"He looks like a baby out there" - Gary Neville calls out 'naive' Liverpool star for showing after loss against Chelsea 

Gary Neville delivered a scathing assessment of Liverpool defender Milos Kerkez following the Reds' disappointing 2-1 defeat to Chelsea at Stamford Bridge on Saturday evening.

Kerkez was handed a starting role against Chelsea but failed to impress during his the 55 minutes he spent on the pitch, as Liverpool slumped to a third consecutive defeat.

During his assessment of Liverpool's performance, Neville pulled no punches in his evaluation of Kerkez, questioning his readiness to compete at the highest level of the Premier League.

Neville told Sky Sports:

"[Milos] Kerkez looks like a youth team player, I know he's a good player but he looks like he's playing for the U21s. He looks so naïve; he looks like a baby out there. He's losing, he's losing 50-50s against Pedro Neto. It's not as if he's coming from a different country, he's got a lot of games under his belt in the Premier League.

Neville stressed that Kerkez should have slotted in more seamlessly given the support system around him. Instead, the former Manchester United defender believes Kerkez has struggled to find his feet. He added:

"I expected him to slot in because 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's doing that. He's got players who work hard on that side - it's not as if he's got Salah in front of him on this side which is a bit more difficult for the right back because you always get a little bit more exposed.

"I have to say from the first 10 minutes of that game against Bournemouth on the first day of the season on that Friday night, he struggled."

Neville's criticism extended to other Liverpool fullbacks Jeremie Frimpong, Conor Bradley, and Andy Robertson, who he believed are all 'struggling.'

Gary Neville slams 'useless' Liverpool forwards after 2-1 loss to Chelsea

Gary Neville also did not hold back in his assessment of Liverpool's attackers following their late loss to Chelsea. Neville branded the Reds' forwards and creative players 'useless,' insisting that their wastefulness cost them the match.

"I thought after they scored, I was really disappointed in their level of performance," Neville said. " A lot has been made of Liverpool's defensive work and rightly so, but that's not why they've lost this game. They've lost this game because in the last 15-20 minutes, their creative players, their players in the final half of the pitch, the midfield players and the forwards were absolutely useless."

Neville singled out key attacking figures, including Mohamed Salah, who has been Liverpool's talisman for years but failed to deliver on the day.

"They were giving the ball away like you wouldn't believe," Neville continued. "Gakpo, Salah, the wastage. Wirtz, not knowing how to get into a game in the last 15 minutes when it was there for the taking and just sort of ended up almost marking Caicedo.

"I thought their front players were terrible. Salah is sublime. How can you criticise the consistency and reliability and brilliance of him, but some of the decisions of him today, when he comes inside and you think he should pass it or you think he should do something better with it, and his finishing was poor.

He also highlighted Alexander Isak, who started the game brightly but faded as it progressed, before turning his attention to Florian Wirtz, who came off the bench but failed to make the desired impact.

"Isak, I thought he'd started the game sharp but didn't quite get into it. Wirtz, when he came on, I was disappointed with him. He looks very immature in his knowledge of how to play the game. I just see him sort of jogging around, and I see him going too deep when he shouldn't go too deep, and I see him standing next to players when he shouldn't be standing next to players. Sometimes I see him being too honest - it sounds crazy going back and defending.

"He should be almost half cheating, almost like keeping an eye on that deep line midfield player just in case he can spring off him and go the other way on the counter attack. He's quite predictable at this moment in time in terms of picking up his position and he was disappointing," Neville noted.

Liverpool's loss to Chelsea meant they relinquished the Premier League summit to Arsenal, who defeated West Ham 2-0 on Saturday, October 4.