Gary Neville suggests Arne Slot could unleash new Liverpool tactic and drop '10-year-old'
Liverpool’s 2-1 loss against Manchester United was their fourth successive defeats in all competitions.
Gary Neville has doubled down on his concerns about Milos Kerkez’s start to his Liverpool career.
The left-back joined the Reds for a fee of £40 million from AFC Bournemouth. Last season, Kerkez’s performances earned him a spot in the PFA Team of the Year as he established himself as one of the best full-backs in the Premier League.
The Hungary international has started all eight league games for Liverpool so far ahead of vice-captain Andy Robertson. However, he’s had a stuttering start and has been part of Arne Slot’s side’s recent woes that have lost four successive games after a 2-1 defeat by Manchester United at Anfield.
What’s been said
Kerkez’s impact was limited throughout, while ex-United defender Neville believes that Liverpool captain Virgil van Dijk delivered ‘one of his worst games’ of his career. Speaking on The Gary Neville Podcast, the Sky Sports pundit said: “The individual performances of Liverpool’s defenders and decision-making was really poor. The left-back has not settled in. I said on this podcast three weeks ago that he plays like a 10-year-old left-back. He’s all over the place.
“At right-back, Conor Bradley was OK today, I don’t think he did anything particularly wrong but Van Dijk, I’ve not seen Van Dijk as shaky as that. Sometimes when a player comes back from the international break, it’s been him that’s been holding it together but he had one of his worst games today. He wasn’t himself.
“If you’re stalwart, your captain, your giant in the team isn’t playing well from the first minute, it does rub off on everybody else. I don’t know what he was doing for the first goal. He’s one of the greatest centre-backs in the world and has been one of the greatest centre-backs in Premier League history but he had a difficult day and Liverpool in midfield looked all over the shop.
“They are all a bit short of where they are. [Florian] Wirtz hasn’t settled in, [Alexander] Isak hasn’t settled in, let’s just say, he’s a brilliant player. Mo Salah is well below his best.”
Change of tactics suggested
Liverpool have managed to keep only two clean sheets so far this season and conceded 11 goals in eight league games. Their lacklustre run of form leaves the Premier League champions four points behind leaders Arsenal.
To add confidence on solidity, Neville has suggested that Slot could deploy a move rigid defence, with Robertson replacing Kerkez and Joe Gomez coming in for Bradley on the right-hand side. He added: “It sounds crazy and sometimes we used to do this. Could he go Joe Gomez right-back, Robertson left-back with Konate and Van Dijk and just say: ‘Right, OK, for a couple of weeks we’re going to bulldoze our way into this league and basically keep clean sheets. Is there something in that.”
However, that is a tactic that former Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher believes Slot is unlikely to entertain. The Kop hero said: “I think it’s probably something we did in our day. I just don’t think Arne Slot is that type of manager.I think he always wants to be the sort of manager that his team are making the play, they are on the ball so he’d want the full-back to progress the ball forward and be attacking. That could be something you do in a big away game, of course.”