Liverpool suffered a huge blow to their hopes of retaining the title on Wednesday night
Liverpool are “dead on their feet”.
That’s one pundit’s view after the champions suffered a shock 1-0 defeat against Brighton at Anfield.
A second-half goal from Steven Alzate gave the Seagulls their first league victory over Liverpool since 1982, and left Jurgen Klopp’s men seven points off Manchester City, who also have a game in hand.
The Reds have won just three of their last 10 matches in all competitions, while Pep Guardiola’s side have won their last 13 games.
Liverpool’s title hopes have been hamstrung by a succession of injuries to key players, and Jamie O’Hara believes City’s superior strength-in-depth is the key difference between the sides.
Speaking on talkSPORT, the former Tottenham and Wolves midfielder said: “Liverpool are dead on their feet in my opinion.
“I said it a few weeks ago when they had that poor sort of run over the Christmas period, and then all of a sudden they picked up again and you think ‘Right they’re back, they’re back in business’.
“I just feel that where they played at such a high level for two seasons, and they’ve been in incredible form, this season they’ve just had injury after injury and I just feel like it’s took its toll.
“When I look at them now, those games at home where they used to just blitz teams four or five, they just seem to lack an edge and they just lack that sort of final push to keep going to play at that relentless level.
“It’s not easy to play so good for that long.
“I just look at Liverpool and think they rely on their intensity, their ruthlessness in front goal, that home form at Anfield, and all of a sudden that’s not quite happening and they’re finding themselves down in fourth and I look at it and go ‘I think they’ve run out of steam’.
“If you look at the schedule it’s Saturday, Wednesday, Sunday, Tuesday Friday. It’s a little bit all over the place.
“(Manchester) City have got a B team that will win the League Cup every season, that’s the difference. They’ve got a whole other XI.
“They’ve had the injuries. Losing (Diogo) Jota for me was huge for them, obviously (Virgil) van Dijk, and they’re trying to limp through.
“He’s just trying to get his best players on the pitch, playing (Jordan) Henderson and Fabinho at centre-half, just because they’re their best players, just trying to get them on the pitch.”
The two sides meet on Sunday at Anfield, with City going into the match on the back of a 2-0 win over Burnley at Turf Moor.
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