Graeme Souness has hit out at Liverpool's midfield and claimed they were "bullied" during Saturday night's shock 2-1 defeat against Leeds United at Anfield.
Jesse Marsch's strugglers condemned the Reds to another demoralising loss with a last-gasp strike from Cryscencio Summerville after Mohamed Salah had restored parity following Rodrigo's fourth minute opener.
Summerville's late intervention sealed a massive win for Marsch - who was under significant pressure prior to the match - and piled even more misery on Jurgen Klopp's side, who lost a Premier League match in front of fans at Anfield for the first time since 2017.
And Souness, a former Reds player and manager, made it clear that he felt that Liverpool's faltering engine room was responsible for the result.
He told Sky Sports after the match: "Leeds were a team playing under pressure. They didn’t play like a young team tonight, they played like a team that really believed in what they were going to do and believed they were going to get a result.
"You can say it was a lucky first goal, but that’s not the reason Liverpool lost the game, Liverpool were a country mile from where they were in the last few years: they don’t play with the same intensity.
"I think, in many instances tonight, Leeds were more than a match for what Liverpool had been doing to teams for years. They basically bullied teams Liverpool, the midfield bullied teams. Now they’re being bullied in midfield, it’s making them vulnerable at the back and they’re not creating the same chances up front. Liverpool are a shadow."
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Liverpool have been plagued by injury issues in midfield, but they were boosted by the return of Thiago Alcantara for the visit of Leeds. But the former Bayern Munich man, along with Fabinho and Harvey Elliott, failed to make the difference.
And Klopp was left to bemoan his sides inability to "control the game" after recovering from the setback of falling behind so early.
"It was a set-back, absolutely," the German told Sky Sports. "I thought we had a really good start then conceded a freakish goal. We scored the equaliser but for some reason it didn't give us the security back. We struggled to control the game and gave too many balls away.
"The boys tried, we had good possession and had big chances but, in the end, if it is 1-1 and you defend the situation around the second goal like this, you leave everything open. In the end, it was two versus one in the box and they can finish off the situation. The problem is we cannot control this type of game at the moment."
