Liverpool made it six straight home losses as Fulham ran out 1-0 winners.
Jurgen Klopp rang the changes for the Premier League champions with seven players making way from Thursday’s defeat to fellow top four rivals Chelsea.
But the Reds slipped to another reversal as Mario Lemina fired a decisive goal just before half time after dispossessing Mohamed Salah in the penalty area.
Klopp’s side still sit four points behind Chelsea, who can extend their lead in the race for a Champions League spot with victory over Everton on Monday.
Here were the key talking points from Anfield:
How low can the Reds go?
From runaway Premier League champions to embarrassing also-rans within less than 12 months, things could not possibly get any worse for Liverpool.
Or could they?
A sixth home reversal in as many weeks, this time at the hands of relegation-threatened Fulham, is a fresh nadir. But so were the previous five defeats.
Jurgen Klopp’s side having to travel to the Puskas Arena to host RB Leipzig in their Champions League last-16 return leg is actually a blessing in disguise.
They’ve had a greater home advantage in Budapest than at Anfield lately.
Even an extended run in Europe’s elite club competition appears a tall order in a season where blows have constantly rained down on them from all angles.
The only way is up. How, or indeed when, the Reds reach that stage is still some way off. Klopp’s champions are truly a shadow of their former selves.
System, not personnel, is the problem
A cursory glance at Liverpool’s line-up before this game appeared to suggest that Klopp had finally stumbled upon the root cause of their recent woes.
Wholesale changes from the midweek defeat to Chelsea were made for the visit of their struggling London rivals but the outcome remained consistent.
Another loss by a one-goal margin proves that it was not personnel which was the fallen Premier League champions’ ongoing issues but the system itself.
Neco Williams, Nat Phillips and Rhys Williams have all enjoyed first-team outings yet their relative inexperience was heavily exposed by Fulham.
Throwing three largely untested defenders into the mix merely exacerbated matters rather than remedying them as Fulham enjoyed a firm command.
They were able to play through the hosts’ backline so regularly in the early stages of the first half that an away victory carried a sense of foreboding.
Klopp has fixed myriad issues in his time at Anfield but clearly there is no magic solution to ones that go beyond the names on his team sheet.
Rusty returnees provide optimism
Admittedly, positives from another sub-par display were few and far between.
One crumb of comfort, however, came in the first starts of Naby Keita and Diogo Jota since the pair succumbed to injury towards the end of last year.
Keita last featured from the off in Liverpool’s comprehensive dismantling of Crystal Palace, when back-to-back Premier League titles still appeared viable.
The Guinea international was arguably his side’s best performer through a willingness to move the ball effectively forward to a largely subdued attack.
Jota, too, offered flashes of the blistering form which preceded him being ill-advisedly made to play through an entire Champions League dead rubber.
His finishing touch still lacked refinement after three months out, although a first-time volley which Alphonse Areola parried almost suggested otherwise.
Keita and Jota are still showing obvious signs of ring rust after spells on the sidelines but their returns to the fold offer genuine signs for encouragement.
Defence can’t mask toothless attack
For all the legitimate complaints that injuries in defence have derailed Liverpool’s season, there is no excusing the alarming downturn elsewhere.
More than 11 hours have elapsed since they scored a goal from open play at Anfield and the overall numbers for a one prolific attack are little better.
Just 10 goals have been plundered across their 12 league games in 2021 with eight arriving in wins away to Tottenham, West Ham and Sheffield United.
Not that Liverpool looked likely to improve on that tally against a Fulham side who defended resolutely and used clearing it long as an effective game plan.
A handful of early openings which fell to Mohamed Salah was as good as things got before they were left snatching at half-chances for the remainder.
Sadio Mane’s introduction on the hour mark, supplementing a front line of the Egyptian, Jota and Xherdan Shaqiri, repeated a familiar pattern for Klopp.
Four forwards may have worked earlier in the season against Manchester City but Liverpool are no longer firing on all cylinders. They are barely in sync.
Unfortunately, this is one problem that Virgil van Dijk’s absence cannot mask.