Liverpool legend Graeme Souness has offered a scathing assessment of why Jurgen Klopp’s side have made a terrible start to the season.
The Reds are currently seventh in the Premier League, six points behind early pace-setters Arsenal, after winning just two of their opening six matches. They also suffered an eye-catching 4-1 defeat against Napoli in their first Champions League fixture of the season on Wednesday night in Italy.
It has been a chastening start to the campaign for Klopp and his players, who have looked leaky in defence, overrun in midfield and, Luis Diaz and the 9-0 win over Bournemouth aside, lacklustre in attack. The form is alarming, considering their usual high standards, which saw them win the FA Cup and Carabao Cup, reach the Champions League final and finish as domestic runners-up last season.
Souness won five league titles in six years as a midfielder for Liverpool before managing the side for three more years later in his career. He has outlined four reasons why the club are currently struggling for form in his column for the Daily Mail.
The first, and most simple, point is about desire and application. “The one non-negotiable part of winning football matches is being first to the ball. At the moment, Liverpool are not doing that. And that’s why they are a mile off the team we have known them to be in Jurgen Klopp’s time at the club,” he writes before going into more detail.
Liverpool’s success under Klopp has been built on a high-intensity pressing game, but that factor has been sorely lacking recently. Souness rejects theories based on statistics in favour of a more simplistic conclusion: “Liverpool just don’t seem to have the same energy.”
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Mohamed Salah is one of many players currently underperforming, having only chipped in with two goals and two assists in seven games so far – two months after penning a blockbuster contract worth in excess of £350,000 per week.
“I’ve certainly not been seeing the same Salah,” Souness writes. “He has signed the big contract he wanted and I really hope we are not seeing him getting semi into his armchair because of that.”
The final point Souness makes comes in his area of expertise of midfield. Liverpool are currently without a whole host of injured players in the middle of the park and, despite the addition of Arthur Melo on a season-long loan from Juventus, Souness thinks they need reinforcements.
“I do think there is room in that midfield for another high-intensity workaholic who can also deliver a cute pass,” he adds. “Go back to Liverpool’s best midfield of three or four years ago. You had Gini Wijnaldum. Workaholic. James Milner. Workaholic. Jordan Henderson. Workaholic... It’s certainly my view Liverpool need another battle-hardened, experienced midfielder at the core of their team, to pick the pass and capitalise on the movement of the strikers.”
