It started nicely as Adam Lallana curled a wonderful long ball onto the path of Rickie Lambert in the second minute. Lambert controlled the pass well and then shot to the near post to score his first Premier League goal with Liverpool. The Reds had been looking for a fast start to send them on their way to a comfortable victory like what had happened so often last season, and Lambert's goal should have been that spark.
Instead the game went straight downhill. Steven Gerrard looked lost, the defense was overwhelmed by one of the worst teams in the league, and the attack mustered little. Crystal Palace scored three unanswered goals to win 3-1 and push Liverpool into full crisis mode. That's 14 points now from 12 games, which is as bad as any pessimist could have forecast before the season.
There's not much to say about this team that hasn't been beat into the ground already. It isn't good enough right now, and a fair deal of the blame falls on Brendan Rodgers who has done little to address the actual problems in the team.
Liverpool will try to regroup against Ludogorets in the Champions League, but even that match is no longer a foregone conclusion. It's a game that Liverpool need to win in order to have a chance at saving the season, so expect Rodgers to put forth his best eleven. Or the eleven players that have the most blackmail on him, which means that Glen Johnson, Dejan Lovren, and Steven Gerrard should be the first names on the team sheet.