Gary Neville slams Liverpool 'baby' as three other players branded 'absolutely useless'

Gary Neville has delivered a scathing critique of Milos Kerkez as the defender's lacklustre start at Liverpool continued away at Chelsea. The Hungarian star, who previously dazzled at AFC Bournemouth, secured a £40m transfer to Anfield and a spot in the PFA Team of the Year due to his stellar performance last season.

However, the 21 year old has struggled to replicate his previous form with the Reds, joining a list of players who have underperformed as the reigning Premier League champions grapple with a dip in form.

Liverpool suffered their third consecutive defeat on Saturday evening at Chelsea, following losses to Crystal Palace and Galatasaray, and relinquished their top position in the Premier League table in the process.

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Kerkez, who has clocked up the most appearances for Arne Slot's team this season by featuring in all 11 matches, started the game but was substituted after 55 minutes following another disappointing display.

Neville, who was providing co-commentary for Sky Sports at Stamford Bridge and is considered one of the greatest full-backs in Premier League history, was far from impressed with the defender's performance.

The Manchester United icon didn't mince words as he criticised Kerkez's latest performance, stating that he 'looked like a baby' and resembled a 'youth team player'.

"The boy Kerkez, to be honest with you, at this point in time, he looks like a youth-team player,' he said on The Gary Neville Podcast.

"I know he's a good player, but he looks like he's playing for the youth team, or the Under-21s.

"He looks so naïve; he looks like a baby out there. He's losing 50-50s with Neto!"

"He's had Premier League experience, it's not like he's come in from another country.

"He's got a lot of games under his belt, he's played at these grounds before, so I expected him to slot in.

"One, he's playing alongside Virgil Van Dijk, the best centre half in the world, so if you want to play in a back four, you want to play with great defenders and he is doing.

"And he's got players who work hard on that side, it's not like he's playing on the right with Salah in front of him, which is always a bit more difficult because you always get a little bit more exposed.

"But I have to say from the first ten minutes of that game against Bournemouth on the first game of the season, he's struggled."

Slot acknowledged that Kerkez is still adapting to Liverpool's heightened expectations when explaining his choice to substitute the defender during the Chelsea match.

"Milos was more and more tired," he told Sky Sports. "He played 90 minutes in two games and now for the third game in a week, which he's not used to when he played at Bournemouth.

"You could feel and see it got more and more difficult to keep going and their wingers are a threat so we decided to make a change over there."

However, Kerkez wasn't the only one on the receiving end of Neville's criticism. The ex-England star also had harsh words for both Jeremie Frimpong and Conor Bradley as well as Liverpool's attacking options.

"Frimpong looks like he should be playing as a right winger, he doesn't perform like a right-back," he commented. "Conor Bradley just isn't doing it and Andy Robertson is battling but he's not quite where he was a few years ago.

"Liverpool's problems are as much to do with full-back as anywhere. They need to button that down."

He continued: "A lot has been made of Liverpool's defensive work, and rightly so, but today that's not why they've lost this game.

"They've lost this game because in the last 15-20 minutes, their creative players, their players in the final half of the pitch, the midfielders and the forwards who were absolutely useless.

"They were giving the ball away like you wouldn't believe. Gakpo down here, Salah over on that far side; the wastage.

"Wirtz not knowing how to get into a game in the last 15 minutes when it was there for the taking, and just almost sort of marking Caicedo, I was watching him a lot."

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