Michael Owen believes Liverpool need to "do some soul-searching" in a bid to turn their alarming form around after they were thrashed by Brighton on Saturday.
The Reds have endured a nightmare campaign and are miles off the pace at the top of the Premier League, where they currently trail leaders Arsenal by 16 points. Jurgen Klopp's side were stunned 3-0 by Brighton at the weekend to cap a rotten fortnight for Liverpool, who have also been humbled by Brentford since the turn of the year.
Owen, a former Anfield favourite who plundered 158 goals in 297 games for the Reds, is adamant Liverpool have already proven they are capable of rebounding - but they have work to do if they are to arrest their recent slide.
"Liverpool need to do some soul-searching at the moment, find a way of bouncing back to what we all know they’re capable of," Owen told Premier League Productions after Saturday's defeat on the south coast.
"We’ve seen it this season, we’ve absolutely seen it. They’ve beaten Manchester City 1-0, Bournemouth 9-0, they’ve been good in the Champions League, they’re into the next round of that.
"But we’ve also seen an inconsistency creep in. In fact, it’s now more consistent that they play poorly than they play well. So, you could argue that they’re more consistent than we give them credit for, but not for the right reasons!"
Klopp also slammed Liverpool's recent form and admitted after the game that the Reds' humbling on the south coast ranked as one of the worst games of his Anfield tenure.
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"Bad, really bad," Klopp told Match of the Day. "I can't remember a worse game. It's not difficult maybe. Brighton were the better team, it was well deserved. They played really well. It was a very organised team against a not very organised team.
"We gave the ball away, the spaces were too big and we couldn't push up. That is obviously not good, especially against a super well-drilled side like Brighton.
"They got more confident and we did the opposite. I can imagine they are very happy because it was a great performance and we made it too easy in too many moments. I had an idea to change the formation, which was to try and help the team. That was the idea.
"But we never did it properly. We were always a bit in between and that's the worst thing you can do. We could have done better but we didn't and that's why it looked the way it did. We need to be creative with the options we have. What I saw today from my team was that they were not really convinced by it. That's it."
