Steven Gerrard didn’t mince his words after Liverpool dropped yet more points at Anfield on Saturday afternoon.
The Reds were held to a 1-1 draw at home to 19th-placed Burnley, simultaneously extending their unbeaten run to 12 matches in all competitions and their winless sequence in the Premier League to four matches.
After today, all three promoted teams have come to Anfield and left with a share of the spoils, and wins for Manchester United and Chelsea have cut LFC’s gap to the teams chasing them for the fourth guaranteed Champions League berth.
Gerrard: Home draws ‘not acceptable’ for Liverpool
Speaking on TNT Sports after the result came through, Gerrard acknowledged how Arne Slot has steered Liverpool away from the nightmarish position in which they found themselves in November, but also insisted that the Dutchman will have to take criticism of this result on the chin.
The former Reds captain said: “Even though they’re on a better run in terms of unbeaten games, the draws to the likes of Leeds and Burnley at home, you know and I know that’s not acceptable, so there will be a lot of criticism that comes the manager’s way again.
“Give the manager credit – the last time we spoke about this, you [Lynsey Hipgrave] asked me was the team in a crisis and I said I didn’t think it was.
“I felt that this manager was capable of making things better, steadying the ship, and he has moved the team from the middle of the table up back into the Champions League positions. I think that will be a priority for him and the team, minimum top four this season, but that won’t take anything away from the criticism that will come his way.”
Liverpool’s home record has been frighteningly poor this season
In winning the Premier League title last season, Liverpool dropped points at Anfield only five times, and two of those came after they’d already been crowned champions.
After today, the Reds have now failed to win five of their 11 home games in the current top-flight campaign, drawing against the three promoted teams and losing to Man United and Nottingham Forest.
Even more worryingly for Slot, Lewis Steele’s assertion that the Dutchman’s style of play has become ‘hard to watch‘ will meet with agreement from many Kopites, and there were even pockets of boos at the final whistle against Burnley as some fans couldn’t disguise their frustration.
Gerrard is right to lament the succession of draws, which account for 50% of the current unbeaten run and have prevented Liverpool from pulling away from the chasing pack for a top-four finish.
It mightn’t be everyone’s cup of tea, but the xG figures of 2.96 for the Reds and 0.4 for Scott Parker’s side in today’s 1-1 draw (Sky Sports) paint a sorry picture of how wasteful we’ve been in the final third. Unless that is addressed, next season’s Champions League might not have Merseyside representation.
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