(Reuters) – Former Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher says the club’s position of 10th in the Premier League is unacceptable and says it is down to mismanagement of the squad.
Liverpool have their lowest points total after 20 games for eight years and are a massive 29 off their total at the same stage of their title-winning season in 2019-20.
While there are mitigating factors such as a long injury list, Carragher still believes Liverpool should be challenging for a top-four finish.
“It’s unacceptable for Liverpool to be 10th in the league with the manager and players they’ve got,” Carragher, speaking on The Overlap Live Fan Debate, in partnership with Sky Bet, said in the build-up to Monday’s derby at home to Everton.
“Liverpool having a bad season should still be in the top four, they shouldn’t be where they are now. Going to Wolves, there weren’t many Liverpool fans thinking they were going to win that game.”
The 3-0 defeat by Wolverhampton Wanderers last weekend left Liverpool 11 points behind fourth-placed Newcastle United.
“Everyone is asking, what’s going on with Liverpool? If Juergen Klopp doesn’t know, we don’t know. Klopp’s tried so many different things,” Carragher said.
“The issues with Liverpool are that they’ve been unfortunate with injuries, and there has been a mismanagement of the squad. Jordan Henderson has taken a lot of stick off Liverpool supporters recently, but he’s done his job.
“He’s 31 now and won everything. He shouldn’t be playing every week now, but with the mismanagement of the squad, he plays week in, week out. Liverpool have got either really old players or really young players.
“They haven’t got anyone in that sweet spot of 25-29 and you have to put that on Klopp, Pep Lijnders and the recruitment team who have had more praise than any recruitment team I’ve seen.”
Carragher also criticised the club’s owners Fenway Sports Group.
“They have done a brilliant job. The big mistake FSG have made is that they’ve allowed this team that everyone in Europe said was the model to follow with buying and selling players, to disintegrate,” Carragher said.
“A top team everyone tried to emulate has been allowed to drift apart.”
(Reporting by Martyn Herman; Editing by Christian Radnedge)
