{"id":230121,"date":"2025-10-28T13:08:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-28T13:08:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/230121\/"},"modified":"2025-10-28T13:08:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-28T13:08:10","slug":"milos-kerkez-has-been-found-out-at-liverpool-but-two-team-mates-look-like-theyve-had-a-row","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/230121\/","title":{"rendered":"Milos Kerkez has been found out at Liverpool but two team-mates look like they’ve had a row"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former Premier League manager Alan Pardew has weighed in on Liverpool’s ongoing defensive issues after the champions fell to a fourth successive defeat in England’s top flight\"MilosMilos Kerkez looks on during the Champions League group game between Eintracht Frankfurt and Liverpool FC at the Deutsche Bank Park(Image: Ulrik Pedersen\/NurPhoto)<\/p>\n

Alan Pardew has claimed two Liverpool players \u2018look like they’ve had a row\u2019 as the former Newcastle United manager tore into the Reds\u2019 defensive issues. Arne Slot\u2019s men lost 3-2 away at Brentford on Saturday<\/a> as they suffered their fifth defeat from their last six games.<\/p>\n

Liverpool<\/a> have now lost their last four Premier League<\/a> matches, with the reigning champions dropping to seventh in the table after results elsewhere went against them during the latest round of fixtures. Meanwhile, they trail league-leaders Arsenal by seven points following the Gunners\u2019 win over Crystal Palace.<\/p>\n

They have conceded an eye-watering 21 goals from their 14 outings so far this season, with their defeat to Brentford already the eighth time they have conceded twice or more.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Liverpool sent new Brentford penalty VAR verdict after referee changed – ‘I have to say’<\/a>\"\"\/<\/p>\n

OPINION<\/p>\n

\"AuthorTheo Squires<\/p>\n

The Reds have also conceded after the 75th minute in eight of their matches, with such strikes proving decisive against Crystal Palace, Chelsea and Manchester United across their recent losing run.<\/p>\n

They have also conceded inside the opening 15 minutes in each of their four successive Premier League defeats, with the Merseyside derby victory over Everton<\/a> the last time Liverpool actually led in the English top-flight.<\/p>\n

Such struggles are not limited to this season, though. Dating back to the Reds\u2019 Champions League<\/a> exit at the hands of Paris Saint-Germain last March, they have lost 11 of their last 25 matches, winning 12, and keeping just four clean sheets.<\/p>\n

They have conceded 31 times across such a run, shipping two goals or more on 13 occasions. And their leakiness at the start and end of games is also still prominent, falling behind inside the opening 15 minutes a further four times, and shipping goals in the final 15 minutes in an additional three matches.<\/p>\n

Evidently, it is an ongoing issue that Slot<\/a> needs to solve. And it has not been aided by frequent changes in his backline due to injuries, as well as an overhaul at full-back and in the goalkeeping department behind Alisson Becker in the summer.<\/p>\n

Virgil van Dijk<\/a>, Ibrahima Konate, Milos Kerkez<\/a>, Jeremie Frimpong, Conor Bradley and Giorgi Mamardashvili have all come in for criticism at one point or another during Liverpool\u2019s recent struggles, with Trent Alexander-Arnold frequently suffering similar treatment during his own Reds career prior to his Anfield<\/a> exit.<\/p>\n

\"VirgilLONDON, ENGLAND – AUGUST 10: Virgil van Dijk and Ibrahima Konate of Liverpool look dejected with their runners up medals after the teams defeat following the 2025 FA Community Shield match between Crystal Palace and Liverpool at Wembley Stadium on August 10, 2025 in London, England. (Photo by Michael Regan – The FA\/The FA via Getty Images)(Image: 2025 The FA)<\/p>\n

And while Pardew concedes that Kerkez has struggled since joining the Reds in a \u00a340m switch from AFC Bournemouth, he has instead pointed the finger at Konate<\/a> and Van Dijk for Liverpool\u2019s ongoing defensive woes.<\/p>\n

\u201cKonate in the middle of the [back four] and Van Dijk – they genuinely look like they’ve had a row over something,\u201d Pardew said on talkSPORT<\/a>. \u201cI don’t know, perhaps he’s nicking Van Dijk’s meal at the training ground!<\/p>\n

\u201cThere seems to be a lack of kind of looking after [each other]. The one thing about centre-backs is they look after their full-back, and they look after each other – that is the key to a back four.<\/p>\n

“So, the left-side centre-half looks after the left-back, but he also looks after his fellow centre-half.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have to protect [them] – that’s your area. And neither of them are doing that job. So, therefore, that is a massive problem for Liverpool.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously the \u2018keeper’s injured, and they’ve got this young keeper in – I wouldn’t say he’s been poor, but it’s just a different character. Bradley has always been in and out of the Liverpool team, and they’re not regular.<\/p>\n

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\u201cYou’ve got Kerkez, who really is struggling in that Liverpool shirt. I don’t care how you dress it up – he’s come from Bournemouth where he had an outstanding season, mainly through his attacking play, I have to say.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe’s been found out a little bit defensively, and I thought he struggled again the other night.<\/p>\n

“There’s a lot of weaknesses defensively when you actually analyse it. And I think Arne really is searching, particularly at the back and in that central area of stability\u2026 This is their problem – it’s like an unfamiliarity.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former Premier League manager Alan Pardew has weighed in on Liverpool’s ongoing defensive issues after the champions fell…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":230122,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[8633,1969,2628,218,2232,134,2236,101,56,54,55,2225],"class_list":["post-230121","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-alan-pardew","tag-arne-slot","tag-barclays-premier-league","tag-football","tag-ibrahima-konate","tag-liverpool-fc","tag-milos-kerkez","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-virgil-van-dijk"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230121","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=230121"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230121\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/230122"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=230121"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=230121"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=230121"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}