Gary Neville slams 'naive' Liverpool star after Chelsea loss: 'He looks like a baby'

Former Manchester United full-back Gary Neville (Picture: YouTube)

Gary Neville issued a scathing critique of Milos Kerkez and suggested the defender ‘looked like a baby’ in Liverpool ’s 2-1 defeat to Chelsea .

Estevao ’s injury-time winner secured a deserved home victory for Enzo Maresca ’s side, who have now won back-to-back games against Liverpool for the first time since 2014.

But the result was also a bitter pill to swallow for the defending Premier League , who have now lost their third straight game for the first time under Arne Slot.

It proved another out-of-sorts display from the Reds, who appear to be struggling to find the same rhythm from last season after a busy summer of recruitment.

Alexander Isak is yet to get off the mark in the league, while much has been made of the lack of impact seen from Florian Wirtz, who started Sunday’s game on the bench.

But Neville insisted it is the performances of Kerkez, who joined in a £40million move from Bournemouth in the summer, that have most concerned him so far this season.

And the former Manchester United full-back pulled no punches when analysing the Hungarian international’s latest display, which saw him brought off early in the second half to be replaced by Andy Robertson.

Kerez struggled again at Stamford Bridge (Picture: Getty)

Slot’s side are simply not clicking into gear (Picture: Getty)

‘The boy Kerkez, to be honest with you, at this point in time, he looks like a youth-team player,’ he said on The Gary Neville Podcast.

‘I know he’s a good player, but he looks like he’s playing for the youth team, or the Under-21s. He looks so naive; he looks like a baby out there. He’s losing 50-50s with Neto!

‘He’s had Premier League experience, it’s not like he’s come in from another country. He’s got a lot of games under his belt, he’s played at these grounds before, so I expected him to slot in.

Milos Kerkez was withdrawn early at Stamford Bridge (Picture: Getty)

‘One, he’s playing alongside Virgil Van Dijk, the best centre half in the world, so if you want to play in a back four, you want to play with great defenders and he is doing.

‘And he’s got players who work hard on that side, it’s not like he’s playing on the right with Salah in front of him, which is always a bit more difficult because you always get a little bit more exposed.

‘But I have to say from the first ten minutes of that game against Bournemouth on the first game of the season, he’s struggled.’

Arne Slot’s side have lost three on the bounce (Picture: Getty)

Neville, though, believes Liverpool’s problems at full-back go beyond just Kerkez, adding: ‘Frimpong looks like he should be playign as a right winger, he doesn’t perform like a right-back.

‘Conor Bradley just isn’t doing it and Andy Robertson is battling but he’s not quite where he was a few years ago.

‘Liverpool’s problems are as much to do with full-back as anywhere. They need to button that down.’

Asked about his decision to bring Kerkez off in the second half, Slot said he was looking to protect the left-back after a tiring spell that had seen him play three times in the last seven days.

‘Milos was more and more tired – he played 90 minutes in two games and now for the third game in a week, which he’s not used to when he played at Bournemouth’ Slot told Sky Sports.

‘You could feel and see it got more and more difficult to keep going and their wingers are a threat so we decided to make a change over there.’

On Bradley’s withdrawal, he added: ‘Most of the times I have to change the fullbacks after being on yellow. Today Conor Bradley was on a yellow card.

‘He made a second foul and players were asking for a yellow again, so you wonder if it’s smart to keep him on the pitch. We decided not to and we needed Florian to come into the game.’