Gary Neville admits he is “alarmed” by Liverpool’s “physical depression” in recent performances after a downturn in form this season.
The Reds lost 3-2 at Arsenal last weekend, leaving them 14 points off the Gunners at the top of the Premier League.
And Neville believes Jurgen Klopp’s side are displaying major signs of fatigue as they strive to kick-start their season ahead of facing Manchester City on Sunday.
“I’ve praised Liverpool and [Jürgen] Klopp for the last five, six years for the levels they’ve reached – it’s been off the scale – but I felt before the game Arsenal fans were expecting to win,” Neville said on The Overlap, in partnership with Sky Bet.
“Despite the equaliser for Liverpool in the second-half, Arsenal actually didn’t break stride in their performance, they were better before that goal for Liverpool and better after it straight away. It’s almost like they dusted themselves down, got to the halfway line and just carried on going at them [Liverpool].
“I felt Liverpool were just flexing their muscles a little bit in the first half, but that second half, alarmed me. I’m not talking about playing badly, I’m talking about the physical depression in their performance seemed alarming to me.”
Neville added Liverpool have lacked pace this season and an ability to press and produce consistent counter-attacks.
“In terms of Liverpool [this season], when he [Jürgen Klopp] first came in, the first two years was frantic. It wasn’t really a polished team; it was just brilliant to watch and exciting. Then they became good at possession – and you had the pressing, the counter-attack,” Neville added.
“They like the slow game now, but the frantic bit, the pressing has gone, and that was everything to me about a Klopp team. The emotion of last season is just catching up with them and not having anything in the tank this season. I can look back on moments where that’s happened.”
