Thursday 19 July 2018 16:58, UK
New Liverpool signing Xherdan Shaqiri "never turned up" for Stoke in important moments, according to former team-mate Charlie Adam.
Shaqiri, currently on holiday after representing Switzerland at the World Cup in Russia, declared his ambition to win titles after joining Liverpool earlier this month for £13.5m, saying he wanted to play on "the biggest stage in football".
He revealed he had wanted to sign for the club years before.
The 27-year-old was part of the Stoke squad which Adam said had been "getting away with murder" before their relegation to the Sky Bet Championship in May.
Shaqiri announced his desire to leave Stoke shortly after their Premier League exit was confirmed, but Adam identified the Swiss midfielder as one of the 'so-called big players' his criticism had been aimed at.
"Was he one of them? Oh, definitely," Adam, who played for Liverpool between 2011 and 2012, told TalkSPORT.
"When the chips are down you look at your big players, you want your big players to bring magic in one moment in the season, and at times we felt like the so-called big players in the squad never turned up for us and never performed.
"Yeah, everybody else could help, but for all the plaudits the so-called bigger players were getting from certain members of the management staff last season - they weren't producing."
