Former Newcastle United striker Alan Shearer claims that Virgil van Dijk and Ibrahima Konate were \u201call over the place\u201d as Liverpool lost to Brentford on Saturday.<\/p>\n
In one month, Liverpool<\/strong><\/a> have gone from five points clear at the top of the Premier League to seven points adrift of leaders Arsenal.<\/p>\n The Reds have now lost four games on the spin with defeats to Crystal Palace, Chelsea, Manchester United and Brentford leaving them in seventh position.<\/p>\n Arne Slot\u2019s midfield looks disjointed, while their defence is a shadow of the one which conceded just 41 goals on the way to the Premier League title last term.<\/p>\n Although Milos Kerkez, Jeremie Frimpong and other new signings have taken a lot of the blame for their poor form, Shearer reckons Konate and Van Dijk were \u201cawful\u201d against Brentford in their 3-2 loss on Saturday.<\/p>\n Shearer told The Rest Is Football podcast: \u201cSay what you want about Liverpool in midfield or up front, but defensively, oh my word.<\/p>\n READ:\u00a0Where will Liverpool 2025\/26 end up in the top 10 worst Premier League title defences?<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cThe two full-backs have had a lot of stick and a lot of criticism and I understand that, but the two centre halves (Konate and Van Dijk) are all over the place. They have been terrible, and they were again at Brentford. They were awful, both of them, Van Dijk and Konate.\u201d<\/p>\n Former Liverpool defender Steve Nicol accused Van Dijk of a \u201chorrible piece of defending\u201d to give away a penalty against Brentford as a \u201cdisease\u201d spreads around the camp.<\/p>\n Nicol told ESPN: \u201cThe penalty sums up exactly what Liverpool are right now.<\/p>\n \u201cYou have your so called leader, so called best defender in the world, who has given a penalty away on the edge of the box on a ball that he is so late to. He\u2019s tried to clear it!<\/p>\n \u201cIt is such a horrible piece of defending from a guy who we know can be so good. It is like a disease, it is spreading around the whole team.\u201d<\/p>\n MORE LIVERPOOL COVERAGE ON F365\u2026 Mohamed Salah has taken on plenty of criticism in recent weeks and was dropped to the bench by Slot for their 5-1 Champions League victory over Eintracht Frankfurt in midweek \u2013 but Nicol reckons the Liverpool forward should start their next match.<\/p>\n On the Egyptian, Nicol added: \u201cThe reason why I said he should start the next game is because goals change players.<\/p>\n \u201cThey change the mindset and the fact he has got a goal will change his mindset from doom and gloom, to \u2018right, I\u2019ve broken the ice, now I can go forward and keep scoring goals\u2019.<\/p>\n \u201cDo you really turn around and not play him? Again, another reason why he should be playing is because there isn\u2019t really anyone knocking on the door saying \u2018you can\u2019t leave me out\u2019. So I think the goal means he has to play.<\/p>\n \u201cHad he finished the game like he has done all season, then you would be within your right to leave him out, but I think that goal means you have to play him.\u201d<\/p>\n
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