Graeme Souness slams ‘unacceptable’ Liverpool after woeful display against struggling Fulham, as Reds legend blasts Jurgen Klopp’s champions for ‘playing second fiddle to a side fighting relegation at home’
- Graeme Souness has slammed Liverpool’s first half display against Fulham
- The Reds went into the half time break a goal down to the relegation strugglers
- Souness labelled the champions an ‘easy touch’ and bemoaned their struggles
- Liverpool are looking to avoid a sixth-successive league defeat at Anfield
Graeme Souness has slammed ‘unacceptable’ Liverpool after Jurgen Klopp’s side put in a poor first half performance against relegation strugglers Fulham at Anfield.
The German made seven changes from the side that lost to Chelsea in midweek in a bid to avoid an unprecedented sixth-successive at their home ground, that has so long been viewed as a fortress.
However, the Reds put in another flat opening 45 minutes despite the extensive changes, with a late Mario Lemina strike giving Scott Parker’s side a surprise lead heading into the interval.
Graeme Souness has slammed ‘unacceptable’ Liverpool after their first half display on Sunday
The Premier League champions went into the half time break behind after a Mario Lemina goal
And Souness, who has described the champions as an ‘easy touch’ of late, labelled his former side’s performance as ‘unacceptable’, insisting that they have played ‘second fiddle’ to the Cottagers.
‘It’s been disappointing,’ the Sky Sports pundit said. ‘You’ve got a group of players who will be looking to tell the manager by their performances “we should really be in the starting 11.” That has not happened today from any of them.
‘They have been a shadow [of their former selves]. There is one word I associate with Liverpool the last three years:, intensity. They were a team you didn’t want to play against. Now it is a team that are an easy touch, and that is unacceptable.’
The Reds legend has bemoaned his former side for ‘playing second fiddle’ to the strugglers
Souness went onto call into question Klopp’s decision to make wholesale changes for the visit of the Londoners, adding that it is a ‘dangerous game’ to pin their Champions League qualification hopes on winning this season’s edition of the competition.
‘I don’t think by choice you make seven changes at any time,’ Souness continued. ‘Maybe he has had words with one or two, he has not got the response he wanted and he has gone down this road.
‘Prior to this game, it has still not gone for them, prior to this game Liverpool still had a great chance of top four, putting all your eggs in one basket for the Champions League, “to qualify for the Champions League next year we have to win it this year”, that is a very dangerous road to go down.
Jurgen Klopp’s side are looking to avoid a sixth-successive home league defeat at Anfield
‘Personally I would have gone with my strongest eleven, put this one to bed after an hour, 70 minutes, get your big hitters off and look ahead to Leipzig.
‘They look like they are playing second fiddle to a side fighting for relegation at home, at Anfield, unacceptable.’
Should the Reds fail to rescue a result at Anfield on Sunday, they will remain in seventh in the Premier League table, four points off fourth-placed Chelsea who have a game in hand.