“All of them are struggling, individually” – Gary Neville names 4 Liverpool stars who are not at their best right now
Gary Neville has claimed that Liverpool's midfield issues have seen the defender get a free pass this season. He believes that Trent Alexander-Arnold, Ibrahima Konate, Virgil van Dijk, and Andy Robertson are not doing well this season and are responsible for the club's struggles.
Jurgen Klopp named the four players in the backline in the 4-3 win over Tottenham on Sunday. The Reds let slip a three-goal lead but managed to clinch the winner with Diogo Jota slotting it in the final minute of stoppage time.
Speaking on Sky Sports, Neville claimed that the Liverpool defense has been poor this season. He believes they are making several individual mistakes and are not winning their duels.
He was quoted by RousingTheKop as saying:
"There is a lot of talk about Liverpool's midfield or the time but I have to say, that back four has been outstanding for a number of years but it lets you have far too much encouragement nowadays. All of them are struggling, individually. A lot of the mistakes we see are down to individual errors and not dealing with their duels."
Van Dijk admits he has not done his best for Liverpool
Virgil van Dijk has admitted that he has not been at his best for the club this season. He is not interested in hiding from criticism, nor does he want past laurels to give him a free run.
Speaking to The Times last week, he said:
"No one is immune to criticism, if someone said that, they are lying. But when the criticism is there and you know it is right, the only thing you can do is keep your head down and focus on improving. I know my performance has been going like the team has been going, up and down."
He added:
"I know I'm one of the players who is looked at, that I set a high standard over the last five years that it's normal to be criticised. The only thing I can do is block the noise out and focus on how I deal with certain situations to be better. Over the past five years, excluding the year of my injury, I've been playing every three or four days to such a consistent level. I'm trying to get back to that and I will get back to it."
Liverpool are set to finish outside the top 4 as they are seven points behind Manchester United, who have a game in hand with five games left.