Former Liverpool Stars Point the Finger at Big Money Signing Following Defeat in Belgrade

Following Liverpool’s humbling defeat to the Serbian side Red Star Belgrade last night, fingers were pointed at a number of players.

Many pointed towards Daniel Sturridge and Adam Lallana in particular, but two former Liverpool legends also felt that one of the strongest performers this season was one of the men at fault.

Brazilian International goalkeeper Alisson Becker joined the Anfield club in the summer for £56m from Roma, and Teamtalk have reported that the former Liverpool stars Steve McManaman and Michael Owen felt the stopper was particularly at fault for the second goal in the game.

Srdjan Stevanovic/GettyImages

Liverpool lost 2-0 in the Serbian capital thanks to two quick-fire first half strikes by Milan Pavkov. After the midfield had let Pavkov get away and the defence backed off allowing him to shoot, Alisson appeared to react too slowly allowing the second goal get past him.

McManaman, speaking after the game on BT Sport, clearly felt the Brazilian international should have kept the shot out and kept his side in the game at that point.

“Wijnaldum lets him get away he should just foul him there, Matip and van Dijk are just backing off and backing off and the keeper should have stopped it as well,” McManaman said.

Srdjan Stevanovic/GettyImages

His former Liverpool teammate Michael Owen then added: “There’s a catalogue of errors and as you say the goalkeeper could probably do better as well.”

The defeat has left Liverpool in third place and made it much harder for them to qualify with Napoli and PSG both ahead of them, and it has pointed out some frailties they have within the squad.

Srdjan Stevanovic/GettyImages

Alisson has been a standout performer this season since joining the Premier League club but this will have been a wake up call for him and his team mates, with his manager Jurgen Klopp expecting a positive reaction to avoid a repeat of such a defeat moving forward.