By OkayGoal 
Jamie Carragher has branded Liverpool a “mess” following their 1-0 Champions League defeat at Galatasaray.
Arne Slot’s side went down to Victor Osimhen’s first-half penalty but could have lost by more after the latest in a series of unimpressive performances.
Liverpool still top the Premier League despite the weekend setback at Crystal Palace but Carragher, who made over 700 appearances for the club, believes that is merely papering over the cracks.
“I don’t feel like I am watching a top team,” Carragher said on CBS Sports.
“Liverpool aren’t playing football at the moment, they are playing basketball. It is just end to end and I don’t think top teams play like that.
“I expressed that to the manager early on, he’ll know that a lot better than me. He is obviously a fantastic manager. But right now Liverpool went from, I would call them a top team, workmanlike team last season and they have sprinkled a little bit of star dust on it terms of the transfers that they have brought in. And they haven’t gained anything going forward but they have lost a lot defensively.
“I think for the manager now, last season was such a smooth ride for them, he has got to really earn his money.
“He did last season, won the Premier League, unbelievable. But there’s a few problems there that he has got to fix and it’ll be really interesting how he goes about it.”
Florain Wirtz is ‘not at the races’ – Carragher
Slot left Mohamed Salah and Alexander Isak on the bench in Istanbul and started summer signing Florian Wirtz, who again struggled to make an impact.
“Right now I don’t think the balance of the team is right and the obvious one that stands out is Florian Wirtz,” Carragher added.
“He’s just not at the races at all. He’s a young boy coming into a new league – he has got plenty of time to go as Liverpool player but right now I think he needs to come out of the team, Liverpool go back to what they were last season and then go from there and build some confidence, build some defensive stability.
“Because right now it is a mess.”
To compound a miserable night for Liverpool, both goalkeeper Alisson and forward Hugo Ekitike sustained injuries that are likely to keep them out of the weekend clash with Chelsea.
Brazil international Alisson, who limped off 11 minutes into the second half, definitely won’t be available with Slot saying afterwards: “It’s never positive if you go off like this,” Liverpool boss Slot said. “You can be sure he is not playing Saturday.”