Liverpool have lost sight of what made them so successful under Jurgen Klopp, according to Jamie Carragher, who is concerned by the team’s recent performances.
The Reds have endured a poor start to the season, having won just two of their six Premier League matches so far. Klopp's side also suffered a chastening 4-1 defeat by Napoli on the opening night of their Champions League campaign to underline their current struggles.
Klopp said Liverpool may have to “reinvent” themselves in the aftermath of their worrying defeat in Italy last week. And ahead of another tough Champions League assignment against Ajax at Anfield on Tuesday night, former Liverpool defender Carragher has reflected upon what made the team successful previously.
In his column for The Telegraph, Carragher outlines his belief that the root of their current problems is that they have strayed from Klopp’s trademark gegenpressing style and are no longer out-running their opponents. “That energy has been sorely missing as Liverpool have become easy to play this season. Every Liverpool opponent has outrun them in their seven games so far. That is more worrying than the results,” he wrote.
“When Klopp and his think tank convene at the AXA training centre, the injection of energy must be top of the agenda. That will prompt difficult decisions, analysing the performances of players who have given Klopp sterling service but are no longer capable of consistently executing his vision.”
Carragher singled out two long-serving Liverpool players as being emblematic of the current malaise. He wrote: “When I see James Milner and Roberto Firmino starting big games for Liverpool in the Premier League or Europe, it is symptomatic of the problem.”
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The ex-Liverpool defender believes that 36-year-old Milner and Firmino, who is in the final year of his current contract, are not good enough to be starting every game for the team. And while he trusts the club hierarchy to get their recruitment right in the upcoming windows, he thinks it will prove to be a mistake not to sign a top-quality midfielder like Aurelien Tchouameni or Jude Bellingham in the summer.
Klopp cannot dwell on such issues now and will have to try and inspire a reaction against an Ajax side who have won all seven of their matches this season by an aggregate scoreline of 25-3. "It looks like we have to reinvent ourselves,” he told BT Sport after the Napoli game.
"Lots of soul searching, you could see that on the pitch. We are not working as a team, it is not personal stuff or pointing [at each other]. In football there are always solutions. We don't play good enough, that is obvious and that is why we lose games. We play in the strongest league in the world and have a pretty good Champions League group. There is a job to do, my responsibility and I need time to think about it. There are a few obvious things and we have to reset and go."
