Former Liverpool striker Stan Collymore has launched a blistering attack on Sky Sports pundits Graeme Souness and Jose Mourinho for their comments on the Reds.
Following Jurgen Klopp’s side’s 1-1 draw with Manchester United on Sunday, the duo suggested that Liverpool struggle to break down defensive-minded teams.
Collymore, it seems, didn’t take kindly to that suggestion: “I was almost seething after the game about the comments from Jose Mourinho and Graeme Souness that Liverpool struggle against teams defending deep,” he wrote in his Daily Mirror column.
“I’ve never heard so much tripe in my life — they’re European champions, they have lost one of their last 47 league games, they’re unbeaten in 18, they have won the Super Cup and Champions League and 95 per cent of teams who go to Anfield will play defensively. So there’s not one statistic to back up what they were saying.”
OPINION
If the comments from Souness and Mourinho had Collymore ‘almost seething’ then he probably needs to try and relax a little bit. Go for a stroll along the beach, Stan, or visit a cat cafe – something, anything to cure your seemingly violent obsession with the beautiful game. Seriously, he needs to relax. However, he’s right in what he says about most teams that face Liverpool lining up defensively, which kind of detracts from the validity of Souness and Mourinho’s comments. Souness and Mourinho likely fell victim to recency bias, focusing on the game they’d just watched rather than the bigger picture. Of course the Reds struggled to break Man Unite down, while they also huffed and puffed without much success until a goalkeeper gaffe spared them against Sheffield United last month. But when you consider the unbelievable run of form Klopp’s team have been on it doesn’t do Souness and Mourinho’s argument any favours.
