Former Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher was damning of his former team’s performance today.
The Sky Sports pundit accused Liverpool of being ‘mentally weak’ and lacking leadership following the team’s 3-1 loss to Crystal Palace. The Anfield club currently sit 12th with 14 points after 12 games and Carragher was critical of almost every aspect of his former team.
‘This is more than just a poor start, there’s something wrong’, the pundit said. ‘Mentally weak, no leadership on the pitch, and as a Liverpool fan, the worst thing you can ever see is them being bullied, and being weak, and that’s what we’ve seen today, and not for the first time.
‘It’s been happening all season. Liverpool aren’t being beat by quality, they’re being bullied, they’re being beaten by enthusiasm. After the goal Liverpool offered no enthusiasm, no threat. They’re mentally and physically weak. There’s no leadership there. It was the same last year.’
Carragher also said he was ‘worried as a Liverpool fan’.
‘Talk about players taking time to settle in, but you’re looking at them and thinking, they need four or five players,’ the former defender said.
‘If you look in the team, there’s no men in the team. There’s not enough people organising in there. Sometimes you’ve got to grind results out. There’s no confidence there so you’ve got to grind through. A game like that’s a perfect illustration. You dig in, you nick a 2-1, or take a 1-1. Liverpool rarely if ever play badly and win. Great last year, playing well, winning games. But when they play badly they just get rolled over.’
Carragher was still critical of Liverpool’s performance after the Hull, Tottenham Hotspur on Sky Sports. When reflecting on the earlier game, he said the Liverpool players: ‘Have to look at themselves’ And that ‘Very few Liverpool players have come out of this season, let alone today, with any credit’.
Asked about Carragher’s comments post-match, Rodgers skirted the issue somewhat. He said, ‘Today wasn’t about Palace being overly physical, more about their simple game-plan of playing on the counter attack.’
Carragher was also highly critical of Liverpool goalkeeper Simon Mignolet.
