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Former Aston Villa striker Gabriel Agbonlahor has criticized Liverpool defender Virgil van Dijk for his performance in their Premier League loss to Leeds United.
The Reds were beaten 2-1 on 30 October in what was Van Dijk's first loss at Anfield since joining the club. Rodrigo Moreno opened the scoring for the visitors after he latched on to a misplaced back pass from Joe Gomez.
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While criticizing Gomez, Agbonlahor also pointed fingers at Van Djik's positioning for the goal.
Speaking to Football Insider, he said:
“I think Van Dijk, where is he going? Van Dijk should be back trying to give him an angle. Gomez is definitely in the wrong the most but if he’s passing the ball back why isn’t Van Dijk back there? It just shows they are not talking, there’s no communication. We all got carried away by a couple of good games by Gomez. He’s had a few bad games after that."
He added:
"Liverpool are just a shambles at the moment. The biggest thing for me is that teams are attacking them more, teams aren’t sitting back. The tactics to beat Liverpool are to attack them, don’t sit back. That’s a worry. Liverpool used to be a team that teams were scared to attack and it was clean sheets galore. Now they can’t buy a clean sheet.”
Jurgen Klopp's side have endured a terrible campaign so far as they sit ninth in the league table, 15 points behind leaders Arsenal.
Their defense has been quite error-prone this season as they have kept just four clean sheets in 12 matches, conceding 15 goals.
Liverpool's final 3 fixtures before the FIFA World Cup
The Reds have had a roller-coaster of a season. They beat Manchester City and hammered Bournemouth 9-0, but also lost against the likes of Nottingham Forest and Leeds.
They lost 4-1 against Napoli in their first UEFA Champions League match but won all five of their remaining group-stage fixtures.
Jurgen Klopp's side will next face Tottenham Hotspur away in the Premier League on Sunday, 6 November. They will then host Derby County in the third round of the EFL Cup on Wednesday, 9 November.
They will close out the first part of the season by hosting Southampton in the league on 12 November in their final game before the FIFA World Cup.
