Manchester United legend Gary Neville thinks Milos Kerkez “looks like a youth team player” after Liverpool lost 2-1 to Chelsea on Saturday,
The Reds went behind early on at Stamford Bridge to a Moises Caicedo thunderbolt before Cody Gakpo equalised on 63 minutes to give Arne Slot’s side hope of grabbing victory.
However, it was Chelsea who snatched all three points in the dying moments of the second half with Estevao sliding in at the back post to convert a Marc Cucurella cross.
Liverpool are struggling to reach the same levels of performance they experienced last season as Slot won the Premier League title in his first campaign as head coach.
The Reds, who were five points ahead of Arsenal two games ago, have now dropped down to second place in the Premier League table behind the Gunners, who beat West Ham 2-0 on Saturday.
Big summer signings Alexander Isak and Florian Wirtz are struggling to make much of an impact with the club’s summer recruitment coming under the spotlight.
READ: 16 Conclusions on Chelsea 2-1 Liverpool: ‘Mini crisis’, Slot, Maresca, Mac Allister, Estevao, Jota
Neville picked out new left-back Kerkez – who signed from Bournemouth for £40m – as a big issue for Liverpool with the Hungary international replaced early in the second half for Andy Robertson.
Neville said on his Sky Sports podcast: “The boy Kerkez, to be honest with you, at this point in time, he looks like a youth team player.
“I know he’s a good player, but he looks like he’s playing for the youth team, or the Under-21s. He looks so naive; he looks like a baby out there. He’s losing 50-50s with Neto!
“He’s had Premier League experience, it’s not like he’s come in from another country. He’s got a lot of games under his belt, he’s played at these grounds before, so I expected him to slot in.
“One, he’s playing alongside Virgil Van Dijk, the best centre half in the world, so if you want to play in a back four, you want to play with great defenders and he is doing.
“And he’s got players who work hard on that side, it’s not like he’s playing on the right with Salah in front of him, which is always a bit more difficult because you always get a little bit more exposed.
“But I have to say from the first ten minutes of that game against Bournemouth on the first game of the season, he’s struggled.”
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But Neville highlighted that Liverpool’s full-back issues don’t just boil down to Kerkez with Conor Bradley and Jeremie Frimpong struggling on the right.
Neville continued: “Frimpong looks like he should be playing as a right winger, he doesn’t perform like a right-back.
“Conor Bradley just isn’t doing it and Andy Robertson is battling but he’s not quite where he was a few years ago.
“Liverpool’s problems are as much to do with full-back as anywhere. They need to button that down.”
When asked about bringing Kerkez off in the second half, Slot replied: “Milos was more and more tired – he played 90 minutes in two games and now for the third game in a week, which he’s not used to when he played at Bournemouth.
“You could feel and see it got more and more difficult to keep going and their wingers are a threat so we decided to make a change over there.”
On Bradley’s withdrawal at half-time, Slot added: “Most of the times I have to change the fullbacks after being on yellow. Today Conor Bradley was on a yellow card.
“He made a second foul and players were asking for a yellow again, so you wonder if it’s smart to keep him on the pitch. We decided not to and we needed Florian to come into the game.”