Danny Murphy has claimed that “complacency” has set in among some Liverpool players after the Reds suffered an embarrassing 4-1 defeat at Naples last night.
Jurgen Klopp’s side were beaten on all counts by the Serie A side and must now bounce back ahead of Wolves’ visit to Anfield on Saturday.
However, former Liverpool midfielder Murphy warned that things “are not going to change overnight”.
“I feel like there has been some complacency from some of the players,” Murphy told talkSPORT.
“Houllier used to call it ‘the comfort zone,’ where players feel comfortable knowing they’re going to play. Three of those back four have been picking themselves for years, and Trent Alexander-Arnold and Virgil van Dijk are struggling.
“It seems that Virgil is playing with something or protecting himself a little because he is not what he was. He is still a great player, but he is not at the level we were talking about two seasons ago.
“So how do you elicit a reaction? How do you get players back to their level? Normally kicking your butt and cutting you off the team can work, but I think it’s going to be a tough few weeks for them, it’s not going to change overnight.”
The 45-year-old also dismissed claims that the Reds are missing Sadio Mane, who left for Bayern Munich earlier this summer.
Luis Diaz, who arrived from Porto in January, has been one of the few positives so far this season and found the back of the net against Napoli with a neat frizzy finish.
Mane enjoys life in the Bundesliga and Murphy believes that any mention of the Anfield side missing the Senegal star is purely an “excuse”.
“This narrative about Mane being a great lady, I think it’s an easy thing to say.
“Of course he misses because he is a super player, but Diaz has been Liverpool’s best player: he has already scored four goals and hit the woodwork four times, he has not been poor.
“I think the Mane thing is just an excuse, and maybe the players can hide behind it. I disagree with Mane’s point. You miss the quality, but his departure is not the reason why the back players don’t follow the runners or get disconnected, that’s complacency and lack of concentration.
“If you have players leaving, it’s not because they’re not physically capable.”
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Trent Alexander-Arnold is one of the many Liverpool players who has drawn criticism for his performance against Luciano Spalletti’s side.
His work rate and willingness to run towards his own goal was missing and it looks like he could benefit from a little rest.
The problem is, however, that Klopp has no other specialist right back to turn to at the moment.
Joe Gomez and James Milner can play that position, but that would be far from ideal.
Murphy has questioned whether the advice the German coach is giving to some members of the Reds squad is starting to ‘become noise’ or ‘fall silent’.
“You could argue that with a 21-year-old who has played every game for three seasons and needs to rest, it’s fair. Trent has played a lot of football and it could be argued that he is physically a bit out of it.
“But veteran players, there is no reason for Salah to decline physically, that is a question of attitude and then it depends on the coach.
“Does a manager’s message, no matter how successful and no matter how good it has been, eventually become noise over time? Is it silent for a period of time?
“I’m not thinking about that, I think the players have to take some responsibility.”
We certainly think this is just a problem at the moment.
It is a problem that lasts longer than we expected and certainly longer than we expected, but we have faith that Klopp will get things back on track.
There is an unrealistic quality in the team and some confidence needs to be restored to the players to ensure that we start winning football matches regularly again.
#Ep58 of The Empire of the Kop Podcast: Qualifying Liverpool’s UCL group, making a new signing… and more!
