Aldridge: Liverpool's Overpaid Stars Have Become Laughing Stock of Premier League
Liverpool legend John Aldridge has criticised the club's performances since the turn of the year and believes they have become a 'laughing stock' among other clubs in the Premier League.
The Reds slipped to eighth in the league after Sunday's 2-0 loss to Newcastle, their sixth in seven games. Despite winning the Carling Cup and with an FA Cup semi-final against Everton to come, the club are in the midst of their worst run of form in the league since 1954.
A disastrous sequence of results over the past three months, in which they have taken eight points from a possible 36 in the Premier League, has seen Liverpool slip from contenders for a place in the top four to being at risk of finishing in the bottom half of the table.
Although manager Kenny Dalglish retains the support of the club's owners, Fenway Sports Group, the Scot will be asked to submit a written report that outlines why the season has spiralled so badly and to suggest a plan for recovery. Dalglish and the club's director of football, Damien Comolli, will also have to explain why their £110m expenditure on new signings has failed to produce the desired top-four finish John W. Henry demanded back in August.
But Aldridge insists there can be no excuses for Liverpool's form since the turn of the year and called for Dalglish to address the current crisis before the crucial FA Cup semi-final against Everton on 14 April.
"There is no getting away from the fact that Liverpool FC are now in a crisis. To lose six out of seven in the league is something the club won't ever tolerate, we can't tolerate that," Aldridge told the Liverpool Echo. "The eyes of the world are on Liverpool FC and the critics are having a field day. We're becoming a laughing stock.
"It's time for all those excuses to be thrown out of the window. The team just seems to have lost their belief. You can blame the manager and the coaching staff but at the end of the day it comes down to the players. They are getting paid unbelievable amounts of money and aren't producing the goods."
"They are playing for Liverpool Football Club - one of the biggest clubs in the world - it doesn't get much better than that. They need to realise how lucky they are and start doing it or their Anfield careers won't last much longer."
Dalglish is under no immediate threat of being sacked by Liverpool but FSG have grown disappointed by the club's recent form. Such concerns were exasperated by the 2-0 defeat away to Newcastle, their ninth loss on the road this season, which saw Everton leapfrog them into seventh.
In Dalglish's favour are winning the Carling Cup, Liverpool's first trophy in six years, and their continued participation in the FA Cup. And BBC pundit Mark Lawrenson, who played alongside Dalglish at Liverpool in the 1980s, remains adamant that the Scot will not quit as manager in the wake of the club's recent poor form.
Lawrenson told BBC Radio 5 live: "I don't think he's walk away. I don't believe he'll be sacked. It's a poor run, but the new owners are not going to make knee-jerk decisions.
"They could win the FA Cup this season, which would be two trophies, and that would be a strange thing to be sacked for. As a manager in the Premier League, it's a crisis if you lose a couple of games."
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