Jamie Carragher believes Liverpool have too many “weak” players in their squad after losing 4-2 to Aston Villa on Friday Night Football.
It was the Reds’ 12th league defeat of the season, meaning Arne Slott’s side have not won an away game against a top nine side in the Premier League this term.
The defensive fragility continued against Unai Emery’s side, with Liverpool conceding 52 goals in the league this season, the most ever in a 38-game season.
Liverpool’s defense is at an all-time low.
“This is what’s happening on Friday night against Bournemouth on the first day of the season,” Carragher said in co-commentary on Sky Sports.
“Liverpool have too many weaknesses, both physically and mentally, so we have to fix them. Next season, it looks like Arne Slott will have to fix that.”
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Watch for free: Premier League highlights of Aston Villa vs. Liverpool.
“However, this result does nothing to support the sentiment surrounding his current position.
“Liverpool aren’t great at anything. They look like a really, really average team. They’ve been taken to the clean room.”
“I can’t believe Liverpool are fifth.”
Carragher took issue with Liverpool’s failure to produce big results away from teams who currently sit in the top nine all season, adding that it was more a matter of character than quality.
Liverpool’s only unbeaten loss against these teams was a goalless draw with Arsenal in January.
Liverpool are struggling away against the best team
“I always think when you’re away from home and you see these results, it says a lot about your character and character,” Carragher said.
“It’s actually unbelievable that Liverpool are fifth in the league. If you look at the number of goals they concede, they never look like a threat going forward, and that away record and Liverpool are fifth in the Premier League? That’s amazing.
“This is the first season that I saw Virgil van Dijk look like a human being. And that affected other people too. When you look at his partners, people tell you how good they are.
“But sometimes when Van Dijk is not at his best, they need to step up and help him a little bit. That doesn’t happen.”
Should Liverpool stick with the slot or sign Alonso?
Meanwhile, Sky Sports pundit and former Liverpool midfielder Jamie Redknapp believes Slott deserves another year in charge despite Liverpool’s poor season.
But he also understands that there are “issues going on” with Xabi Alonso. Xabi Alonso is wanted by Chelsea and Liverpool fans are calling for a replacement for Slott in the summer.
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Jamie Redknapp believes Arne Slott will be under immense pressure if Liverpool fail to qualify for next season’s Champions League, especially if Xabi Alonso is available as his replacement.
“What I’m seeing this year is what I expected to happen last year,” Redknapp said. “I thought Liverpool were going to have a difficult time after losing Jurgen Klopp, because he was such a talismanic manager and had such an influence on everything.
“But that didn’t happen. They won the league. There was such a downturn this year. There were so many reasons behind it, so many mitigating circumstances at the beginning of the season. And I don’t want to make excuses for the players.”
“Because what we’ve seen this year and what they’ve provided, the energy alone is not enough.
“But Alexander Isak signs for a lot of money, gets injured, starts to get fit and then gets injured again. Hugo Ekitike has had an up-and-down start. You can’t deal with problems if your best players aren’t fit. It’s difficult to deal with problems if you can’t get Isak and Wirtz.”
“A lot of that is on Arne Slott. And if they don’t get the Champions League football that they crave and deserve and they want, he’s going to be under a certain amount of pressure. There’s going to be question marks. The fans will make some judgments. They’re an educated fan base and they’re not going to turn against the manager.”
“But as you can see, a lot of people are trying to distance him from being manager next year and that really bothers me because winning the league the year before and then sacking him the year after that doesn’t really sit well with me.
“Obviously, the huge elephant in the room is Xabi Alonso. A lot of fans in the room are fascinated by that idea. He did a great job at Leverkusenado and is an elite manager. I understand the appeal.”
“But there’s a part of me that thinks Slott, who won the Premier League title, deserves another year. I expect it to be better next year. I expect a better version of Wirtz, and once Isak is fit, Liverpool will be a better version, Ekitike will be rested for a while, they need a new right-back, the team needs more energy.”
“But I would be reluctant to sack a manager after winning the Champions League.”
Slott asked: Is this a mental issue?
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Arne Slott admitted Liverpool struggled to cope with Aston Villa’s quality and intensity after their 4-2 defeat at Villa Park.
Liverpool head coach Arne Slott told Sky Sports:
“Now you’re referring to the period when we were struggling after the 2-1 win, but overall I don’t think the players deserve what you’re saying.
“They could have coped with this difficult away game and given it their all and got the result. But I agree with you, we struggled after going down 2-1.
“They didn’t give up as we got back to 4-2 in the end, but we struggled to control their pace, intensity and quality.
“We have definitely conceded too many goals. Two goals at Villa Park is not bad, but we haven’t scored enough goals either. If you had told me before the game that we had done that, you would have thought we were not far from a good result.”
“When we are the better team, we struggle to find that goal. The main reason is that we don’t create enough big chances when we are the better team.
“When we have periods where we are struggling or when the other team is better, we tend to concede goals easily.
“Before this game, only Bournemouth had conceded more goals from set pieces than us. I wouldn’t be surprised if we were number one after this. That’s never a good thing.”
Arne is right! Statistics that ruin Liverpool…
Excluding penalties, Liverpool have conceded the most goals from set pieces in the Premier League this season (20). The Reds conceded 11 goals from corners for the first time in a Premier League campaign. This is the first time Liverpool have conceded four goals in a Premier League game since a 4-4 draw with Southampton in the final game of the 2022-23 season. The Reds are also giving up more than 50 points per game. First 38 games (52 games) in the Premier League. Liverpool lost their 19th game of the season in all competitions. Since their last promotion to the top flight in 1962, the only time the Reds suffered more defeats in a season was in 1992/93 (20 goals conceded) (they also conceded 19 goals in 2004/05 and 2009/10), and this season Liverpool have conceded 77 goals in all competitions. This is Liverpool’s second highest result since the start of the Premier League.
