Souness tells Liverpool boss Klopp to ‘kill the board’ by uttering eight words

Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp has been told by Graeme Souness to “kill the board” by publicly calling them out over a lack of transfer backing.

The Reds have made a poor start to the new Premier League season with just four wins from 12 matches so far.

They had looked to be heading in the right direction with back-to-back Premier League wins over Manchester City and West Ham but Jurgen Klopp’s side reverted back to their inconsistent form over the last week or so.

Defeats to Nottingham Forest and Leeds United, both over the last two weekends, has seen Liverpool take up ninth position in the standings, eight points adrift of fourth-placed Newcastle United and 15 points behind leaders Arsenal.

Liverpool brought Fabio Carvalho, Darwin Nunez and Calvin Ramsay to the club early on in the summer before a late loan swoop for Juventus midfielder Arthur completed their business – but the Brazilian is already out with injury for a number of months.

And Souness thinks Klopp needs to use his power at the club to force Liverpool’s owners FSG to put their hand in their pocket over the next couple of transfer windows.

Souness told talkSPORT: “I find it hard given that Jurgen has had such a fantastic period at Liverpool that he can now make demands on the owners to say that ‘I want this’ and ‘I want that’.

“I think that they have to listen to him.

“Taking Arthur Melo when he took him shows that he quickly realised that he didn’t have enough in midfield and it’s not rocket science to look at the age of your team, because you’re working with them every day and it jumps out at you.”

Souness added: “They’re businessmen. They’re American and this is a business for them and when they get the right offer they’ll take an enormous offer and move on.

“What I find hard to understand is that when you’ve been as successful as Jurgen Klopp has been at Liverpool, he can put them under pressure to spend money.

“He has a big say now. He only has to utter the words ‘the board are not supporting me with transfers’ and it kills the board.

“We’re 12 games in, but at the end of last season you must see this coming.

But fellow talkSPORT pundit and former Crystal Palace chairman Simon Jordan thinks there should be blame at Klopp’s door as well as the owners – but he does sympathise with the Liverpool boss.

Jordan said: “I always try and make the case that it can’t just be the owner’s responsibility. It has to be the manager and owner all-in together.

“There’s an argument to suggest that they’re not matching, pound-for-pound, the other clubs that they’re trying to chase down.

“If you look at Liverpool’s spend over the past three seasons, they don’t spend over £75million and that’s their gross spend.

“If you take into consideration what they sell, they’re spending about £20-£25million per season which, if you’re looking to push the envelope to keep pace with the Man City’s of the world who will spend more than that, it makes the case that Liverpool aren’t spending enough money to keep pace with those that they’re trying to keep pace with.”

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