Arsenal transfer changed the game and what Liverpool have just done is unbelievable

Monday night was absolutely rubbish. It was unbelievable, how we lost control of that game and let the win slip through our fingers.

And I’m not taking anything away from Aston Villa. As poor as we defended, they were sharp going forward, they were good. But we gave them too many opportunities.

I think it just reflects Liverpool’s season a little bit. Towards the end at least. We’ve done so well, coming from where we were this time last year.

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The lads and the management have given us loads of hope. It’s just a pity that it has fallen flat at the end.

I think sometimes, you look at the goal difference, such is where the Premier League is now, you can’t even go to Villa and get a draw. It’s mad. Some of the results we’ve had, you can no longer get draws at Man United.

It’s just the way City have done it now, and Arsenal have been brilliant this year. You look at the goal difference of the three teams at the top, that tells you the story.

If you can’t get clean sheets, which we can’t for love or money - we haven’t had one for over two months - then you’re not going to win the league. It’s as simple as that.

When we won the league, we had clean sheets. We had lengthy spells of successive clean sheets.

But now, we are not right. We’ve scored lots of goals. Not as many as Arsenal and Man City but we’ve scored lots of goals and it should be a lot more. We know that, but it’s a good payback.

We still scored three goals against Villa and could have scored more. But you score three goals away from home, you have to win the game.

Even when you score two goals away at Man United, against a poor team, you have to win the game. Against Fulham, we had to score four at home to win 4-3.

Top teams, teams that go on to win things, they don’t concede three goals. They don’t lose two-goal leads.

Defensively, you can’t average more than one a game against you if you want to win the league, and we’ve done that. It tells a story.

You’ve got to balance going forward with and being solid defensively, and we just haven’t done that - especially later in the season.

The last two months, the last 10 weeks, the goals against total tells a story and that’s why it’s slipped away from us.

We need a new midfielder - a Declan Rice or a Graeme Souness

The new manager has got to make a difference when it comes to scoring goals and conceding goals. We have to attack in a manner where we are able to defend as well.

Because we are too open, we all know that. We’ve been like that all season. If you can get the right balance there, and the right midfielder player who is a proper Graeme Souness-type player.

You can’t get a Graeme Souness, that player is not out there! But who can sit, and organise, and run the show, then that would make a massive difference for Liverpool in my opinion.

The midfield has already completely changed and that has contributed to that negative change defensively. We had Fabinho, we had Henderson, we had Milner, we had Wijnaldum and co. Now it’s a brand new midfield and maybe they are feeling it and are out on their feet.

The defensive side of our midfield can be very good. And I actually thought Endo was our best player against Villa until he came off. He’s come in and done really, really well this season.

And we’ve got Bajcetic coming back, ready for next year. But I do think that what’s changed Arsenal this year is getting Declan Rice for £100m. We do need someone there who can really, really defend solidly.

Mac Allister can’t do that. He’s been asked to do it on many occasions. I don’t want to blame him for Monday night, but he’s an attacking midfield player. He can defend but he can’t be the holding midfielder. For me, he can’t play there.

I know he’s had to play there because of injuries and he’s done well, he’s done his best, but it’s not his attributes. If Liverpool want to go on to win things, his attributes are best utilised slightly further up the pitch.

So is Szoboszlai, so is Gravenberch, so is Jones, so is Elliott - all our midfield players are basically attacking midfielders, with the exception of Endo and Bajcetic. Obviously Thiago is going, and he couldn’t play there anyway.

So it’s a priority for us to get one there. If we get one there, we still have Bajcetic coming through and you’ve got Endo, that strengthens the midfield massively for next year. You wouldn’t need to buy anything else because Trent can also go in there, if the new manager wants to use him as a midfielder.