It’s on my mind as soon as I wake up...

DOM IS CONSTANTLY SEARCHING FOR THAT SOLUTION TO REDS’ WOES

- By PAUL GORST

LIVERPOOL’S status as Premier League champions has made them marked men this season.

That's the opinion of Dominik Szoboszlai, who concedes that a difficult few months have left confidence levels on the floor at Anfield.

Wednesday's 1-1 home draw with Sunderland now sees the Reds on a sequence of just four wins from their last 14 matches, dating back to late September's reverse at Crystal Palace.

It's been a chastening period for a Liverpool side who won the title with four games to spare and by 10 points last season, and they head into the weekend's set of fixtures, away to Leeds United, 11 points behind leaders Arsenal.

It's a statistic that has led to several rescaling the extent of the Reds’ ambitions for the campaign, with it put to Arne Slot in his Friday press conference that simply qualifying for the Champions League next season would now represent success.

Such talk can take a back seat as far as Szoboszlai (below left) is concerned, however. The No.8 has arguably been the team's standout performer of what has been an otherwise ordinary campaign as defending champions and he feels the gold badges on the sleeves of their shirts, which indicate their title triumph last time out, are acting as a red rags to the opposition.