Jamie Carragher believes Liverpool have far too many “weak” players in their team after they were “taken to the cleaners” by Aston Villa in their 4-2 loss on Friday Night Football.
The Reds succumbed to a 12th league defeat of the season, meaning Arne Slot’s side have not won a Premier League away game against a team in the top nine all term.
Their defensive frailties continued against Unai Emery’s side – and Liverpool have now conceded 52 goals in the league this season – the most they have ever managed in a 38-game season.
Liverpool are at an all-time low defensively
“This has been happening for the first day of the season on a Friday night against Bournemouth,” said Carragher on Sky Sports co-commentary duty.
“Liverpool have far too many weak – physically and mentally – and it has to be fixed. It looks like Arne Slot is going to be the man who has to fix it next season.
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FREE TO WATCH: Highlights from Aston Villa’s match against Liverpool in the Premier League.
“But this result does nothing in terms of the feelings of the supporters around his position right now.
“Liverpool don’t excel at anything. They look like a really, really average team. They have been taken to the cleaners.”
‘I can’t actually believe Liverpool are fifth’
Carragher took issue with Liverpool failing to get a big result away from home against a team currently sitting in the top nine positions all season – adding it is more about character than quality.
The only time Liverpool have not lost against those teams was a goalless draw against Arsenal in January.
Liverpool have struggled against the best teams away from home
“When you look at those results away from home, I always think it tells you about your personality and character,” said Carragher.
“I can’t actually believe that Liverpool are fifth in the league. You think about the numbers of the goals they’ve conceded, they never look threatening going forward, and that away record – and Liverpool are fifth in the Premier League? Wow.
“It’s the first season where I’ve seen Virgil van Dijk look human – and it’s had an affect on others. When you look at his partners, people tell me how good they are.
“But when Van Dijk is not at his best, sometimes you need them to step up and help him a little bit. It doesn’t happen.”
Should Liverpool stick with Slot or go for Alonso?
Meanwhile, fellow Sky Sports pundit and former Liverpool midfielder Jamie Redknapp believes Slot deserves another year in charge – despite Liverpool’s poor season.
However, he also understands there is an “elephant in the room” regarding Xabi Alonso – who is wanted by Chelsea and has been called for by Liverpool fans to take over from Slot in the summer.
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Jamie Redknapp believes Arne Slot will be under immense pressure if Liverpool fail to secure Champions League football next season, especially with Xabi Alonso available to replace him.
“What I’m seeing this year is what I expected to happen last year,” said Redknapp. “I thought Liverpool would have a difficult time after losing Jurgen Klopp, because he was such a talismanic manager and influential on anything.
“But it didn’t happen. They won the league. This year there has been such a drop-off. There are so many reasons behind it, so many mitigating circumstances at the start of the season, and I don’t want to make excuses for the players.
“Because that isn’t good enough, what we’ve seen this year and what they’ve served up, the energy.
“But Alexander Isak was signed for big money, got injured, starts getting fit, gets injured again, Hugo Ekitike has had an up and down start. You can’t address problems when you haven’t had the best players fit. It’s hard to address a problem when you haven’t got Isak and Wirtz.
“A lot of this is on Arne Slot. And if they don’t get Champions League football that they crave, deserve and they want, he will be under certain pressure. There will be question marks. The fans will decide to a certain extent – they’re an educated fanbase, they won’t turn on their managers.
“But you see it, hear it – a lot of people are moving away from him being their manager next year. I really struggle with that. Because when you’ve won the league the year before and you get rid of the manager the year after, that doesn’t sit too well with me.
“Obviously the massive elephant in the room is Xabi Alonso. A lot of fans in the room are seduced by that idea, he did a great job at Leverkusenad n he’s an elite manager, I can see the attraction.
“But there’s a part of me that thinks Slot deserves another year because of winning the Premier League title. I expect better next year. I expect a better version of Wirtz, I see a better eversion of Liverpool once Isak is fit, Ekitike is a while off, they need a new right-back and they need more energy in the team.
“But I feel uncomfortable getting rid of a manager after getting Champions League.”
Slot asked: Is this is a mentality issue?
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Arne Slot admitted that Liverpool struggled to cope with Aston Villa’s quality and intensity after the heavy 4-2 defeat at Villa Park.
Liverpool head coach Arne Slot to Sky Sports:
“Now you are referring to the period where we struggled after the 2-1, but overall I don’t think the players deserve what you are saying.
“They did cope with this difficult away game and were fully in the game and able to maybe get a result. But I agree with you, after the 2-1 we crumbled, and we struggled.
“In the end we came back to 4-2, so they did not give up, but we struggled to control their pace, intensity and quality.
“We’ve definitely conceded far too many goals. We also haven’t scored enough goals, although two at Villa Park is not bad. If you told me we did that before the game, I would think we are not far from a good result.
“When we are the better team, we struggle to find that goal, mainly because we are not able to create big enough chances when we are the better team.
“When we have a period of time when we are struggling or the other team are better than us, we tend to concede too easy.
“Before this game there was only Bournemouth that has conceded more set piece goals than us. After this I would not be surprised if we are number one. That is never a good thing.”
Arne’s right! The stats that damn Liverpool…
- Excluding penalties, Liverpool have conceded the most goals from set-pieces in the Premier League this season (20) – the Reds have conceded 11 goals via corners for the first time in a Premier League campaign.
- Liverpool have conceded four goals in a Premier League game for the first time since a 4-4 draw with Southampton in their final match of the 2022-23 season.
- The Reds have also leaked more than 50 goals in a 38-game Premier League campaign for the first time (52).
- Liverpool lost their 19th game of the season across all competitions. Since they were last promoted to the top-flight in 1962 only in 1992-93 (20) have the Reds suffered more defeats in a campaign (also 19 in 2004-05 and 2009-10).
- Liverpool have conceded 77 goals this season in all competitions. It’s the second-most Liverpool have managed since the start of the Premier League.
