Phil Thompson: Liverpool are in crisis and I didn’t like Salah’s reaction

What’s happening with Liverpool isn’t a blip, it’s a crisis. It’s a total crisis of confidence, you can see that in the way they’re playing. Watching them against Chelsea and in their previous few games, it’s so repetitive. There are so many examples of poor decisions in every match.

A very, very miserable Jurgen Klopp got it right after the match. It comes down to those decisive moments. Not just defensively – we’ve done alright there – it’s those crucial moments in the attacking third.

It’s up front that’s the issue, and potentially a bit of midfield. The players are freezing mentally.

The downfall has been triggered by a lot of things. I remember chatting to my son in November and saying to him that I thought Man City were good enough to go the whole season unbeaten Liverpool were eight points behind them then, now they’re 22. It’s just incredible, that downfall.

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Taking Salah off was a statement

Taking Mo Salah off against Chelsea was a big call. A lot of them weren’t great, Sadio Mane has been having a torrid time, Bobby Firmino has been poor for some time, but to take off your leading goalscorer you go: ‘Wow. That was a big statement.’

You could see Mo’s reaction too, which I don’t like.

I’d rather they just came off and spoke quietly to the manager rather than reacting like that. Doing gestures in front of the cameras doesn’t help anyone. I have to say the decision to take him off was very surprising, though.

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