Alan Shearer has called out one of Arne Slot's summer signings for Liverpool, claiming he is 'not the same player' as last season.
Liverpool have made a perfect start to the defence of their Premier League crown, winning the first five games of the season, despite not quite being at their best yet.
Yesterday at Anfield, Liverpool beat Everton 2-1 to win the Merseyside derby.
Goals from Ryan Gravenberch and Hugo Ekitike saw Liverpool race into a two-goal lead by half-time, through Idrissa Gueye halved the deficit before the hour mark for the visitors.
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Liverpool have also begun their Champions League campaign with victory after beating Atletico Madrid 3-2 at Anfield in a flawless beginning to the season.
Despite winning the title last season, Slot overhauled the Liverpool squad over the summer transfer window to make it much more his side rather than the one he inherited from Jurgen Klopp.
The likes of Trent Alexander-Arnold, Jarell Quansah, Caoimhin Kelleher, Luis Diaz and Darwin Nunez were all sold as part of the revamp.
And Liverpool spent more than £400m to bring in several new players into the squad.
This included breaking the British transfer record to sign striker Alexander Isak from Newcastle United, as well as Florian Wirtz and Jeremie Frimpong from Bayer Leverkusen, Ekitike from Eintracht Frankfurt and Parma's Giovanni Leoni.
Milos Kerkez was another signing made by Liverpool this summer, being bought from Bournemouth for £40m.
The left-back had spent the past two seasons with the Cherries, scoring twice in 74 matches across all competitions.
Kerkez has become Slot's first-choice left-back at Liverpool ahead of Andy Robertson.
However, the Hungarian international has had an up and down time at Anfield so far, with a low point coming in the victory over Burnley when he was taken off after only 38 minutes.
He had previously been booked for diving and had been fortunate not to be shown a second yellow card before being hooked for Robertson.
Newcastle legend Shearer has now spoken out on Kerkez's showings so far in a Liverpool shirt, and believes the defender is yet to show the type of displays he demonstrated so often at Bournemouth.
Speaking as a pundit on NBC Sports Soccer, Shearer said: "At the minute, we are not seeing the same player, Kerkez, particularly on the left-hand side, as we saw at Bournemouth.
"He was free-flowing. He had the licence to go and roam and get forward.
"It seems as if he’s caught in two minds, whether he’s going to go or whether he’s going to stay and help protect (Virgil) Van Dijk and (Ibrahima) Konaté."
Topics: Alan Shearer, Arne Slot, Liverpool, Bournemouth
John McDougall