Leeds v Liverpool September 21

For the first time in a long time, you could feel the sense of disappointment at Elland Road on Sunday after the Liverpool defeat.

Losing to Liverpool is no disgrace, of course, but the harsh reality is that 3-0 could easily have been twice as many and for the fourth game in succession we went through a period in the game where the opposition were able to create chance after chance.

Just as with Everton and Burnley, we were grateful to the other side’s wastefulness in front of goal rather than anything else for keeping the score down. I know we’re only four games in, but this is becoming a worrying trend now.

What made it more frustrating on Sunday was that we started so well. We were excellent for the first 20 minutes and with Rodrigo’s chance we should really have been in front early doors.

But after that we seemed to be too hurried in everything we did. The ball was like a hot potato at times and instead of controlling it, we looked for the quick pass, the quick move forward, and more often than not ended up giving it away and we were our own worst enemies for putting ourselves under pressure.

Our back-four didn’t get any respite because Liverpool were able to keep coming back at us and put us under pressure. They dominated in the middle of the park and Thiago was the best player on the pitch by a country mile.

Losing Llorente was another big blow for us. You all know what I think of him and what he brings us, and we can only hope that he isn’t out for long and is soon back among it.

The injury to Harvey Elliott naturally took the headlines and as a former player, seeing him stretchered off in the manner that he was left me with a feeling of disappointment and sadness. I don’t think for one minute Pascal Struijk meant anything by the challenge and he was as devastated as everyone else about the end result.

Whether or not he should have been awarded a red card isn’t really worth the debate because you could argue all day long about the merits of the challenge and the rights and wrongs of it. It all seems a bit irrelevant when the young lad is in hospital and facing a long-time out.

We’ve now had more shots at goal against us than any other side in the Premier League this season, and tellingly the closest we came to scoring on Sunday – after Rodrigo’s early chance – was when Patrick Bamford tried to chip Alisson from distance, forcing the Liverpool keeper to react quickly to tip the ball over the top. It was a great bit of thinking by Pat and a great piece of goalkeeping.

I said before the international break that we had plenty to work on, and that’s still the case. The difference this time is that we have just a few days before we go up to Newcastle for what is going to be a very big game.