Liverpool’s remarkable unbeaten run at home in the league came to an end on Thursday night when they lost 1-0 to Burnley at Anfield.

 

It was their first league defeat at Anfield since April 2017 and it pushed them further away from the top of the Premier League standings.

 

 

They are now six points behind league leaders Manchester United and are without a win in the league in their last five games, failing to score in four of them.

 

Sherwood insisted that Burnley had no business beating Liverpool at Anfield, but conceded that given the Reds’ form the result was coming.

 

 

He stressed that Liverpool severely lacked a leader on the pitch who could have inspired the rest of the players and there was no intensity in their performance as they slumped to a defeat.

 

Sherwood said post match on Premier League TV: “None of these Burnley players gets into Liverpool’s team and everyone in that Liverpool team plays and are first names on the team-sheet if they are in a Burnley shirt.

 

 

“That is not good enough, that is a poor performance tonight.

 

“But it has been coming and it is not just tonight. The front three are not firing and yes, they missed leaders on the pitch tonight.

 

“[Virgil] van Dijk’s out, they didn’t have [Jordan] Henderson tonight and I would have been tempted, in hindsight, but [James] Milner had to play.

 

“They had to have someone with leadership qualities to galvanise the team and it looked like they didn’t have any.

 

“They just drifted through the game, there was no intensity in their play.”

 

Liverpool have won just three of their last ten league games and could drop out of the top four if Everton and Tottenham win their games in hand.