Graeme Souness took issue with two of Jurgen Klopp’s selections in his team to play Red Star Belgrade on Tuesday night.
Liverpool fell to a shock 2-0 defeat in Serbia and their chances of qualification to the knockout stage of the Champions League now hang in the balance.
Two first-half goals from Milan Pavkov were enough to give Red Star their first win of Group C and Klopp was understandably frustrated after the full-time whistle.
The Reds boss had fielded a strong team and while he left Xherdan Shaqiri at home to “avoid distractions”, Klopp did start the likes of Mo Salah, Sadio Mane and Virgil van Dijk.
Daniel Sturridge started up front in a move which raised the eyebrows of former Liverpool midfielder Graeme Souness.
In fact, Souness was baffled by two personnel decisions on the teamsheet and questioned Klopp’s rotation policy.
“I think not starting with Firmino or Joe Gomez,” the ex-Liverpool manager told Virgin Media One when asked where it went wrong for Liverpool.
“The fact they were on the bench and came on at half-time suggests they were fine so it wasn’t them carrying something.
“I think the message it sends to the rest of the players was, ‘You won 4-0 last time we’ll be fine again tonight.’
“I’m of the belief you start with your strongest team, get the game won and then get off the players you want to rest.
“I think that message by not picking your strongest team to start with would have an effect on some of the players who did start.
“They weren’t at it. They didn’t start right and when you don’t start right, it really is an uphill battle to get the momentum back again.
“I felt they handed the momentum to Red Star and they managed to keep it for the rest of the game.
“They’re not at the level they were at last year, Liverpool.”
