Jermaine Beckford has slammed Jurgen Klopp’s ‘soft excuses’ after Liverpool were beaten 2-1 at the hands of Leeds United at Anfield on Saturday.
The Liverpool boss spoke about possible player fatigue and key players being out injured as some of the reasons behind their most-recent defeat, but ex-Leeds man Beckford ‘wasn’t having it at all’.
Crysencio Summerville was the youngster who wrote his name into the history books because that memorable win for Jesse Marsch’s side also ended Liverpool’s 30-game unbeaten run at Anfield in the Premier League.
Even with Liverpool’s struggles this season, including losing to bottom-of-the-table Nottingham Forest last week, many still expected them to get the job done over the Whites.
This wasn’t a Leeds team flying high, in fact far from it, they hadn’t won since August and there was pressure mounting on Marsch in the dugout.
But to the delight of their former striker Jermaine Beckford, they picked up a deserved three points, but he was in disagreement with what Klopp was saying after the game, as he told Premier League Productions (29/10/22 at 10:05 pm).
“It didn’t seem to be there (Liverpool intensity),” said Beckford. “But let’s not take away from the way Leeds pressed all over the pitch as well.
“It’s a difficult system to play against when Leeds are fit and firing. In the other performances, you could say the other players have been fatigued and overworked, as Jurgen touched upon before.
“I still think that it’s a little bit of an excuse. Everybody has injuries and everybody has key players out. If you look at the starting XI, and a couple of players they brought off the bench, they are fantastic players. I would say that 85-90% of teams in the league would love to have those players in their starting XI.
“For me, it’s a little bit of a soft excuse. I understand what he is saying and where he is coming from. But I am not having it at all.”
PROBLEMS GETTING BIGGER
As the weeks progress and the games tick by, the issues Klopp is facing at Liverpool just seem to be getting bigger and bigger.
The expectations have to be lowered and this is now a fight to secure Champions League football, rather than push for the Premier League title.
During recent transfer windows, they haven’t strengthened enough or refreshed the squad, well, all of that is now coming to bite them pretty hard.
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