The Premier League's all-time leading scorer, Alan Shearer, gives his verdict on Liverpool's current issues, including a difficult time for Mohamed Salah
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England legend Alan Shearer believes Liverpool's 3-0 defeat to Manchester City should act as a "wake-up call" for the stuttering Premier League champions.
And former Southampton, Blackburn Rovers and Newcastle United hitman Shearer also claimed "something's not right" with Mohamed Salah, whose indifferent form continued at the Etihad before the international break.
The Reds have lost five of 11 games so far, which is already more than they did across the entirety of last term when they won the title by 10 points and with four games to spare.
Arne Slot's men have now been beaten in seven of the last 10 across all competitions and the 3-0 reverse at the Etihad must serve a purpose for Liverpool, Shearer says, as they look to get back to winning ways on the other side of the international break, starting with Nottingham Forest at home on November 22.
"Not that Liverpool needed it, but I do think it was a bit of a wake-up call," Shearer told Betfair. "I know they scored a perfectly good goal with Virgil van Dijk. I'm dead against that being disallowed, but they didn't deserve anything out of the game.
"They wouldn't have got anything on the day, but that doesn't mean the goal shouldn't stand. I just think there's so many things wrong with that decision. It says he clearly has to impact the goalkeeper, I don't think he did. The goalkeeper wasn't stopping it anyway. So, for me, it was a poor decision.
"I don't think it's sour grapes from Liverpool going to the PGMOL. I just think they're possibly trying to do something in case it happens again. We know that they wouldn't have got anything out of the game, it was just a really poor decision.
"I thought Man City were miles better than them in probably every position. Missing a penalty as well. It was a bit of a surprise because I thought the Real Madrid game might have been a turning point for them, it might have been a sign for them to say: 'Let's go, let's do this, let's kick on for the rest of the season'.
"But it actually went back to what it was a couple of weeks earlier. They were really flat; they were really poor defensively. They had no aggression in the midfield. Yeah, it was a bit of a surprise, but he's got problems there.
"They're trying to shoehorn Florian Wirtz into a left-hand sided position. Mo Salah's nowhere near what he was last season or what he's been like. Defensively, they're all over the place, so they've got problems, yeah."
Shearer, who is the Premier League's all-time top scorer with 260, gave his verdict on Salah, who has endured a slow start to the campaign, claiming the Egypt captain looks unhappy at Anfield presently.
Shearer added: "It might be a bit of both for Salah with his age catching up with him and the tactics of the team not playing to his strengths.
"I don't know the reason why, but he's definitely not at it like he was last season or the season before. I don't know whether he feels because of the money that has been spent on Florian Wirtz and Alexander Isak that he's not the number one player anymore.
"There's definitely something that's not right, whether that's the old age thing getting to him and not being as good as he was, or whether he's got a bee in his bonnet about something.
"But we're definitely not seeing the same Mo Salah as what we've seen. You could say that about most Liverpool players actually."
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