Jamie Carragher has taken aim at Danny Murphy after he claimed the former Liverpool defender was looking for 'excuses' following his old club’s latest defeat.
Liverpool suffered an embarrassing start to their Champions League campaign with a 4-1 away loss to Napoli on Wednesday night. The defeat was the latest in a number of setbacks for the Reds this season.
Piotr Zielinski opened the scoring for the hosts from the penalty spot before scoring again in the second-half. Andre-Franck Zambo Anguissa thenb capitalised on Liverpool's shambolic defending to double the hosts' lead.
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Substitute striker Giovanni Simeone made it three before half-time to score on his Champions League debut. The forward is the son of Atletico Madrid boss Diego.
Speaking after the game, Carragher expressed his concern that Liverpool’s poor form is because they got their transfer ideas in the summer wrong.
He said: “The problem tonight is not that game. Forget this game. For me the big worry is that, it is almost something that's going to carry on through the season? Is this an end of a cycle?
“Liverpool massively got the transfer ideas in the summer wrong because this team is so far off and it has been at full pelt for five or six years.
“Is this a massive drop off physically because of what's happened over the last five or six years, the way they've played, how intensive they've been. And can this team get it back?”
However, Murphy claimed that Carragher was just being wise after the event and was looking for some excuses following Liverpool’s latest defeat. The former England midfielder also claimed Liverpool owners, FSG, can’t be blamed for the club’s form.
“No,” Murphy first replied when asked by Jim White on talkSPORT if FSG had let Liverpool down in this summer’s transfer market.
“A few people have jumped on this about the transfer policy in the summer. I don’t remember anyone doing any articles or talking on our show or any TV station about what they was lacking in defence or midfield.
“They brought in Konate for £50m to help with Matip, Gomez and Virgil van Dijk, there is four. They have brought in full-backs to cover the ones they have got.
“They spent £85m on a striker to help try and fill the void left by Mane’s goals and assists that they are going to miss. Where haven’t they backed him?
“Ideally you go and give him a load of money to go and get another one, but that stumps the growth of Harvey Elliott or Carvalho.
“It is about finding a balance between sometimes giving those youngsters as well. Harvey Elliott we wouldn’t have seen if you keep buying £30m, £40m and £50m midfielders.
“Where do you stop with that? Do you want Liverpool to become Man City? They can’t. They have to try and do it a different way.
“It is all well and good being wise after the event. I didn’t see too many articles this summer where people were going Liverpool don’t get a midfielder this summer they aren’t going to challenge for the title.
“Everyone, including me, was going it is going to be between Liverpool and City again and they nearly won the quadruple. Three months ago we were talking about Liverpool nearly having one of the best season’s in history.”
Then asked by White if Carragher was being wise after the event, he said: “Yeah, I think so. I think he is looking for some excuses really or reasons and not looking at the obvious, which is a simple mindset change of some of the players, who have become complacent and thinking they are a bit better than they are and they need to get back to some basics.”
However, Carragher took issue with Murphy’s comments, and wrote on Instagram in reply: “Not once said Liverpool got it massively wrong in the transfer market & I’m not being wise after the event!
“Everyone knew LFC needed/wanted a midfielder, Klopp, club, fans. They tried for Tchouameni & couldn’t get Bellingham right now. Keep up with the click bait.”
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