"He'll give everybody a lift" - Steve Nicol tells Liverpool to play 22-year-old in new position and bring player who gives 'everything' into line-up

Liverpool legend Steve Nicol has urged Arne Slot to move Conor Bradley to left-back in a bid to use Jeremie Frimpong as the first-choice right-back for the Reds. After the reigning Premier League champions suffered their fourth straight loss in all competitions on Sunday, Slot received criticism for his team selection.

In the wake of the comments made by pundits, Nicol was asked to choose Liverpool's best starting XI during a chat show on ESPN FC. With Alisson out injured, Nicol picked Giorgi Mamardashvili in goal. The front-three consisted of Cody Gakpo, Hugo Ekitike and Mohamed Salah, while Ryan Gravenberch, Alexis Mac Allister and Dominik Szoboszlai completed Nicol's midfield choices.

The Reds defence has been the talking point in recent weeks and while Nicol believes Virgil van Dijk and Ibrahima Konate must remain as the centre-back duo, he opted for a change in the full-back areas.

The former Liverpool defender admitted that the whole team is in shambles, and suggested the players do not trust each other all too well.

Nicol commented:

“As much as the team as a whole is a bit of a shambles, there’s no question that the back four totally is. One of the biggest problems is trust, they can’t trust each other. Kerkez, for me, is affecting the rest of them way too much. I say that from a defensive point of view as well as in possession.

Nicol then stated that he would pick Bradley at left-back instead of Andy Robertson and explained his choice in detail:

“Kerkez is not contributing either side so I would absolutely pull Bradley over to the left side because I don’t think Andy Robertson is ready to start right now. I would put Bradley over there and tell him, ‘your first and foremost job is to a) defend and b) back up Gakpo on the left side. I don’t need you running past Gakpo, don’t want you making runs into the middle of the park, I need you to be solid.’

He also believes that bringing in Frimpong as the right-back would give the entire team a much-needed lift. Nicol pointed to how Frimpong's energy can be an invaluable asset for Slot's team.

The Scot concluded:

“I would then bring Frimpong in [at right-back] because he will give everybody a lift. The energy that he brings when he steps on the field, and he showed that when he came on against United, it is infectious. Right now, Liverpool need a spark to get everybody going and I think he would do that. He’s not the greatest defender, but he will give you everything and that energy will absolutely count.”

Notably, Frimpong produced an excellent cross for Gakpo to equalise when Liverpool were trailing Manchester United 2-1 on Sunday. However, the forward planted his free header wide to spurn the chance as his team eventually succumbed to defeat.

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Frank Leboeuf warns Arne Slot that 4 Liverpool stars could lose trust in him now

After the defeat against Manchester United, former Chelsea defender Frank Leboeuf has warned Arne Slot that some of his players could now start losing trust in him. The Liverpool head coach refused to start in-form Hugo Ekitike against United, while Milos Kerkez was named in the starting XI despite being out of form.

Leboeuf believes that if Slot keeps choosing players based on the price-tag rather than performances, he would lose the backing of the likes of Ekitike, Curtis Jones, Jeremie Frimpong and Federico Chiesa.

The former World Cup winner said on ESPN FC:

“He’s going to lose the bench if he carries on like this. The players who came on against Manchester United, Frimpong, Curtis Jones, Ekitike, even Chiesa, who I don’t recognise from last season because he was anonymous and today he came on, worked hard. "Those players, they work hard and they see players being picked by the coach because of their price tag, because of their fame, their past and not because of their qualities. That’s something you can be blamed of and on top of that, you can lose the players who are in top form right now, especially Ekitike.”

Liverpool return to action on Wednesday, when they face Eintracht Frankfurt away from home in the Champions League.

Edited by Nived Zenith