REDS RUST NOT GOOD ENOUGH

Player decline and issues all over says Kop legend Souness

- BY PAUL GORST

AS Liverpool stumbled to a sixth league defeat in defence of their title, with the calendar still showing November, one stat suggests pointing the finger at their defence is where to start.

Liverpool have kept just four clean sheets since the title was confirmed as theirs in late April, and only rock-bottom Wolves' 41 is worse than the champions' tally of 39 goals conceded across Europe's top-five leagues since May.

But for Anfield legend, Graeme Souness, the issues sparking the alarming decline of Arne Slot's side run far deeper than just a back four struggling for cohesion and form - even if he thinks the cracks are beginning to show with captain Virgil van Dijk.

"When your team are conceding goals, you automatically look at goalkeepers and your back four," Souness (circle) said.