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Gary Neville didn’t exactly hold back.
The former Manchester United defender was on Sky Sports punditry duties the last time Liverpool made the trip to the Emirates to face Arsenal.
On the Friday night before Christmas, Jurgen Klopp’s side had strolled into a deserved 2-0 lead before three goals in five minutes from the home side turned the game on its head and left the visitors reliant on a Roberto Firmino equaliser to snatch a point.
It was a breathtaking, ridiculous game that perfectly encapsulated the Liverpool side of the period.
Irresistible in attack. Irresponsible in defence.
And as he pored over the fallout, Neville offered these words of wisdom to Klopp regarding his failing backline.
“Get rid of the players,” he said. “You look at what Pep Guardiola did last season (at Manchester City). He brought Claudio Bravo in for big money.
“He wasn’t good enough and couldn’t adapt to the Premier League. He got rid of him.
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“Ederson comes in and looks fantastic. The full-backs weren’t good enough at City, he got rid of them, spent £130m on three new ones and just dealt with the issue.
“He has got to deal with the issue and Jurgen Klopp is the only one who can do that. It is staring everyone in the face.
“Simon Mignolet we have talked about, Loris Karius we have talked about. And then you talk about the left-backs, you play James Milner there, you play Andrew Robertson there, you play Alberto Moreno there.
“Can you trust them in the biggest games?”
It’s worth recalling the Liverpool defence that started at the Emirates. Mignolet was in goal, with Robertson at left-back, Joe Gomez on the other flank and Ragnar Klavan joining Dejan Lovren at centre-back.
The Reds return to the Emirates on Saturday with it conceivable four of the five defensive roles will be filled by different players.
Neville was right in some respects. And Klopp was very much of the same mind.
Mignolet would soon be jettisoned in favour of Karius, who in turn has been replaced by £65million man Alisson Becker.
(Image: (Photo credit should read ADRIAN DENNIS/AFP/Getty Images))
And key to Liverpool’s defensive transformation has been the arrival of £75m Virgil van Dijk mere days after the dramatic draw at Arsenal.
Klopp was willing to do a Guardiola. He identified the problem, and spent big on addressing it.
Only four goals conceded in the Premier League this season – and a miserly 14 in 25 top-flight games since Van Dijk’s debut – underline the difference.
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In the 23 Premier League games before that, the Reds had leaked 28 times.
Dismissing Robertson was, however, an error by Neville, who in mitigation wasn’t the only observer quick to write off the Scotland international.
The emergence of Gomez as an international standard centre-back, the continued progress of Trent Alexander-Arnold and the revival of Lovren have all bolstered Klopp’s defensive options.
Now Liverpool’s latest trip to Arsenal represents the perfect chance to underline that progress – to Neville and every other observer.
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