Liverpool legend Steve Nicol believes Mohamed Salah, Sadio Mane and Roberto Firmino are the Reds’ problem players at the moment.
The Premier League champions find themselves in a poor run of form, having not won any of their last three games, against West Brom, Newcastle United and Southampton.
Salah, Mane and Firmino have also only scored once between them in that time, with the trio lacking a threat in the final third.
While defensive issues remain at the moment, Nicol told ESPN that Liverpool’s front-three are a weak-link currently:
I think it’s pretty clear where the problems are. It’s up front. The front three are not producing, not delivering… they’re not even creating!
Yes, at Newcastle they made opportunities but this Southampton game and the West Brom game, they never created anything. If you aren’t going to create, then you aren’t going to score goals.
This is where Klopp comes into it as well and earns his corn. It’s all very well saying, this is wrong, this isn’t right – the fact is these three games we’re talking about, they’ve had over 70 per cent possession of the ball in every game.
So it’s not a complete and utter shambles. The fact is Klopp now has to have a quiet word and a clever word with the front three.
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While Salah, Mane and Firmino have been disappointing of late, it is unfair to heap the blame solely on them.
For starters, the supply to them has been largely poor, with Trent Alexander-Arnold in particularly below-par form, and the midfield lacking creativity.
The team as a whole seems to be lacking rhythm and goal threat, perhaps partly because the shortage of defenders is making Jurgen Klopp slightly more cautious in his approach.
There is no doubt that Salah, Mane and Firmino will be back to their best soon, though – it’s not long ago that they scored five goals between them in the 7-0 win away to Crystal Palace.
