Sunday 13 September 2015 18:11, UK
Sky Sports pundits Graeme Souness and Jamie Carragher questioned Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers’ tactics as his side lost 3-1 to Manchester United at Old Trafford.
Rodgers' starting line-up against United saw Danny Ings and Roberto Firmino played out in wide positions and the former Liverpool players believe playing some of the current crop out of position is not helping performances.
Souness thinks Rodgers is handing his players an excuse by not playing them in their usual positions.
"The first thing you have to do with players is make them feel comfortable in positions they're playing in," Souness told Sky Sports.
"Firmino doesn't want to be out there. On the other side Ings doesn't want to be there. Right away they've got an excuse: 'This is not my position, I'm not used to it'.
"Ings spent most of that half running towards his own goal. He would class himself as a striker, he doesn't want to be doing that. What Firmino is I'm not quite sure, we might see that as the season pans out.
He added: "You've got square pegs in round holes and it just doesn't work. You have to make people feel they are playing in positions they are happy to play in and Liverpool haven't got that right now.
You have to make people feel they are playing in positions they are happy to play in and Liverpool haven't got that right now.
"They need goals. You won't always play well, but if you've got goalscorers it camouflages a multitude of sins and Liverpool have got to come up with a system.
"I think they have to sit the players down. They all know what their favourite positions are and he must know he's asking players to play out of position and I don't think some of them are very comfortable with that.
"You're handing them a big excuse."
Carragher believes Christian Benteke, who scored a brilliant overhead kick at Old Trafford, is not getting enough help in attack in the system Liverpool are playing at the moment.
The former Liverpool defender called for Rodgers to go back to playing two strikers up front rather than sticking with the current 4-3-3 formation.
He told Sky Sports: "There's not enough help for Benteke,
"Ings came in and I said before the game it must be two up front and they must be playing a diamond formation, but they were still playing 4-3-3.
"I don't understand what the point was in playing Danny Ings in that wide position. He didn't give the support to Benteke.
"You think about how many strikers Liverpool have on the books and they have no wide players. They've only got Jordon Ibe. Firmino is not a wide player and Coutinho played there last week and he's not a wide player.
"I don't understand this obsession with playing 4-3-3. Brendan Rodgers came to the club wanting to play 4-3-3 and it didn't work.
"The great season they had was with two strikers and how they got them into the team is down to the manager. They've got a lot of strikers, no wide players, and he continues to play 4-3-3."
