Plus: Darwin Nunez must be more clinical, says Jamie Carragher; Liverpool winger Luis Diaz made an emotional Premier League return as he scored stoppage-time equaliser at Luton; Tahith Chong had opened the scoring for Luton in the 1-1 draw
Monday 6 November 2023 11:52, UK
Jamie Carragher says Liverpool need a holding midfielder and a top defender to challenge for Premier League title again, adding Darwin Nunez must be more clinical.
Luis Diaz scored an emotional late equaliser for Liverpool, cancelling out Tahith Chong's opener for Luton as a entertaining Super Sunday ended in a 1-1 draw.
The Reds struggled to score against the Hatters - a mixture of good defending and wasted chances - and have now failed to win any of their last four away games against newly-promoted teams.
Speaking on Sky Sports after the game, Carragher pointed to the areas where Liverpool can improve and says they are not yet ready to win another Premier League trophy.
"Liverpool still aren't as good as Man City at stopping counter-attacks," the former defender said.
"Liverpool are a team who dominate possession, they have a lot of the ball, but they're not quite as good as Man City off the ball so there are more turnovers and they lose the ball.
"Opponents do seem to find spaces a lot more to and attack and get in behind Liverpool. Luton didn't have the quality to really punish them, except for the goal we saw.
"Liverpool in midfield are improved from what we saw last season, but they still haven't got a top holding midfielder.
"(Alexis) MacAllister isn't a top holding midfielder. He's good on the ball in terms of receiving, but defensively, he finds it really tough and he lacks a bit of pace for that position.
"In the back four, Liverpool could do with not so much a player for a specific position, but just a great defender who can almost play in a couple of positions.
"They went with (Joe) Gomez [on Sunday] at left-back because they thought he would be stronger defensively. I think Liverpool could do with a player in that position on the other side at right-back and maybe release Trent (Alexander-Arnold) into midfield.
"Liverpool are not ready to win the league. Jurgen Klopp and Liverpool supporters know that right now.
"They want to get back into the top four. In terms of challenging again, I think they need a holding midfielder and a top-class defender."
Jurgen Klopp told Sky Sports before the trip to Kenilworth Road that Nunez's improvement this season is 'exciting' - but the forward was unable to score any of his nine shots.
One incident in the second half saw him fire wide from mere yards out, which will add fuel to the fire for his detractors.
While there were positives for Liverpool's No 9, Carragher has called on Nunez to be more clinical in some moments and keep himself away from becoming a meme online.
"There's so much to admire about Darwin Nunez," he told Sky Sports.
"He's had a great season so far, but he has moments like that [his miss in the second half] where the people who are not maybe huge fans of his can point at that.
"He has to change those situations like that. There was a moment in the first half where he could have had a different type of finish and he's got to bring that to his game - be a bit more delicate rather than putting your foot through it every time.
"He's dangerous, he's a handful, he's never going to be the most clinical. We know that now, he's been in our league almost 18 months.
"But there's no doubt there's been a big improvement this season - he's Liverpool's No 9.
"But he just got to stop the memes on social media and people looking at the big chances that he misses. He's got to be more clinical in those situations."
Liverpool boss Klopp also played down the miss, telling Sky Sports: "It's just one of these days that's completely normal.
"It was offside once or twice, so it wouldn't have been a goal and they're not important. The one ball Mo (Salah) squares with a header, I think Mo can already do it himself.
"The first half one onto the crossbar is really well executed, just unlucky. And we had other moments.
"When he has more than 50 per cent [of Liverpool shots] it speaks for him that he was involved in everything, but then something wasn't 100 per cent right because with the quality we have we have to mix it more up.
"It's fine. It's not our dream result but we are all old enough to accept things."
