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Milos Kerkez is the only Liverpool player to feature in all 11 games this season. But while Arne Slot has shown major faith in his new signing, the left-back has come in for some scathing criticism.
Tasked with being the long-term successor to Andy Robertson, the former Bournemouth star has struggled to show his best qualities. On the rare occasions when he has unleashed his trademark bombing runs forward, his final delivery and decision-making has left much to be desired.
Until recently, the positive results and the big-money arrivals of Florian Wirtz and Alexander Isak have served to keep some of the spotlight off Kerkez. But with Robertson tipped by Ally McCoist to fight for his place, Scholes is the latest to turn the focus onto the Hungarian.
While Kerkez does not have the same match-fitness defense as Isak, he still deserves the grace that should be being afforded to all of the new signings. They are adapting to Liverpool and Liverpool is adapting to them, a process which takes a while at the best of times.
In a summer where Liverpool has changed so many starting personnel, the disruption is bound to be bigger. And with the team in a wobble in terms of form, the ideal circumstances for a new signing to truly thrive are not present, with Hugo Ekitike the only one to really leave a mark.
But Scholes has rushed to hasty conclusions. Speaking on The Overlap Fan Debate, brought to you by Sky Bet, he questioned the Kerkez signing, and became the latest to suggest Robertson will be restored soon.
"[Milos Kerkez] hasn’t quite got going yet. He doesn’t look up to the standard of a championship-winning team," Scholes claimed.
"Andy Robertson, everyone thought he needed replacing, but looking at it, did he really? I think he’ll play a lot more football than he would’ve been expecting from what we’ve seen."
In and of itself, restoring Robertson to the lineup for a while is not the worst idea. Liverpool is trying to change an awful lot at once, and there's merit in taking Kerkez out of the firing line for a period.
After all, look at how Robertson got his start at the club. He played second fiddle to Alberto Moreno for months, only claiming the spot as his own when the Spaniard got injured.
But taking things a little more slowly is a far cry from concluding that Kerkez is not up to standard, and should not have been signed in the first place. Robertson still has plenty to give, but there was broad consensus last year that a successor for the 31-year-old should be on the agenda.
And while Kerkez has undeniably been frustrating at times in his short Liverpool career to date, the questions lie as much with Arne Slot as with him. Many of the biggest problems can only be tactical.
For instance, Kerkez must surely have been instructed to rein in his overlapping bursts. Slot has him looking infield for a pass more often, but it just looks awkward.
Liverpool is yet to play to the 21-year-old's strengths. With width having been an issue in some of Liverpool's defeats, it is doubly infuriating that Kerkez hasn't been let off the leash to bomb up and down the flank.
This, after all, is what Liverpool fans had in mind when demanding a Robertson heir. The peak version of the Scot had plenty of similarities with the Bournemouth version of Kerkez — it's just a matter of whether we'll be allowed to see that version at Anfield.
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