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Former Manchester United defender Phil Jones has claimed that Liverpool is "clutching at straws" and still has several issues to resolve after a tricky run of results.
Speaking before the Reds beat Aston Villa in the Premier League on Saturday to earn just a second win in eight games, the ex-England international outlined his thoughts on what Arne Slot has to fix.
Goals from Mohamed Salah and Ryan Gravenberch then secured a dominant victory for Liverpool against Unai Emery's men. Aston Villa did, though, play into the Reds' hands, and didn't play direct soccer or make much use of long throws.
"I'm all for managers defending themselves, absolutely. You’ve got to come out fighting and you’ve got to stick up for the lads in the dressing room," Jones said on BBC Radio 5Live.
"But when you’re talking about teams playing direct, for me, he’s clutching at straws a little bit.
"Teams do it. Teams don’t go to Anfield and open up because they know what they’re up against, so they’d be foolish to do that.
"But I see a vulnerability defensively with Liverpool at the minute. Every time the ball goes in the box, it looks like a panic."
Slot was pleased with how his side performed. Salah and Alexis Mac Allister were both much improved, while Dominik Szoboszlai impressed again and put in a strong showing.
"I think you always feel pressure if you are at Liverpool," Slot said in his post-match press conference. "If you are leading the table with 15 games to go, you feel pressure.
"And if you are in a run of form that we were in, you feel the pressure. I've always felt the support of the fans as long as I'm here. Also in the recent results I have never felt that there was never anything less than it was before.
"I think they were there for me but they were not only there for me, they were there for the team tonight as well. I think they were so supportive and that can have a big impact.
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"Because we've played many away games, so we had poor results — I'm completely aware of that — but we had to play a lot of aways where the fans still help us.
"You cannot compare that to a home game under the lights at Anfield. It's something what I would take 10 out of 10 times if I have to play a game of football."
Liverpool.com says: It will be fascinating to see how the Reds cope when more set-pieces and long balls are thrown at them, because it will happen at some point.
The good news for this week is that Real Madrid and Manchester City won't play that way. In a weird way, those fixtures could suit how Liverpool likes to play more than some of the lesser games.
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