Roy Keane has taken aim at Liverpool’s players (Image: Getty)
Roy Keane ripped into Liverpool’s players and branded Arne Slot’s side « bad champions ». After cruising to last season’s title, this campaign has brought plenty of problems for the Reds.
Not only are Arne Slot’s side already out of the title race as they sit a huge 21 points behind Arsenal, but they are also in a battle to secure Champions League football next season. And they suffered a setback in that battle on Sunday afternoon when Richarlison scored a minute from time to secure Tottenham Hotspur a point at Anfield.
Dominik Szoboszlai had given his side the lead after just 18 minutes, but it was a case of another same old story for Liverpool as the former Everton man pounced on some poor defending to secure his side a precious point as they bid to avoid relegation to the Sky Bet Championship.
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And speaking after the game, former Manchester United captain Keane took aim at Liverpool’s players for this season’s drop-off and believes there are bigger issues going on behind the scenes.
“Considering they were league champions last year, I’ve said it before and I’ve said it a number of times, Liverpool are bad champions,” he told Sky Sports.
“They have been bad champions and they were bad champions a couple of years ago. They are now 21 points behind Arsenal, what a drop-off that is! That is so bad.
“I think there are issues going on in the background; I think there are bigger issues. They are details you can fix, but I think there is stuff going on, I don’t know if they are all on the same page and there doesn’t seem to be that chemistry with the players.
Virgil van Dijk after Liverpool’s draw with Tottenham (Image: Getty)
“You are on about when you win big titles, sometimes the big challenges the following year – can you back it up?
“You can obviously have a drop-off, and City have had a drop-off recently in terms of their high standards, but they are still competing in second or third.
“They are not 20 or 30 points behind the team who is winning the league. That is a drop-off, but for Liverpool to be so far off last year, they lost four games; they have lost nine already this year, and I find it hard to get my head around that.”
And when it was pointed out to him that some of those defeats last season came when Liverpool had already won the league, Keane continued: « They were slacking off a little bit and switched off, of course.
“But it is almost that mentality, and last year I was critical of Liverpool, and I felt they were always partying too much. They were partying with four, five, or six weeks to go, and there was celebrations after every home game, and you are going. You are Liverpool Football Club; are you not expected to win league titles?
“So when you do win it, enjoy it, but let’s back it up next year. That is why you are playing for the big clubs, not like those teams who win a trophy and then disappear for 10 / 15 years, and I will be thinking the same about Arsenal.
“When Arsenal win the league this year, I don’t want Arsenal to disappear for the next three, four or five years. You have got to back it up and not be 20, 30 points behind the top team next year; you have got to compete. That is your challenge.
“And when you are giving up goals like that, whether it was the ones at Wolves recently or even the game against Man City, I look at this group of players, their mentality and work rate and desire and what they are doing on the training pitch, and I don’t like what I see with this Liverpool group. I just don’t like it.”
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