DIDI HAMANN says his former club Liverpool look tired and flat, while hailing Arsenal as everything Jurgen Klopp’s side used to be “four or five years ago”.
Liverpool are at risk of dropping out of the Premier League title picture by Sunday evening when they play Manchester City at Anfield.
Liverpool are 14 points off Arsenal after falling to a 3-2 defeat at the Emirates on Sunday
Liverpool could be out of the title picture for good come Sunday evening
Hamann says Arsenal are everything Klopp’s side were ‘four or five years ago’
They head into that game off the back of defeat to table toppers Arsenal, who they lost to 3-2 at the weekend, leaving them 14 points adrift.
And ex-Reds midfielder Hamann says Liverpool “look pedestrian” and “flat”.
Despite Klopp‘s brilliance, which has seen him win the Champions League, Premier League, FA Cup and EFL Cup with Liverpool, Hamann struggles to see where the Reds’ spark “is going to come from”.
Speaking to talkSPORT, the 2005 Champions League-winning German said: “I think that as a big team you’re always in transition but they’ve been at the top of their capacities for the last three or four years.
“What they achieved and what they did last year was second to none.
“I don’t think that will be achieved again, to be within seven days of winning all four trophies and I think that psychologically it was always going to be tough this season.
“If you look yesterday, Arsenal in the second half were everything that Liverpool were four or five years ago.
“They were breath-taking going forward. Every time that they did go forward you felt that something was going to happen.
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“This Liverpool team looks tired, they look pedestrian and they just look flat.
“I’m not sure where the spark is going to come from because they’ve won games in the past, obviously they beat Rangers a couple of days ago but they’re obviously far superior to Rangers.
“I trust that they’ll know where the spark is going to come from but whether it’s the end of an era?
I wouldn’t write them off, but my imagination doesn’t let me see where the spark is going to come from in the next few weeks.”
Liverpool look to be in the top-four race – not the one for the Prem crown.
But defeat at Anfield to their rivals City could see them fall “eight or nine points” off the final Champions League spot.
Hamann continued: “The dynamics at Liverpool are no different to anywhere else and if the results aren’t there then the manager will come under pressure.
“If they were to get beat next week or not win against Manchester City, which at the moment seems very likely, you could be eight or nine points off fourth place.
“We know that the owners are not the biggest spenders and so we know how vitally important it is for the team to be in the Champions League because of the revenue that you get.
“At some stage I think we will have that discussion about the manager and I’m not sure how far we are off [from that].
“He said that he still feels that he’s the right man to do it, but I see little things like Jordan Henderson midweek seeing his number going up and reluctantly taking his armband off and coming off shaking his head.
“This is something that we haven’t seen at Liverpool for five years. Maybe these are little signs that people have little problems with the team or even the manager.”
Liverpool’s next five fixtures
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