Pundit hits out at six players in ‘shocking’ Liverpool display as Klopp comes under fire

Gabby Agbonlahor insists Liverpool midfielder Fabio Carvalho “doesn’t look like he’s Premier League quality” after their 1-0 loss to Nottingham Forest.

Taiwo Awoniyi came back to haunt his former club on Saturday as he scored the only goal of the game to give Forest their second three points of the season.

Awoniyi was on the books at Anfield for six years without playing a single minute for Liverpool and his strike inflicted the Reds’ third defeat of the league campaign.

Liverpool have only won four of their opening 11 Premier League matches with Jurgen Klopp’s side remaining in seventh place in the standings.

The Reds had seemed back on track with morale-boosting victories over Manchester City and West Ham over the last seven days but the result at Forest has dampened expectations again.

Speaking on talkSPORT, former Aston Villa striker Agbonlahor said: “Where do you start with Liverpool?

“First of all, Fabio Carvalho doesn’t look like he’s Premier League quality. He doesn’t look ready, he needs another season out on loan. He struggled, he’s not influenced the game, he looked non-existent. Harvey Elliott played well, but Curtis Jones struggled. These are talented kids but right now Liverpool need players to turn up

“And Fabinho’s legs have gone. His idea of a sprint is like a walk at the moment. Liverpool have got a lot of problems. Roberto Firmino is inconsistent, Mohamed Salah was poor today, and Joe Gomez, he has two decent games and everyone is saying he can go to the World Cup, but today he was awful again. So sloppy.

“Mr Mentality Monster, Jurgen, five games away from home without a win this season – can he only get them up for home games at a full Anfield?

“Can he not get his ‘mentality monster’ team up for away games? Because today was shocking from Liverpool. Every player apart from Alisson was below a five out of ten today.”

And his fellow talkSPORT pundit Jamie O’Hara pointed to the midfield as Liverpool’s weakness, he added: “It was a shocking performance from Liverpool. It’s alright when you’re turning up against Man City and the place is rocking and you’re going full tilt, but when you play against Nottingham Forest who were bottom of the league you’ve got to be picking up results there.

“You’re talking about Liverpool being back, they’re going to get into the top-four, a lot of Liverpool fans are even saying the title race isn’t over – they’re nowhere near! They’re miles off it!

“I look at the team today, Liverpool’s midfield was Elliott, Fabinho, Jones and Carvalho – that is not a world-class midfield. I saw that and thought, ‘That can’t be right! That can’t be Liverpool’s midfield!’ Where’s it gone?!”