying profligacy.
Michael Owen may have scored the winner but he missed two other presentable opportunities, and Smicer also spurned a one-on-one, setting a trend that continued at Charlton on Saturday with chances missed and points dropped.
Owen starts this evening's match needing two goals to equal Ian Rush's Liverpool record of 20 in European competition, though only three of the 22-year-old's 18 strikes have come on Merseyside.
"We do need to be more clinical in the finish," said Houllier. "But it would be a worse situation if we weren't creating chances at all. We have to keep attacking because we'll win more games than we lose that way. It's a difficult time but I trust the players to put it right."
Vitesse (0) v Liverpool (1)
TV: BBC2 (kick-off 7.45)
