Roy Keane tore into Liverpool for being ‘bad champions’ and warned that it will be another 30 years before they lift another Premier League title.
They were beaten 4-1 by Man City on Sunday with Alisson Becker making two uncharacteristic errors that were punished by the visitors.
Ilkay Gundogan skied a first half penalty before making amends after the break.
Mohamed Salah converted from the spot before those Alisson mistakes resulted in a second for Gundogan and one for Raheem Sterling.
Phil Foden finished off his sparkling performance with a late fourth.
Liverpool now look unlikely to retain their title as they are ten points behind City having played a game more.
Keane went on a furious rant after the final whistle as he made a scathing assessment of Jurgen Klopp’s side.
“We spoke before the game – they are making a lot of excuses. To me they’ve been bad champions,” he fumed.
“You can lose a game of football but…I can’t figure this group out. Looking at them, even during the week Brighton were comfortable, you can get beaten in a game – there’s a way to be beaten. But I don’t see that.
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“I think maybe they’ve believe the hype over the last year or two. We spoke about there would be some sort of drop off but they’re playing for a big team in Liverpool. Almost if they won the league last year and got a big carried away, believe their own hype they’re going to beat teams.
“In my mindset when you’ve won a league title your next challenge is ‘can we do it again’. I never got the impression from this squad/group, from their interviews, even from the manager last year when they won it were they saying ‘what’s the next step for Liverpool?’. No. Almost let’s enjoy this.
“Obviously it was a long wait, 30 years, but I never heard any of the players come out and say ‘I want to do it again’. That’s the key.
“Now they’re talking about trying to get in the top four…from winning the league last year. The top four is now where our targets are?
“They’re a huge club. They have to deal with setbacks [Virgil van Dijk]. Is that not part of the game. If players were fit the whole time it would be fantastic.
“You could look at Man City and say they’re missing their two best players. They’ve come to Liverpool – who have a strong team, I know the two centre halves are missing but they still had their best attacking players on the pitch, still had their best goalkeeper available, they still have international players in available. And after the game I think Klopp said the keeper’s feet were cold.
“That’s a new one. I know it’s tongue-in-cheek a little but it’s excuses after excuses. Klopp said earlier City had a break because of the virus, missed two days training. It just goes on and on and on.
“You want a reaction from Liverpool’s performance against Brighton. You go to United in the FA Cup, they shipped seven earlier in the season to Villa. With Van Dijk.
“You could say it’s a one off, a freak season, it’s Corona. Just get on with it. Perform like champions.
“You’re Liverpool football club it will be another 30 years before you win the league title. Trust me.”
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