Liverpool: Andy Gray highlights ‘worrying trend’ with team
Liverpool legend Steve Nicol believes Jurgen Klopp must make a change now or he can kiss goodbye to retaining the Champions League this season. Liverpool suffered their first Premier League defeat of the season on Saturday when they went down 3-0 at struggling Watford. But Nicol believes his former side have not been convincing for several weeks, despite sitting way ahead at the top of the Premier League table.
Next Wednesday they face a visit from Atletico Madrid in the second leg of their Champions League last-16 tie.
Atletico will take a 1-0 lead to Anfield after Saul Niguez’s early goal in the match at the Wanda Metropolitano last month.
Either side of the first leg Liverpool struggled to league wins over Norwich and West Ham, who are both near the wrong end of the table.
Nicol believes Liverpool’s “slump” has gone on too long for it to fix itself and he says Klopp must change something or it will be too late to make a comeback over Atletico.
Liverpool news: Steve Nicol says Jurgen Klopp must make a change to rediscover form (Image: GETTY/ESPN)
“The worrying thing is if it’s a couple of games and it’s been like that and there’s a reboot then I think ‘absolutely’,” Nicol said on ESPN FC.
“The worrying thing for me is that ever since the break they’ve kind of been on the slide and I’m not so sure it’s as simple as a reboot.
“I think Klopp has to take a step back. Listen, I’m all for ‘do what’s made you successful, keep it going, keep it going’, but there comes a time where if you’re in such a slump, we’re talking about five or six games here, that you have to maybe change something.
“Whether it’s in training, whether it’s your preparation, whatever it may be.
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He added: “I think what they’re going through is the mental side of the game because the physical side of the game today is very easy to figure because all the fitness coaches and all the things they put them through, they know where they are physically.
“So to me that isn’t the problem.
"It’s got to be the mental side of the game because Liverpool in this run have got all the small things right and when you get all the small things right, it stops all the big things happening.”
Liverpool are back in action on Tuesday when they visit Chelsea in the fifth round of the FA Cup.