Jamie Carragher on Liverpool's season to date: "It's never been as poor as this. It's not just the results, it's the performances. Liverpool haven't been unlucky, they've been lucky"; watch Liverpool vs Everton on Sky Sports Premier League on Monday from 7pm; kick-off 8pm
Monday 13 February 2023 20:06, UK
Jamie Carragher says Liverpool's "shambolic" performances have taken Jurgen Klopp to his lowest point as manager - but that he will not walk away as he did at Dortmund.
Comparisons have been drawn between Klopp's final year in the Bundesliga in 2014/15 and Liverpool's ongoing issues this season, with his side experiencing a sharp and unexplained drop-off in form on both occasions.
Liverpool are currently 10th in the Premier League table and under severe pressure ahead of the Merseyside derby on Monday Night Football, having failed to win any of their league games in 2023.
Should they fail to win that game it will match Klopp's longest winless league run with the club since January 2017. Either way, Carragher told the Essential Football podcast Liverpool's season to date - including seven league defeats from 20 games - marked the worst point of his seven-year spell to date at Anfield.
He said: "It's never been as poor as this. It's not just the results, it's the performances. Liverpool haven't been unlucky, they've actually been lucky. The score lines could've been a lot worse in a lot of those games.
"That's the big worry for the fans. You understand your team, at times, won't be as consistent as the team has been under Klopp for the last three or four years, losing one or two games a season. You can't do that every year.
"But it's the performances and also a bit of a lack of fight, you have to say that, and that's not something you can throw at this team too easily. They've run so far, so long, so fast, and had so much quality in games over the last few years, but it's been a huge drop-off and you can't dress it up as anything else.
"Some of the performances have been pretty shambolic. Everyone felt the World Cup would be a bit of a line in the sand, and you'd see a different Liverpool after the mid-season break but it just hasn't happened at all."
In April of his final season with Dortmund, Klopp announced he was walking away from the club despite a resurgence in the second half of the season, and spent only five months out of work before moving to Anfield in October 2015.
The parallels between his final season at the Westfalenstadion and his current predicament at Anfield will not extend to a resignation letter, Carragher added, with Liverpool all too aware how crucial their manager is to competing for trophies again.
"I think it's well-documented that Dortmund's hierarchy regret Klopp moving on from the club, especially with how he's gone on to perform at Liverpool," he said. "I think their quote was that there's not many Jurgen Klopps. You can change players, there's plenty of players out there - but there's not many Klopps.
"I have that same feeling. You change him, where do you go from there? There's other managers out there, who will have great success at the club in future. But Liverpool know they've got someone special, it's been a poor season for everybody concerned, but Klopp's still the man for me."
Everton will travel to Anfield with their new-manager bounce well under way thanks to a 1-0 win over league leaders Arsenal in Sean Dyche's first game in charge last Saturday.
He has only beaten Liverpool once as a manager but did so at Anfield in January 2021 with Burnley, and his Everton side will present a similarly physical test for Klopp's beleaguered team this time around.
Even in good times though, the Toffees have only won once at Anfield since 1999. Carragher feels the pain of the 24 years since will temper expectations in the away end ahead of Monday night's game.
He said: "There's a real feel-good factor with Everton now. Sean Dyche and the Evertonians have got a spring in their step, and that just shows you how pivotal one result can be to change the mood.
"That's what Liverpool need right now. They could do with a really big derby win, a convincing win, and then every Liverpool performance would feel different about their team and where it's going.
"Why can't Everton believe they can get a result at Anfield? With the result they had against Arsenal, and Liverpool not playing well at all.
"Liverpool have still been really good at home this season, I should say. It's their away form which has been catastrophic really. I've been in this position as a player myself, not doing too well, Everton being on the up and coming to Anfield fancying their chances.
"More often than not, Liverpool prevail. A lot of that's down to a mentality, and not in terms of working hard, but at times there's almost a fear to win from Everton players. There has been in the past, and that's something Sean Dyche has to get into himself and fix. He won at Anfield with Burnley a few years ago, so he's been there and done it.
"Everton will be looking forward to the game more than they would've been a few weeks ago, but Evertonians who've got experience of this fixture don't want to be burned too often, and they have been when they've come into it in the past with confidence. So I think there'll be a fair amount of trepidation, also."
