Liverpool should drop weaklings

LONDON: Gary Neville has urged Jurgen Klopp to get rid of a number of his Liverpool players after they surrendered a two-goal lead away at Arsenal.

Former Manchester United and England right back Neville said after the game that Klopp's side need to be fixed defensively before they can start challenging for their first league title since 1990.

Asked what the German boss should do to correct Liverpool's leaky defence, he said: “Get rid of the players. You looked at what Pep Guardiola did last season.

“He brought Bravo in for big money but wasn't good enough, couldn't adapt to the Premier League and got rid of him. Ederson comes in and looks fantastic.

“Full backs weren't good enough at City so he brought three new full backs and spent £130 million (RM708 million) and just dealt with the issue. He's got to deal with the issue. “Like I say, Jurgen Klopp is the only person who can do that. It's staring everyone in the face, it's staring him in the face.”

Neville suggested that Klopp needs to finally run out of patience with defenders such as Ragnar Klavan and Dejan Lovren.

He also criticised goalkeeper Simon Mignolet, who made an error for Arsenal's second goal on Friday, and questioned whether players such as James Milner should be playing at full back.

He said: “You look at the team here, Klavan... really? Lovren is disappointing me even though he was fantastic at Southampton. Gomez is young so I think he's got some development to do.

“Mignolet we've talked about and Karius we've talked about and then you're talking about the full backs. You're playing Milner there, you're playing Robertson there, you're playing Moreno there. Can you trust them? Can you trust them in the biggest games?”

The former United player also said that Liverpool are universally known as a successful club but are failing to live up to that label.

He added: “The reason we talk like this is because we're judging Liverpool as a team that need to win the Premier League, they need to be winning the Champions League because that's the measure of the club historically.” AFP