Danny Murphy has picked out three Liverpool stars who are suffering with ‘an air of complacency’ amid a worrying drop in form at the club.
The Reds have endured a slow start to the new season, winning two of their opening six Premier League games and reaching a nadir in last week’s 4-1 defeat at Napoli - a performance Jurgen Klopp described as ‘the worst game since I've been here.’ Such a poor start to the new campaign has led to questions over all aspects of the team, from summer business - or lack of - to tactics and player commitment.
Murphy believes the latter to at least be a contributing factor, with the former Reds midfielder labelling some of the squad’s key players as complacent - he also name-checked three of the club’s most influential stars over the last few seasons as the main offenders.
READ MORE: Full Liverpool squad available to face Ajax as Fabio Carvalho returns but eight players sidelined
“We’ve got to be careful to not go too overboard on this but my feeling is there’s an air of complacency among some of the players,” Murphy told talkSPORT. “They’ve fallen into what some managers call a ‘comfort zone’. Of course they go out with good intentions but when you know you’re going to play nearly every game. I think that can cause complacency at times.
“When I talk about complacency I aim it at (Virgil) van Dijk a lot, as well as Trent Alexander-Arnold - and some of the other lads are but I think he’s guilty of it. There’s a little bit of lethargy about his play, like he’s playing in third gear.
"I think it’s a mixture of a little bit of complacency, a couple of problems in midfield and not having your best three fit and Fabinho not being at his best and putting Henderson in there means Trent becomes isolated. Van Dijk looks like he’s playing protecting an injury. I don’t think he is but that’s the way it looks.
" (Mohamed) Salah’s another one, Salah needs a kick. It’s nothing to do with the contract he signed but sometimes you need it. When you’ve scored that many goals and done what he’s done sometimes you just need upstairs to say ‘come on.’
"If it means digging someone out in front of the rest of the lads, I’ve seen it before, the best midfielder Liverpool has ever had in history (Steven Gerrard) I remember seeing at half time in a Champions League game being told to get a shower. Nobody saw that coming!"
Liverpool have one final chance to go into the international break in good spirits when they host Ajax in the Champions League tonight, following the postponement of Sunday’s planned trip to Chelsea due to policing concerns around the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II.
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