As each region forms a layered ecosystem, bad choices on the part of one player can hamper their neighbours.
Whatever anyone thinks of Klopp's thinking on that front, the departure of one player is surely no reason for a team to totally lose their way.
The days when Jonny Wilkinson was regarded as indispensable to England may have gone, but seldom has the loss of one player had such a profound impact on the course of a match.
The material payoffs of one player in each game are based on X, while the the material payoffs of the other player are based on 1/X.
Not that it was all the fault of one player.
"They don't have the best record in the league because of one player".
Failure to do so is punished by the removal of one player.
Relegated the previous season, they were "dead", in the words of one player.
"Sometimes it is the quality of one player who decides the game.
Tulsa Coach John Phillips said: "We just lost track of one player Obviously, that's not what we wanted to happen".
There is not another country whose fortunes look likely to be so tied up in the form of one player.
