Manchester United legend Gary Neville has not held back on his assessment of Liverpool after Arne Slot’s team suffered a third consecutive defeat last weekend.
It looked as though Liverpool were finally going to put an end to their losing streak on Saturday. Cody Gakpo cancelled out a first-half effort from Moses Caicedo, but substitute Estevao scored the winner for Chelsea late into stoppage time.
Former United defender Gary Neville has offered his take on Liverpool’s performance and he has ripped into his old rivals, beginning with their defenders.
Neville told Sky Sports: “Frimpong looks like he should be playing as a right winger, he doesn’t perform like a right-back. Conor Bradley just isn’t doing it and Andy Robertson is battling but he’s not quite where he was a few years ago.
“Liverpool’s problems are as much to do with full-back as anywhere. They need to button that down.”
Although Neville has been critical of Liverpool’s defensive line, he believes their biggest problems stem from the other end of the pitch.
“A lot has been made of Liverpool’s defensive work and rightly so,” he continued, “but today [Saturday] that’s not why they’ve lost this game.
“They’ve lost this game because in the last 15-20 minutes, their creative players, their players in the final half of the pitch, the midfielders and the forwards who were absolutely useless.”
Neville named and shamed the Liverpool attackers who failed to impress during the Chelsea defeat and he included two players who have already come under criticism this season.
He added: “They were giving the ball away like you wouldn’t believe. Gakpo down here, Salah over on that far side; the wastage.
“Wirtz not knowing how to get into a game in the last 15 minutes when it was there for the taking, and just almost sort of marking Caicedo, I was watching him a lot.”
Neville is not the first ex-player to raise concerns over Mohamed Salah and Florian Wirtz. Didi Hamann said Salah’s numbers would not improve with the arrival of Liverpool’s summer signings.
Harsher still, Jamie Carragher said Florian Wirtz needed to be dropped, with the £116m failing to impress since his move.
Liverpool are now second in the Premier League table after dropping all three points once again. They will return after the international break and Neville will likely have plenty more to say, because Liverpool will take on Manchester United.
