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Gary Neville has accused Milos Kerkez of ‘looking like a baby’ during Liverpool’s defeat to Chelsea in a scathing critique of his time with the Reds so far.
The left-back, like many of his teammates, struggled yet again as Liverpool fell to a 2-1 defeat at Stamford Bridge on Saturday - the club’s third consecutive defeat over the last week.
For the second week running, it was a stoppage-time winner that saw the Reds leave London empty-handed, with Arsenal now holding a one-point lead in the early stages of the Premier League title race, having sat five points behind Arne Slot’s side only seven days ago.
It has been a tricky introduction to life on Merseyside for a lot of Liverpool’s summer signings. Florian Wirtz was dropped from the team before being called upon for the second half on Saturday, but he would once again go without a goal or assist.
Kerkez has also struggled since joining the Reds from Bournemouth. The left-back was substituted just 10 minutes into the second half at Stamford Bridge with his side trailing to Moises Caicedo’s opener, and Neville was far from impressed with his performance.
“The boy Kerkez, to be honest with you, at this point in time, he looks like a youth-team player,” he said on The Gary Neville Podcast.
“I know he’s a good player, but he looks like he’s playing for the youth team, or the Under-21s. He looks so naive, he looks like a baby out there. He’s losing 50-50s with Neto!
“He’s had Premier League experience, it’s not like he’s come in from another country. He’s got a lot of games under his belt, he’s played at these grounds before, so I expected him to slot in.
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“One, he’s playing alongside Virgil van Dijk, the best center-half in the world, so if you want to play in a back four, you want to play with great defenders and he is doing.
“And he’s got players who work hard on that side, it’s not like he’s playing on the right with [Mohamed] Salah in front of him, which is always a bit more difficult because you always get a little bit more exposed.
“But I have to say from the first 10 minutes of that game against Bournemouth on the first game of the season, he’s struggled.”
Liverpool’s players will now head out on international duty before reporting back for domestic duties when the Reds host Manchester United on October 19.
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