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Former Liverpool striker John Aldridge has called for Milos Kerkez to be taken “out the firing line” as the Reds’ slump continues.
Saturday saw yet another defeat for Arne Slot’s side as they fell to a 3-2 reverse at Brentford - Liverpool’s fourth straight Premier League defeat, and the fifth in the last six games across all competitions.
The Reds have lost yet more ground on Arsenal in the title race now, having fallen seven points behind Mikel Arteta’s side after holding a five-point advantage over them just a matter of weeks ago, and concerns continue to grow over some of the club’s summer signings.
Kerkez in particular has come in for a lot of criticism, with Gary Neville particularly scathing after describing him as a “baby” and saying he “plays like a 10-year-old”.
Writing in his column for the Liverpool Echo, Aldridge didn’t venture that far in his assessment of the Hungarian international, although the Anfield hero insisted that Slot needs to take him out of the side now.
“It was another difficult outing for Milos Kerkez as Liverpool slipped to their fourth successive Premier League defeat on Saturday at Brentford,” Aldridge said. “You can just tell the confidence levels at the moment are so low for him.
“Teams are pinpointing Liverpool's full-backs at the moment and it feels like the move to Anfield has been an eye-opener for him. He scored the goal to make it 2-1 on the stroke of half time, of course, but the hope that it might give him some belief for the second period didn't really pan out.
“He was eventually replaced for Andy Robertson and I think that might be the way to go for Arne Slot now for the next few weeks. It looks like Kerkez could do with coming out the firing line and with the experienced Robertson a ready-made replacement, that doesn't seem like a strange thing to do given the need for results to quickly change.
“Look, I'm not saying Kerkez is a poor player by any stretch. The young left-back has bags of potential and when he joined in the summer from Bournemouth in a £40M deal, everyone was happy with that deal. It looked like Liverpool were getting their ducks in a row for the long term at left-back.
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“It hasn't quite panned out yet but he has not become a bad player overnight, it's just more that the confidence levels are low and as a young player who hasn't played at first-team level at a club the size of Liverpool, it's easy to see how things might be getting on top of him a bit.”
Liverpool.com says: It was a really strange decision from Slot to bring Kerkez back into the side on Saturday. With the Hungarian struggling and Robertson performing well against Eintracht Frankfurt just a few days earlier, it made perfect sense to leave the Scot in the team.
Obviously, Kerkez needs game time if he is to find his feet with the Reds, but given the way things are going right now, having him in the side isn't really helping anyone - himself included.
Signing a potential long-term replacement for Robertson in the summer was absolutely the right decision, but that doesn't mean his race is run already. Slot needs to bring him back into the fold now, and take some of the pressure off Kerkez.
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