Outspoken Irish football pundit Eamon Dunphy has said that Liverpool have been ‘overpraised’ during their winning streak, accusing them of ‘scraping by’ in recent games.
The Reds have won their last six matches to catapult themselves back into contention for a top-four finish in the Premier League, with each of their previous five victories coming by a single goal.
However, the 77-year-old – who’s publicly voiced his allegiance to the Anfield club (Irish Independent) – hasn’t been convinced by the resurgent form of Jurgen Klopp’s side.
In his column for the print edition of the Irish Daily Star on Monday (screenshot below, also shared via Buzz.ie), Dunphy wrote: “Liverpool have hit a little bit of form but they’re being way overpraised.
“They’re scraping by in games. It wouldn’t have taken much for them to have lost a couple of games in recent weeks.”
The former Republic of Ireland international also dubbed the positional change involving Trent Alexander-Arnold as ‘madness’ and believes it ‘will backfire on Liverpool big time’.
It’s true that Liverpool’s recent wins have been nervy, but it’s disingenuous from Dunphy to suggest that the Reds have been merely ‘scraping by’ of late.
If Manchester City or Arsenal reeled off a succession of one-goal wins, they’d be lauded for showing the steel and resilience of potential Premier League champions.
Go back a mere four weeks to when Klopp’s side were on a five-game winless run and, if you’d said then that they’d promptly win five successive matches by a single goal, every Kopite on Earth would’ve gladly taken it.
Liverpool deserve to be praised for the manner in which they’ve overcome their difficulties earlier in the season to finally discover consistency and be able to see out close contests, having recorded some emphatic victories in isolation throughout the campaign.
It’s also worth noting that Dunphy has made his name with a series of controversial outbursts (Bleacher Report), not least a notorious on-air rant about journalist Rod Liddle, so this is simply the latest in a long line of provocative proclamations from the Irishman.
We’ll gladly take three more one-goal wins where the Reds ‘scrape by’, especially if it gets them Champions League football for next season.
You can see the excerpt of Dunphy’s comments from his Irish Daily Star column below:
No wonder the highlight of his career was playing for York city,!!talks shite.
Maybe he should keep quiet about his allegiance to LFC. They say if you cannot say something good about someone then STFU!!!
I will take 3 more 1-0 wins everyday of the week. Wins and clean sheets!!!