Gary Neville believes “everything” that made Liverpool great under Jurgen Klopp has “gone”.
Despite a stunning 7-1 win over Rangers, the Reds have endured their worst start to a Premier League season for a decade, winning just two of their eight games.
All areas of the team have been criticised, with the lack of pressing from the forwards and midfield putting pressure on a fallible defence.
Neville reckons they are “physically depressed” and that’s the most “alarming” thing for Klopp.
“I’ve praised Liverpool and Klopp for the last five, six years for the levels they’ve reached – it’s been off the scale – but I felt before the game Arsenal fans were expecting to win,” Neville told The Overlap.
“I felt Liverpool were just flexing their muscles a little bit in the first half, but that second half alarmed me.
“I’m not talking about playing badly, I’m talking about the physical depression in their performance seemed alarming to me.”
“When he [Klopp] first came in, the first two years was frantic. It wasn’t really a polished team; it was just brilliant to watch and exciting. Then they became good at possession – and you had the pressing, the counter-attack.
“They like the slow game now, but the frantic bit, the pressing has gone, and that was everything to me about a Klopp team. The emotion of last season is just catching up with them and not having anything in the tank this season. I can look back on moments where that’s happened.
“Jürgen Klopp has just been punching above his weight for so long when you look at the net spend of all the other teams, and what he’s achieved has just been off the scale to be competing with that [Manchester] City team.”
Liverpool are now under pressure to make the top four but while Neville believes they will miss out, he admits “everything could be completely different” after the World Cup.
He added: “I don’t think Liverpool will finish in the top four… but this season is a marathon more than most, and the momentum will keep swinging back and forward – the Queen’s passing, the World Cup – it’s a disrupted season. Nothing has really got started yet, and coming back from the World Cup everything could be completely different.”
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