Former Newcastle United striker Alan Shearer claimed Virgil van Dijk and Ibrahima Konate were “in top form” during Liverpool’s defeat to Brentford on Saturday.
In the past month, Liverpool have gone from five points adrift at the top of the Premier League to seven points behind leaders Arsenal.
The Reds are currently seventh in the table after losing four games to Crystal Palace, Chelsea, Manchester United and Brentford.
Arne Slott’s midfield looks disjointed, while the defense is a shadow of last season, when they conceded just 41 goals on their way to winning the Premier League.
While he places much of the blame for the poor form of Milos Kerkes, Jeremy Frimpong and other new signings, Shearer believes Konate and Van Dijk were “terrible” in Saturday’s 3-2 defeat to Brentford.
Shearer said on The Rest Is Football podcast:
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“The two full-backs have suffered quite a bit and a lot of criticism and I understand that, but the two centre-halves (Konate and Van Dijk) have been in poor form.
Former Liverpool defender Steve Nicholl has accused Van Dijk of “terrible defending” for conceding a penalty against Brentford amid an “illness” outbreak in camp.
Nicol told ESPN:
“We have a so-called leader, the so-called best defender in the world, and he was too late to the ball and gave away a penalty on the edge of the box. He tried to clear it!”
“It’s really bad defense from players who we know are very good. It’s like a disease and it’s spreading throughout the team.”
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Mohamed Salah has come under a lot of criticism in recent weeks and was benched by manager Slott in midweek’s Champions League game against Eintracht Frankfurt, but Nicol believes the Liverpool forward should start in the next game.
Nicol added about the Egyptian player: “The reason I said he should start next game is because goals change players.
“They change their mindset and the fact that he scored a goal will change his mindset from doom and gloom to ‘Yeah, we’ve broken the ice, now we can move forward and keep scoring goals.’
“Are we really going to turn around and not play him? Again, the other reason he should play is because there’s really no one knocking on the door saying, ‘You can’t take me out.’ So I think the goal means he has to play.”
“If he had finished the game like he has done all season, we would have had the right to leave him out, but I think that goal means we have to play him.”
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