Jamie Redknapp suggests £34m player actually made Liverpool worse when he came on against Arsenal

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Jamie Redknapp thinks that Liverpool’s substitutes will have disappointed Jurgen Klopp against Arsenal this evening.

The Reds had started the second-half well and looked poised to take advantage of some sloppy Arsenal defending.

But with their forwards failing to make the most of some good-looking opportunities, Klopp looked to his bench. On came Darwin Nunez, as well Ryan Gravenberch and Harvey Elliott.

Unfortunately though, the changes failed to have the desired impact. And speaking to Sky Sports after the game, former Liverpool captain Redknapp suggested that Nunez and Gravenberch actually made the Reds worse.

“He’ll [Klopp] be so disappointed with Nunez and Gravenberch,” said the pundit. “Coming on with 22 minutes to go, come on and light the place up, they didn’t, they almost lost momentum instead of improvement. That’ll be a big disappointment for him.”

Substitutes fail to fire

There’s no getting away from it, Liverpool’s substitutes were poor against Arsenal.

Nunez perhaps deserves a pass. The Uruguayan didn’t really have too much to go on and battled relatively hard down Liverpool’s left.

Nevertheless, another blank now makes it 12 games without a goal for Darwin. That really needs to change soon.

Elliott too wasn’t especially culpable. The 20-year-old has been great off the bench recently and was perhaps unlucky to miss out on the starting line-up tonight.

He may not have had the same impact as he had at Crystal Palace a couple of weeks ago. But by and large Harvey did okay.

But my word, Ryan Gravenberch. The 21-year-old hasn’t played well for some weeks now, but this was a new nadir at Anfield tonight.

Gravenberch simply couldn’t control the ball. Whenever it broke to the £34m man he seemed to take a heavy first touch, and lose it.

Passes went astray and simple things weren’t done well, or done at all.

At a time when Liverpool needed to keep their foot on Arsenal’s neck, they let the game drift and allowed the Gunners back into it. There were 11 players on the pitch, all of whom played their part in that. But, unfortunately, Redknapp is right to highlight the disappointing nature of the subs.