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Liverpool legend John Aldridge has branded the Reds' defensive record "absolutely minging" following Saturday's shocking 3-0 home defeat to Nottingham Forest.
The reigning Premier League champions have now suffered defeat in six of their last seven outings across all competitions. Arne Slot's squad endured a humbling 3-0 reverse at Manchester City prior to the November international break.
Slot's troops have now succumbed by an identical margin this weekend, leaving them languishing in the bottom half of the standings. The Reds presently occupy 11th position in the top-flight table and risk falling 11 points adrift of pacesetters Arsenal should the Gunners overcome Tottenham Hotspur on Sunday afternoon, reports the Liverpool Echo.
Regular Echo columnist Aldridge has now delivered his assessment of Liverpool's turmoil through a sequence of messages on social media platform X (Twitter). The former Reds forward highlighted the quantity of goals shipped (20 in the league now) as representing their most significant concern.
He remarked, "It's become serious folks! Defensively, since we won the league last season, our goals against record is absolutely minging!!
"I've said in my columns from early September we need 3 goals to win a game, and it's nearly December and it's still the same? We will always stay behind the team 100% but..." followed by several exasperated emoji faces.
Aldridge subsequently referred to encouraging victories over Aston Villa and Real Madrid several weeks ago, which now seem to have represented a false dawn for Slot's squad.
He further commented, "It's looking like the Villa and Real Madrid games were a false dawn, I'm lower than a pig's belly folks!!
"The last time I saw so many people leaving early at Anfield was when we beat Man U 7-0! ! That's how bad it was."
Liverpool's captain, Virgil van Dijk, admitted after the match that the team's performance on the pitch had not been up to par, acknowledging that the issues in defence are serious.
He stated, "We concede too many easy goals. They scored obviously from a set piece again. You can ask if he was in front of Alisson, but it counted, so we're 1-0 down. We were not good in terms of battles, challenges, the fight, too rushed. It's a very difficult situation at the moment.
"There was nervousness after we conceded, but not before. We tried to rush things and that's human when you're in a difficult moment. We cleared the ones before and in the end, we're in a very difficult moment. We don't get out of it by just speaking about it. It will take a lot of hard work.
"It's a problem. Everyone in the team has to take responsibility as well. Football is a team and everyone has to take responsibility. We have to digest this and take it on the chin. We need to work harder. We have to keep going."
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