Ex-Liverpool star Stephen Warnock says four former players emphasize a worrying trend for Andoni Iraola, who has now won just two of six Premier League games with the Reds
Liverpool head coach Andoni Iraola.
Liverpool head coach Andoni Iraola.(Image: Liverpool FC via Getty Images)
Former Liverpool left-back Stephen Warnock believes the Reds have become an "easy touch" in the last couple of seasons, with Andoni Iraola's men falling to a 3-0 defeat over the weekend.
Manchester City, in the first match after it was found guilty of 114 of the charges leveled at it by the Premier League, moved ahead in the game almost as soon as Ryan Gravenberch was sent off for a second bookable offense.
And Warnock thinks that some of the changes Liverpool has made in the transfer market have left it weaker physically and unable to match the levels required at the very top of the game.
"Liverpool have got a lot of work to do," Warnock said on BBC Radio 5Live
"What I've seen from Andoni Iraola is, he's trying to find solutions. The disappointing part was, you go down to 10 men, you find a solution to shut up shop and be organized, and you have leaders on the pitch.
"They don't have enough leaders at the moment. They have Virgil van Dijk barking orders. We saw Jordan Henderson yesterday who had that ability, James Milner, Gini Wijnaldum... players who will dig deep.
Liverpool midfielder Ryan Gravenberch received a red card against Manchester City
Liverpool midfielder Ryan Gravenberch received a red card against Manchester City(Image: Alex Pantling/Getty Images)
"You think of Sadio Mane. When he was backed against the wall, I wouldn't want to play against him because he was horrible to play against.
"The best teams in the world are also horrible to play against. Liverpool aren't horrible. They're an easy touch at the moment. They have too many players that are nice and they have to change that part of the game."
Erling Haaland, Jeremy Doku and Rayan Cherki scored for Manchester City, while Liverpool stars including Florian Wirtz and Bradley Barcola struggled to make an impact.
"I think the first half was good on our side; we showed a lot of intensity," Virgil van Dijk said.
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"We could have done maybe better on some occasions where we got on the break with them. I don’t think there were massive chances, to be fair, but I think we showed that we wanted to win. We had a lot of intensity; that was the bare minimum.
"Second half, we tried to do the same. Unfortunately, the red card obviously changed a big part of the game, especially when you concede that quickly afterwards as well."
Liverpool.com says: There is definitely a lack of physicality at the moment. The Reds are seemingly hoping that they have enough talent to overcome that, but right now, it isn't performing.