2 hours ago
24
Gary Neville laid into Mohamed Salah and his fellow Liverpool forwards for what he described as an “absolutely useless” performance against Chelsea.
The Reds suffered their third consecutive defeat in all competitions as Estevao struck in stoppage time to secure a 2-1 win for the hosts at Stamford Bridge. Yet again, Arne Slot’s side left a lot to be desired, continuing what has been a poor run.
Neville pulled no punches in his assessment straight after the game as he heavily criticized Milos Kerkez, while also voicing his disappointment in Ibrahima Konate and Conor Bradley - but he wasn’t done there.
The former Manchester United captain also turned his ire towards Liverpool’s forwards, with Salah, Cody Gakpo, Florian Wirtz and Alexander Isak all slammed for failing to get Liverpool in front after Chelsea picked up more injuries to its back line.
"A lot has been made of Liverpool's defensive work and rightly so, but that's not why they've lost this game,” he said on The Gary Neville Podcast.
“They've lost this game because in the last 15-20 minutes, their creative players, their players in the final half of the pitch, the midfield players and the forwards, were absolutely useless.
"They were giving the ball away like you wouldn't believe. Gakpo, Salah, the wastage. Wirtz, not knowing how to get into a game in the last 15 minutes when it was there for the taking and just sort of ended up almost marking Caicedo.
"I thought their front players were terrible. Salah is sublime. How can you criticise the consistency and reliability and brilliance of him, but some of the decisions of him today, when he comes inside and you think he should pass it or you think he should do something better with it, and his finishing was poor.
"Isak, I thought he'd started the game sharp but didn't quite get into it.
"Wirtz, when he came on, I was disappointed with him. He looks very immature in his knowledge of how to play the game.
"I just see him sort of jogging around, and I see him going too deep when he shouldn't go too deep, and I see him standing next to players when he shouldn't be standing next to players. Sometimes I see him being too honest - it sounds crazy going back and defending.
This article contains affiliate links, we will receive a commission on any sales we generate from it. Learn more
"He should be almost half cheating, almost like keeping an eye on that deep line midfield player just in case he can spring off him and go the other way on the counter attack. He's quite predictable at this moment in time in terms of picking up his position and he was disappointing.”
Neville added: "Liverpool were poor today. That's the most disappointing last 15 minutes I've seen from Liverpool in a long time because I think when Chelsea have that back four in play, you've scored a goal so you've got to go on and win that game.”
Liverpool.com says: It was really frustrating watching Liverpool equalize through Gakpo, and then surrender the momentum for the final 15 or so minutes. It felt like every time the Reds had the chance to counter, the forwards would always pick the wrong option.
There is a lot of attention on the defense, but Liverpool simply has to improve in every facet of its game at the moment.
English (US) ·