Jurgen Klopp’s side were once again dismal in their showings when facing Burnley at home in the midweek clash as the Merseysiders suffered their first defeat at Anfield in nearly four years courtesy of a late penalty conversion by Ashley Barnes.
Thursday night’s result meant that the Premier League holders now trail Manchester United by six points in the league standings and fear going behind primary title-challengers Manchester City by a point more should Pep Guardiola’s men emerge victorious in their game in hand.
Former Liverpool FC man and now Sky Sports pundit Jamie Carragher was brutally honest in his assessment on his old club’s chances of retaining the top-flight crown as he insisted that Jurgen Klopp’s men faced the daunting prospects of missing out on Champions League football should the recent run of form witness a recurrence.
The ex-Red urged Liverpool FC to focus on returning to much-needed winning ways and putting a timely end to the goal drought of late before making the title-defence a main priority.
‘We talked about a lack of form and Jurgen Klopp has come out and defended his players and these Liverpool players have done so well for the club,” said Carragher, as quoted by the Daily Mail.
‘The title is slipping away. It’s going to be really difficult at this moment in time. There’s six points between the top, it can still be recovered but the form they are in and the fixtures they have in the next couple of months.
‘They will start worrying about top four rather than the title. They need to get back to winning games and scoring goals before pondering about the defence of their title.
‘They’ve been so poor, he (Klopp) can’t believe what’s happening to Liverpool in the last few weeks, from the 7-0 win at Palace.
