John Giles believes Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers is failing to get the best out of the players available to him.
Rodgers has been criticised for the signings he made over the summer, while an injury to Daniel Sturridge has been a blow.
But on paper, reputation and cost, Liverpool had a stronger side against FC Basel in the Champions League and still came up short.
"If you look at Basel the other night, there was no world class players or players that we knew about and they were the better team. I thought they deserved to beat Liverpool. They looked better organised and used the ball better so their manager did a much better job than Brendan Rodgers did with Liverpool in that particular game," he said.
John also said he would play Steven Gerrard in the same role he occupied last season, adding that Sturridge's injury and "flop" Mario Balotelli means cracks are no longer being covered.
He also believes that the Gerrard contract situation suggests that Rodgers is not in complete charge of that issue.
"If he was offered what Rodgers would want him to be offered, I think he would sign straight away. But I think there is a bit of conflict between what Rodgers wants and what the [transfer] committee want in Gerrard's situation."
John also gave his take on Manchester City's progress to the knockout stages and admits that their last couple of European games are a "turning point".
But he also believes the club need to get the injured Sergio Aguero as back as possible.
John also backed Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger, saying he is taken for granted. But he believes Lukas Podolski's goalscoring record should merit a run in the team, while he also gave his take on Aaron Ramsey's wonder goal at Galatasaray.
"I've never seen a goal like that in my life," said John.
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