Saturday 23 December 2017 11:07, UK
Gary Neville advises Jurgen Klopp to get rid of the weak links if Liverpool want success, after they threw away a two-goal lead to draw 3-3 at Arsenal.
Klopp's team led through Philippe Coutinho and Mohamed Salah but mistakes by Joe Gomez and Simon Mignolet let Arsenal back into the game and in the end it took a Roberto Firmino strike for Liverpool to salvage a point.
Asked afterwards what Klopp needs to do to eliminate the mistakes that are costing Liverpool points, Neville had a drastic solution.
"Get rid of the players," he told Sky Sports. "You look at what Pep Guardiola did last season. He brought Claudio Bravo in for big money. He wasn't good enough and couldn't adapt to the Premier League. He got rid of him.
"Ederson comes in and looks fantastic. The full-backs weren't good enough at City, he got rid of them, spent £130m on three new ones and just dealt with the issue.
"He has got to deal with the issue and Jurgen Klopp is the only one who can do that. It is staring everyone in the face. What I would say is that the toughest part of coaching a football team is making them inventive going forward. Liverpool are fantastic going forward. If he fixes that defence he has got a real chance.
"At Borussia Dortmund he had Neven Subotic and Mats Hummels with Lukasz Piszczek at right-back. He had a good back-four, a good base to build from. You look here: Ragnar Klavan? Really? Dejan Lovren has disappointed me even though he was fantastic at Southampton. Joe Gomez is young so I think he's got some development to do.
"Simon Mignolet we have talked about, Loris Karius we have talked about. And then you talk about the left-backs, you play James Milner there, you play Andrew Robertson there, you play Alberto Moreno there. Can you trust them in the biggest games?
"The reason why we are talking like this is because we are talking about Liverpool winning the Premier League and the Champions League. That's the measure of the club historically.
"So if you look at that and you say, 'Do I want Moreno at left-back? Do I want Robertson at left-back? Do I want Klavan as my centre-back playing at Real Madrid away or Barcelona away?' You can't. You can't have those players in those games. It's impossible. So they've just got to go.
"It's sad and you don't like saying that because they are probably good pros and they'll have great careers. They are good lads but they shouldn't be playing here at this level at a club that is trying to win the league.
"Jurgen Klopp did an interview beforehand where he told us that his defence was getting better. I think they will always make you feel like that when they are playing, with respect, Bournemouth or Newcastle or Burnley. They will always make you feel like they can keep a clean sheet in those games.
"But in the really big moments when a goal goes in against a good team like Sevilla or Arsenal away, they will let you down."
