'Not the first time' - Steve McManaman delivers brutal…

'Not the first time' - Steve McManaman delivers brutal Liverpool verdict after Bournemouth defeat

Steve McManaman laid into the performance levels of Liverpool's players after they were embarrassed by struggling Bournemouth in a sorry 1-0 away defeat.

Jurgen Klopp's side had come into the match on the back of a stunning 7-0 victory against arch-rivals Manchester United and five consecutive Premier League clean sheets, but they left the Vitality Stadium empty-handed after Philip Billing scored the only goal of the game for the Cherries.

Mohamed Salah wasted the opportunity to earn the Reds a point when he blazed a penalty wide late on, but former Anfield star McManaman was left dumbfounded by such a below-par showing following the highs of the United result last Sunday.

When asked, after the match on BT Sport, if Liverpool simply hadn't been up to the challenge, McManaman said: "It certainly looked like that, I thought they were terrible today. Contrasting fortunes for both teams - everything Liverpool did well last week when they won at Anfield was completely the opposite today. They were lethargic, they were slow, they moved the ball sideways so many times, there was no urgency to go forwards.

"Defensively, five clean sheets, they looked as if they couldn’t play again today. Stepping forwards when they don’t need to, always taking chances trying to play offside, and they’ve arguably got the quickest back four around. They just never looked as if they were going to win.

"I mentioned at half-time it was like the Nottingham Forest game, and it was - Forest were bottom of the league, showed more fight, Liverpool made chances, petered out, never looked as if they were going to win the game and it was exactly the same today. Made all kinds of substitutions, it didn’t matter. Diogo Jota made the goalie make one save, that was it. Liverpool had five super centre-forwards on today and they didn’t do anything, it’s an incredibly disappointing result.

"It’s just frustrating, isn’t it? You come five hours down the M6 to witness that, then we all have to go back up north again after getting excited about getting into the Champions League spots - they’re miles away from it judging from that performance, and it’s not the first time, this is two, three, four times this season, and that’s the worrying part of it.

"You can only ask the players - I don’t know whether it’s a timing issue, I honestly don’t know because the Nottingham Forest game was a half 12 kick-off and they struggled, they didn’t look as if they were fighting enough for it. The first 10 minutes they were okay, made a couple of chances, but the next 85 including injury-time, they could have been playing now and they still wouldn’t have scored a goal. I don’t know why you can get yourself up for a big game then come down here for a game like this and just be as flat as they were today."

A win for Liverpool in the lunchtime kick-off would have temporarily at least, moved them into the Premier League top four for the first time this season. Instead, Tottenham Hotspur were handed the opportunity to extend their advantage to six points, which they duly did by winning 3-1 at home to Forest, leaving the Reds' hopes of Champions League qualification hanging in the balance.

Liverpool now face a mountain to climb in their next fixture when they travel to Spain to face Real Madrid in the Champions League round of 16 second leg. And having lost 5-2 at home to Los Blancos in the first leg, McManaman does not hold much hope of a miracle comeback at the Bernabeu against another of his former clubs.

He said: "I wouldn’t have thought so. Madrid aren’t playing very well to be honest - drew with Betis, lost to Barca, haven’t scored, but I just think four goals is too much for Liverpool, particularly away from home. We always have to be honest with that."

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