Liverpool had “papered over the cracks” says former Anfield star

"It was only a matter of time."

BT Sports pundit and former Liverpool winger Steve McManaman doesn't believe that this dip in form for his home club is due to something new. The ex-Real Madrid star believes that the team have just been managing to hide their short comings for some time now, and at long last they have came to the surface.

"Last season when they went behind they were winning games so that papered over the cracks to an extent," said the ex-Red.

"Fulham they were slow, started great against Manchester City but subsequently they’ve started slow every time, you knew after five or 10 minutes they were in trouble and at the races.

"The warning sign was Elanga’s chance when he ran down and cut between Trent and Gomez, they couldn’t deal with it and they still kept playing as if they were winning 4-0.

"It was only a matter of time they were going to get caught and when they did get caught that’s when it’s ‘uh oh, we need to sharpen up’ but it’s too late in games.

"These games are more than just playing nice and scoring goals, this is Liverpool versus Manchester United, last season Liverpool battered them and got all the glory, they have to take it because they were nowhere near good enough. "All that matters is the result and Liverpool are languishing at the bottom of the league, they’ll get out of it, but they’ve got two points out of a possible nine which is a massive problem." It's a massive problem indeed, even though United had lost two games before this fixture, their win at Old Trafford now means they sit above The Reds, and with fixtures coming thick and fast, things may only get worse.