Paul Merson puts the blame at the feet of the Liverpool players after their awful run of form. The Sky Sports pundit believes something is badly missing.
Liverpool’s run is horrendous right now. Five home defeats on the bounce – an unwanted club record – and 22 points off Manchester City. The Reds were top at Christmas.
Things collapsed in late December, however, and have continuously got worse. Liverpool have only won three Premier League games in 2021, all away from home.
They’ve barely got a home goal to speak of, in fact.
Injuries have played an enormous part, of course. They’ve crippled Liverpool’s plans and left things in a mess. They won’t stop appearing, either, with virtually everyone going down at one point or another.
But how far does the injury crisis go to explaining the terrible form? For Paul Merson, it’s not the entire story and he believes the Liverpool players are to blame.
“They’ve got to get in the top four,” he told Sky Sports. “These players have got to get together and make every game a cup final.
“I don’t see that at the moment.
“I’ve said it a million times – they were the best team I’ve ever seen without the ball. I watch Man City the other night and that was Liverpool without the ball.
“I watch this Liverpool team and at the moment it’s token gestures.”
What RTK has to say
‘Token gestures’ is harsh – we don’t think that’s it. Liverpool just don’t have any stability or consistency and that tears apart their pressing game.
They seem worried about exposing the defence, for instance. That prevents pressing in midfield. Then there’s the lack of a holding midfielder – that creates chaos as no one seems to know what their role is.
So we’re not sure this is about effort levels as much as it’s about being a poorly-constructed side. Jurgen Klopp needs to find a way to click his pieces together and once he does, things will look better from front to back.
The real question is whether he can do that before the season ends. Right now, we’re not so sure.
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