John Aldridge: I want to believe Jurgen Klopp still has hope in his heart

I can't believe I'm writing those words just a few months after he led the team to the brink of an historic quadruple, yet the scale of the decline since last season's Champions League final was complete after the 3-0 hammering at Wolves yesterday.

Losing 3-0 against a very good Brighton team was bad enough last month, but this was worse to suffer a similar fate against a pretty average Wolves side.

I love Klopp and thank him for everything he has done for my club over the last few years.

And while I'm sure every Liverpool fan would echo those sentiments, there is no doubt that something is going badly wrong right now.

We can put this down to injuries that has seen Virgil van Dijk, Luis Diaz, and Diogo Jota ruled out for long periods, but it is more than that.

The way Liverpool are falling apart is hard to take after all the success we have been used to under Klopp and while players take the blame for a lot of what is happening, Jurgen is also making some big mistakes with his team selection.

You might say I can't compare my final days as Tranmere manager to what Klopp is going through at Liverpool now, but I see some similarities.

It gets to a point where you can't see the wood from the trees and it feels like there is no way out.

Everything you do backfires, the results get worse and worse and in the end, I walked away from the job at Tranmere because I was making myself ill.

I'd hate to see Klopp get to the position where he is fighting against himself to get Liverpool back on track because when they happens, you have to get out of the fire.

None of us want to see that, but I look at the midfield Jurgen picked yesterday and it feels like a selection of a manager who is not thinking clearly.

Naby Keita should not be in the team as he wants away this summer when his contract is up and Thiago looks like he struggling badly.

Young Stefan Bajcetic did well, but the back four had no protection and they made big mistakes to compound he problems.

Then you look at the other end of the field and Mohamed Salah is so far off the pace that Klopp has to consider dropping him, even if he is lacking experienced replacements.

When I try to come up with reasons for this disastrous collapse for Liverpool, a few come to mind.

First of all on Salah; he has not been the same player since he was given this massive new contract last summer and I wondering whether his big pay rise has unsettled the dressing room?

Then there was this book released by Klopp’s assistant Pep Lijnders, giving away a few secrets, and you wonder if that had an impact.

Add to that the reality that the squad needed more fresh faces last summer and in the January transfer window, as some players need to be replaced and you have a collective bomb that has blown up Klopp and Liverpool's world.

Can this great manager bounce back from the huge hole he is in now?

Of course he can and I’d love nothing more than to be sitting here in a few weeks writing a Sunday World column suggesting we should never have doubted Liverpool’s greatest modern day tactician.

Yet there is now a real danger that he might feel he has had enough and will walk away.

I wouldn’t blame him if he did that because all the work he has put in at the club since his arrival in 2015 appears to be falling apart around him.

He may need new owners to come in and give him the money he needs to rebuild a squad that appeared to be so strong as they challenged in four competitions last season.

Yet it is clear now that a lot of the players Klopp is currently working with are not good enough to get the club back on track and the next few months are likely to be very difficult.

I can’t see Liverpool getting past Real Madrid in the Champions League last-16 tie and if they lose that, the season is effectively over.

In an ideal world, I want Jurgen Klopp to stay in place and lead what will be a massive rebuild at Liverpool over the next couple of years, but he has to decide if he still has the desire to fight on, with hope in his heart.