Manchester United legend Gary Neville believes Milos Kerkez “looks like a youth team player” after Liverpool lost 2-1 to Chelsea on Saturday.
The Reds went back early at Stamford Bridge to the Moise Sky Seko Thunderbolt, then Cody Gapppo was equal in the 63rd minute, giving Arneslot hopes that they could grab the victory.
However, it was Chelsea who took all three points at the moment of his death in the second half.
Liverpool is struggling to reach the same level of performance they experienced last season as Slot won the Premier League title in their first campaign as head coach.
The Reds, five points ahead of Arsenal two games before, fell to second in the Premier League table behind the Gunners, who defeated West Ham 2-0 on Saturday.
The massive summer signatures of Alexander Isaac and Florian Wiltz have struggled to make a big impact on the club’s summer recruitment to be in the spotlight.
Read: 16 Conclusions on Chelsea 2-1 Liverpool: “Mini Crisis”, Slot, Maresca, McAlista, Estebao, Jota
Neville chose the new left-back Kerquez, who signed from Bournemouth for £40 million.
Neville said on his Sky Sports podcast:
“I know he’s a good player, but he looks like he’s playing on a youth team or under the age of 21. He looks very naive, he looks like a baby out there.
“He’s had Premier League experience. He’s not coming from any other country. He has a lot of games under his belt.
“One thing is, he plays with Virgil van Dik, the best center half in the world, so if you want to play in the back four, you want to play with a great defender.
“And he has a hard-working player on that side, and he’s not playing right with Sarah in front of him.
“But I have to say he’s been struggling since the first 10 minutes of his match against Bournemouth in the first game of the season.”
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But Neville stressed that Liverpool’s fullback issues should not be summarised by Kerkez along with Connor Bradley and Jeremy Fripon struggling on the right.
Neville continued: “Flimon, it seems he should play as the right winger. He doesn’t play like right back.
“Connor Bradley doesn’t do that. Andy Robertson is fighting, but he’s not where he was a few years ago.
“The Liverpool issue has something to do with fullbacks everywhere. You need to lower the button.”
When asked about turning off Kerkez late on, Slot replied. “Milos was getting more and more tired. He played 90 minutes in two games and is no longer used to playing for Bournemouth.
“You can feel it’s getting more and more difficult for it to continue to grow and their wingers are a threat, so we decided to make a change over there.”
Regarding Bradley’s withdrawal at halftime, Slot added:
“He made his second foul and the players were looking for yellow again, so I wonder if it would be clever to keep him on the pitch.
