Former Hull City striker Dean Windass has accused the Liverpool squad of having let down Jurgen Klopp this term with a drop in mentality.
The Reds have struggled to replicate their title-winning form of the prior season, now finding themselves five points adrift of fourth spot with nine league games remaining.
“Liverpool players have let the manager down this year,” the 51-year-old told Football FanCast. “You go and win the title by playing extremely well all season and it looks as if they’ve gone ‘well we’ve won the league, we can go back to not winning it for another 30 years’.“
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Has there been a drop in focus from the squad?
It’s a little unfair, to say the least, to point fingers at the players considering the absolute disruption that has been caused to Liverpool’s first-XI.
Let’s not be quick to forget that we’ve spent much of the season without our starting centre-back duo, Virgil van Dijk and Joe Gomez, the former of which is vital to our overall style of play, not to mention months without Diogo Jota and Thiago Alcantara.
The impact of injuries has been forensically analysed but, of course, it’s clear that the loss of various key men throughout the year has had a knock-on effect on confidence and the workings of a usually extremely well-oiled machine.
As for a drop in mentality – our remaining Premier League and Champions League ties with some semblance of a full-strength side will be telling.
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