Liverpool Are Vulnerable After International Breaks

Premier League pundit Kevin Kilbane believes Liverpool have been poor after international breaks after they needed a late equaliser at Old Trafford to avoid their first league defeat of the season.

Newcastle United squandered an early lead at Anfield after the last international break and manager Jurgen Klopp admitted afterwards that he only started enjoying it ‘after 35 minutes when we arrived in the game.’

Kilbane told us that he can see a pattern developing after a poor performance against Manchester United: “The game lacked quality and there were more positives for Man United than there were for Liverpool.”

“Any time Liverpool have come back from a break they have put in a poor performance; even after they came back (from the UEFA Super Cup) against Southampton, they were fortunate to win that game. I think they suffer from the amount of travelling a lot of their team do.”

Kilbane also called on the Video Assistant Referee to start overturning decisions after Marcus Rashford’s goal was allowed to stand despite an apparent foul in the build-up.

It was a foul on Divock Origi and it’s becoming pretty clear that these decisions aren’t going to be overturned and I disagree with it.

“It was even more noticeable in the Tottenham v Watford game where Gerard Deulofeu was clearly brought down for a penalty. That was a clear and obvious error by the officials and it should have been overturned. If Watford had won, they could have used it as a springboard for the rest of the season. But it hasn’t happened like that.”

“There are a lot of inconsistencies, particularly with the on-field decisions. The offsides and handballs have been pretty conclusive, but the biggest problem is with fouls in the lead up to goals. Referees aren’t seeing them and they aren’t being overturned.”