Former Liverpool great Mark Lawrenson has lashed out at our current crop of stars, describing them as wimps. The focus of his rant, which comes in the Liverpool Echo, are the defeats against Hull City, Crystal Palace and Stoke City, a series of results which saw us finish in a disappointing sixth place in the Premier League.
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We went into the game against Hull with a chance of still qualifying for the Champions League but we were ultimately found out by a succession of physical teams who were prepared to take their chances against us, much to the frustration of Lawrenson, who won 12 major honours during his time at Anfield.
Speaking about our limp finale to the campaign, Lawrenson told the Echo: “Look, I know Stoke have secured their highest points tally in Premier League history and great respect to them for that. But to lose 6-1 at the Britannia Stadium, you have to be absolutely awful.
“We started with seven players who are preferred central midfielders, and even if most of them are out of position, you’d think they’d be able to sort themselves out and not concede six goals.
“What was very curious was the fact after the game the club sent out Jordon Ibe to speak about the match. That was a really strange decision, and seemed to be taken without much thought. Having a teenager – who was a substitute – front up for the rest of the team after such a shocking display didn’t seem right.
“We just limped out of the season. And the great worry for me remains the character of the team. We had three matches against awkward opponents in Hull City, Crystal Palace and Stoke. They aren’t the best teams in terms of quality. But they are strong. And we wimped out.
“All three knew that if you get stuck into this Liverpool team, you’re going to have a lot of joy. We can play our football against every team in the country. But we clearly can’t fight against any of them.
“We lost Jamie Carragher. We lost Luis Suarez. Now we have lost Steven Gerrard. Liverpool need players who are going to stand up and scrap it out when they aren’t playing well.”
He does, of course, make several uncomfortable points here – ones that are being echoed by the vast majority of Liverpool fans. What’s certain at the moment is that this summer transfer window is going to be vitally important. We need experience, we need quality and, most importantly, we need fighters.
We can deal with defeat but what we can’t excuse are players looking like they don’t want to know. Come on boys, let’s get it right next season and have some pride in the famous red shirt.