By TTT Subscriber Neil Mundy (NeilM).

As a worrier, the thought of the upcoming season fills me with dread and panic. It’s counter-intuitive, of course – after the sheer thrilling excitement of last season I should really be hungry for more. More mad football, more sensational goals, more of Colin Pascoe’s shorts. But there’s definitely a fear factor – a worry about ‘second season syndrome’, which stems from a number of points. These include:

The loss of Suarez and 31 goals from the team

History repeating – Liverpool have finished 2nd twice in the Premier League era and both times the team has regressed the following season

The changing nature of the squad, with five major new additions already and more expected (the ‘doing a Spurs’ point)

A fairly tough start to the season, fixture-wise

Player fatigue following on from the World Cup

Injuries to key players and how we will deal with them

The improvement of other Premier League sides.

I thought I’d look at each ‘fear factor’ in detail, and analyse how much there is actually to be scared of. Am I blowing things out of all proportion, or is there good reason to be worried? At the end of each section I’ve included my ‘score out of ten’ on how highly the problem bugged me, and an ‘actual’ score which is how troubling I feel it will be in reality after considering it at reasonable length.

First things first, the loss of Luis Suarez.

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