Liverpool are in the eye of the storm, familiar territory in recent years. Try determining how a club goes 18 games unbeaten -- including a win over the best side in the Premier League -- then loses to the worst two teams in the division.
It's impossible. Shrugging the shoulders and saying: "That's Liverpool for you," seems a copout but it's all that can be said sometimes.
There are fears of a poor run now because that's what usually happens. The quality of opposition doesn't seem to matter, in fact there's more concern whenever they're facing teams outside the top six.
Last season's awful run was triggered by defeat to bottom club Swansea. Within weeks that was worsened by losses to Southampton, Wolves, Hull and Leicester.
Wolves were low-ranked in the Championship, Hull would eventually be relegated and Leicester were so bad previously they'd had to sack title-winning coach Claudio Ranieri. For the record, Huddersfield are 14th, lying two points above the drop zone. They've won one of their last eight league games.
Irrational as it sounds, Liverpool fans would rather play a top side right now to trigger a level of focus and application that should really be compulsory for any ambitious club.
There are a few angles that might give Jurgen Klopp palpitations. If Liverpool were to lose their third game in a row against a relegation-threatened side it could trigger a crisis.
Having stated publicly he probably won't be adding anybody else in this winter window -- despite a huge payoff from Barcelona and losing Philippe Coutinho -- defeat would look bad for the manager, particularly when he seemed borderline flippant about transfers by urging journalists to "enjoy" the remaining days of the window.
He'll also be wary of giving David Wagner any kind of success. The two have been close friends over the years, so close that Wagner has often been unfairly described as a mini-Klopp. Should Huddersfield win, the media would have a field day with "student becomes teacher" headlines.
During any bad run, Liverpool's flaws are put under the magnifying glass. Klopp is still fooling around with the goalkeeper position. Having previously stated Loris Karius was his No.1, he then chose Simon Mignolet for the cup exit against West Brom.
The Belgian could barely have looked less interested. All Albion's efforts on target went in, with one disallowed by VAR -- luckily for Mignolet, who hadn't covered himself in glory.
The irony in facing Huddersfield next is that Danny Ward has only been given one chance despite numerous doubts about the two goalkeepers ahead of him.
He was pivotal in the Yorkshire side's 2017 playoff success while on loan there. Bringing him back to Anfield for one first-team appearance all season was cruel and incompetent.
The worst performance on Saturday was from Emre Can. Giving him the captaincy hasn't motivated him in the slightest and if the armband wasn't enough to persuade Coutinho to stay, did Klopp really believe it would have any effect on Can?
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The midfielder can't just rest up until the World Cup and his predictable move to Juventus. He'll know Germany coach Joachim Low and Juve boss Massimiliano Allegri will be watching closely.
Yet the difference between his colossal performance against Manchester City and his weak effort against Swansea and West Brom does hint at him being selective. It does beg the question; what is Georginio Wijnaldum's excuse? This is of no use to Klopp, at a time he needs everybody as focussed as possible. As Liverpool toiled against Albion, Klopp turned to his bench and brought on James Milner, Jordan Henderson and Danny Ings. If anything says your squad is not strong enough, surely it's that?
This blog has barely mentioned Huddersfield and perhaps that is an arrogant oversight. The fact is that Liverpool have such a good team, they should beat them but only if discipline and work rate match up.
Fans assume they will and are regularly mystified when they're not. It's possible for managers to be complacent too.
On Saturday, assumptions were made about West Brom's approach. Trent Alexander-Arnold was selected at right-back because he is better going forward than Joe Gomez, yet when Albion attacked they went through Liverpool at will and were rewarded with goals.
It wasn't just a matter of squad rotation either because Alberto Moreno was selected too. Klopp believed he'd need more attacking width against a side packing its defence and was subsequently caught out by Alan Pardew. That wasn't pleasant to watch.
Which all makes the next game harder to predict. It's always claimed that a Klopp side can only play one way but if that way means shipping goals and making every fixture risky, even the German might have to compromise at some point.
Source: espn.co.uk