The wheels simply fell off the Liverpool wagon in Saturday night’s dismal 3-0 loss to Watford, according to Mark Lawrenson.
The Liverpool legend was speaking to Off The Ball about the Reds’ capitulation but felt that Jurgen Klopp wasn’t overly disappointed with his side’s first Premier League loss of the season.
“It was a real kind of wheels falling off [performance]. I was working for LFC TV and we had an interview with Klopp.
“The impression was in many ways he was almost like, ‘Thank goodness it’s ended because now we can just get on with winning the league etc.'
“I think his comment was something like, ‘Maybe in 500 years people would have recognised it as a good record.’ They just didn’t play. They didn’t play at all.
“I thought as well that Lovren looked extremely ring-rusty. Troy Deeney basically had him on toast at the end.
“Lovren was trying to fight him which is exactly what Deeney would have wanted. I think the performance of Lovren actually made Virgil van Dijk look ordinary yesterday,” Lawrenson said.
'They've just had a break, haven't they?'
Liverpool have had a hectic season so far with fatigue theorised as a possible reason behind their below-par performance.
However, the former Republic of Ireland international wasn’t convinced that weariness was the reason behind the uncharacteristic performance.
“They’ve just had a break, haven’t they? The thing about all these football clubs is now that you can test the red blood cells and the white blood cells.
“Quite often a lot of them are tested the day before the game and the doctor can say to the manager, ‘Bobby Firmino’s a little bit low. The manager has to make a decision then.
“Sports science is so good nowadays that they kind of know when people are in the red zone,” Lawrenson commented.
Liverpool remain 22 points clear at the top of the Premier League table but the loss will hurt fans hoping for an unbeaten season.
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