?Former Manchester United defender Gary Neville was fairly critical of Liverpool’s ability to get past tight defences after the Reds lost a bit of ground in their bid for a top four finish on Sunday.
Jurgen Klopp must have been encouraged by Tottenham losing to West Ham on Friday, but the German could not inspire his team to a victory against Claude Puel’s resolute Southampton side.
James Milner had the best chance to get a goal from the match, but Saints stopper Fraser Forster saw to it that the Englishman missed his first penalty since 2009, with a low save in the 66th minute of the match.
Klopp and his men had to settle for a 0-0 draw. And Neville, now a pundit, reckons that the Anfield side aren’t good enough when it comes to scoring against teams who defend deep.
“For Liverpool there is an obvious sort of weakness in the sense that they can’t break teams down when they defend deep against them,” the former United man said in his podcast.
Klopp, however, had a different diagnosis, blaming Anfield’s dry grass for the performance.
“I know nobody wants to hear it, but I’m brave enough to say it, the pitch was really dry,” he said after the game. “We gave [it] all the water we had and after 15 minutes it was really dry. It was difficult, you could see it.
“A lot of passes you thought: ‘Why are they playing this?’ But it was difficult. In a home game you need to have the best possible circumstances. For today, we couldn’t have this. It’s nobody’s fault, it’s only a description.”
Kavan Flavius is a regular contributor to the Official Chelsea Guest Fan Blog, find him on Twitter @KavanFlavius.
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