Journalist Tony Evans joined Joe Molloy on The Football Show to discuss Liverpool and their disappointing start to the season.
Liverpool won the Community Shield and beat Manchester City en route.
Darwin Nunez had a positive impact and scored in that game. Nunez came off the bench to score and get an assist against Fulham in Liverpool's first Premier League game of the year. After a preseason focused on the new striker, this should have meant Liverpool had a great start to the year.
Instead, they drew away to Fulham while Erling Haaland scored twice to put Manchester City in pole position from the very start of the year.
Jurgen Klopp is, predictably, unhappy. And Tony Evans says it's easy to see why.
"They were absolutely dreadful [against Fulham]," Evans said.
"The midfield as a whole were awful, and you'd think that was close to his first choice midfield. Fabinho was dreadful. It was probably the worst game I've seen him have for a long time. Thiago had one of those games where nothing came off. Henderson worked hard but toiled going nowhere."
Evans acknowledges that Fulham played well but there was a significant drop-off between the first game of the season and the second. Liverpool have a lot of injuries in midfield, but that is to depth players. Thiago, Fabinho and Henderson would likely start when everyone is fully fit.
The question now is if they should continue to start together moving forward? Because Evans says they were primarily at fault for the loss.
"Really it was the midfield. They were overrun. The Liverpool midfield is generally there to provide balance [behind their front line] and it's not the creative hub of the side. That's the wing backs. We all know that. But normally what they do is stop the opposition playing.
"And they let Fulham have the ball."
Naby Keita, Curtis Jones, Harvey Elliott and James Milner are options for Klopp moving forward. Thiago will miss the next six weeks through injury, while any talk of a new signing are lacking real foundation. Jude Bellingham isn't walking through that door anytime soon, so Klopp needs to fix the unit from within.
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