Paul Scholes slams ‘arrogant and sloppy’ Liverpool star after Fulham defeat | Football

Paul Scholes has suggested that one player is responsible for Liverpool’s recent ‘sloppiness’ following their shock defeat at Fulham in the Premier League.

Liverpool arrived at Craven Cottage on Sunday expecting to edge closer to the league title and took an early lead through Alexis Mac Allister.

But Fulham responded in style, scoring three goals in 14 first-half minutes to control of the match, stunning Arne Slot and his players.

Luis Diaz found the back of the net late on but it was no avail as the Cottagers held on to win, with the Reds losing only their second league game of the season and their first away from home.

With Arsenal dropping points at Everton on Saturday, Liverpool still have an 11 point lead at the top of the table with seven games to go, and Scholes acknowledges it is an almost certainty that they’ll win the title.

Nevertheless, he was unimpressed with the Reds’ recent performances, saying they lack determination and claimed that skipper Virgil van Dijk was partly to blame.

‘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,’ the Manchester United legend said on Premier League Productions.

‘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 [Van Dijk]. I think he really needs to make sure that there’s a proper determination to get over the line as soon as possible.’

Van Dijk, who may well leave Anfield this summer with his contract set to expire, was uncharacteristically poor against Fulham though he was hardly the only one.

And Manchester City icon Joe Hart has warned Liverpool’s players they need to be careful as a bad end to the season could lead to their Anfield careers coming to an abrupt end.

‘They’ve done a lot of hard work this season, put themselves in an incredible position. But they’ve really got to set their standards high,’ the former England goalkeeper said.

‘Everybody knows Liverpool are going to strengthen their squad, so everyone in that team needs to be looking over their shoulders. Arne Slot’s going to be looking at how everyone reacts and behaves.’

‘Van Dijk is not the first player to find it difficult to defend against Beto. And the one that played here today, you have to give credit to him also,’ Slot said of the Dutch defender after the game.

‘I still see a lot of things that Virgil does really well, but if you play 50-60 games a season, there will be moments, even for him, where you could have done better.’

Liverpool will look to get back to winning ways when they host West Ham next Sunday.

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