Dean Ashton has claimed that Liverpool trio, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Virgil van Dijk and Andy Robertson ‘don’t trust’ how the team is defending this season, as he told talkSPORT.
The former Premier League striker questioned the body language of the Liverpool players and how there could be issues with the club’s midfield.
On Wednesday night, Jurgen Klopp’s problems for the new season just grew when his side suffered a 4-1 defeat against Napoli on their opening night of the new Champions League season.
The issue Klopp has is that the midfield doesn’t seem to be working and key players are just bang out of form from Mohamed Salah to Van Dijk.
Midfield has been one talking point, with club legend Jamie Carragher recently stating that James Milner shouldn’t be playing in the middle of the park at the age of 36, after doing so in Naples.
Do Liverpool’s defensive issues stem back from last season? Well, Ashton pointed out how they just can’t stop conceding first.
“They have conceded first in 10 of their last 15 games, if you go back to the end of last season,” said Ashton. “That’s a problem. It has to be a mentality problem or it has to be playing a high line and not doing as well.
“Or playing a high line and the pressure beyond that not being that good. But there is an issue there, no doubt. It could be a midfield issue because they have had injuries.
“I just keep looking at Van Dijk’s body language, Alexander-Arnold’s body language, Robertson’s body language, Gomez really struggled, but that body language to me, it makes me feel like they don’t trust how they are defending.
“Even just down to the Milner-Van Dijk situation as well (against Man United\. It was visible. It makes me feel like they don’t trust the way they are defending, at the minute. Almost like ‘how are we meant to defend better like this as a team, when you are putting us under pressure as a back four?’ And they look so tired already.”
A CHANGE OF SYSTEM OR PERSONNEL BY KLOPP?
After that defeat against Napoli, Klopp touched upon Liverpool having to ‘reinvent’ themselves.
Well, he has had plenty of time to think about what changes he is going to make since that defeat because that seriously hints at the possibility the German will make some big calls.
Is it a case of a number of big-name players being dropped? Or Klopp deciding to change the system?
Perhaps the latter is more likely, but either way, the Anfield faithful are expecting a reaction from their players, else this will filter deep into the season and then they will be in real trouble.
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