Alan Shearer has slammed Liverpool’s performance during Saturday’s 2-1 defeat against Brighton, declaring Arne Slot’s team a ‘mess’ from top to bottom.
It was another disappointing afternoon for the Reds as they failed to build on the midweek win over Galatasaray, with some familiar problems coming to light.
Analysing the game for BBC Match of the Day, Shearer explained that Liverpool have issues in defence, midfield and attack as they try to salvage a Champions League finish.
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Brighton & Hove Albion v Liverpool - Premier League
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Shearer dismantles Liverpool’s Brighton failure
Liverpool did not start Saturday’s game in especially bad fashion, but as the match progressed they quickly unravelled.
Shearer did not hold back in his assessment, initially focusing on the Reds’ lack of width as the first major problem.
“I thought they were outfought and they were bullied by Brighton, particularly defensively,” he said. “They went into it again with no width and when Wirtz got the ball he had no options to his right or left, he had to go straight down the middle. There was nothing really available for him.”
Florian Wirtz runs with the ball during Liverpool's Premier League match against Brighton & Hove Albion at the Amex Stadium
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Next, the Premier League’s all-time top goalscorer took aim at the centre-back pairing of Virgil van Dijk and Ibrahima Konate.
“Welbeck bullied the two centre-backs, they were all over the place,” he said. “I thought they were really poor and all over the place, they really were, they were a mess.”
Finally, Shearer highlighted three further problems for Arne Slot, with the midfield, attacking areas and defence all taking some stick.
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“There’s no doubt that the situation with Ekitike upset them in terms of the rhythm and they had to change a few bits,” he said. “But there were three different right-backs today, clearly that doesn’t help, but there was no pressure in midfield, no threat up front and defensively the spaces in between were glaring, it was so obvious what was missing.”
Wayne Rooney sticks the boot in too
Joining Shearer on Match of the Day, Wayne Rooney was also decidedly unimpressed by what he’d seen from Liverpool, claiming that Slot’s players simply looked ‘lost and tired’ at the Amex Stadium.
“They were always in between positions, they could never, ever get pressure on the ball, on the Brighton players,” he said.
“When you get in that position it’s so difficult to get out of it and you need a tweak from the manager. But the players looked lost today, they looked tired and they looked lost and it was a very poor performance.”
The issues highlighted by both Shearer and Rooney will be no surprise to supporters, who have seen Slot fail to address them all season long.
There is still time for the Dutchman to get things right, but there has so far been little sign that he has the ability to find any kind of solution.
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