Paul Scholes has laid into Liverpool on the back of Sunday’s dire display at Fulham, claiming the Reds looked “arrogant” and that Virgil van Dijk’s “sloppiness” proved infectious across the team.
It comes after arguably Liverpool’s worst Premier League display of the season as it fell to a 3-2 defeat at Craven Cottage. Van Dijk and his defensive colleagues were culpable for all three goals, with each of the five at the back partly to blame for at least one goal.
Van Dijk was outmuscled by Rodrigo Muniz just before the break as the Fulham striker slammed in a third of the game for the hosts, just days after the Liverpool center-back endured a few questionable moments against Everton striker Beto. The Dutchman’s display was symptomatic of a disjointed performance from the team, with an uncharacteristically chaotic sense to the game in the first half.
For Scholes, an 11-time Premier League winner, he feels Liverpool has allowed its focus to slip given the lack of a genuine competitor at the top of the table. The ex- Manchester United man also claimed that had Arsenal offered a serious challenge, there could have been a proper title race on the cards for Liverpool.
“It [the title race] could be prolonged. You’d expect them to beat West Ham and Leicester City. You just need someone a bit closer to them,” Scholes told Premier League Productions after Liverpool’s loss at Fulham.
“Arsenal have to be kicking themselves because this was a real opportunity, obviously with Man City not having the quality you’d expect in the title race.
“If Arsenal were a bit closer it could have got a bit shaky for Liverpool. It still could if Arsenal win all their games – you can’t think Arsenal are going to win all their games especially with the two Real Madrid games coming up.
“But Liverpool are going to limp over the line looking at today’s performance. I sense a bit of arrogance about them as if “you shouldn’t be able to land a finger on us today; you shouldn’t be able to beat us” and I think they’ve shown that in the last few weeks.
“A bit of sloppiness creeping in and I think it comes from the captain,” Scholes added. “I think he really needs to make sure that there’s a proper determination to get over the line as soon as possible.”
The loss in the capital means Liverpool now holds an 11-point gap over second-place Arsenal and needs just 10 more points from the final seven games to secure a record-equalling 20th league title.
