Roy Keane’s Liverpool criticism ‘completely exaggerated’, claims Dietmar Hamann

The Reds’ title defence has seen them fall 13 points behind league leaders Manchester City

Roy Keane has hit out at Liverpool’s title defence (Sky Sports)

Dietmar Hamann claims Roy Keane’s criticism of his former club Liverpool as “bad champions” is “completely exaggerated”.

The former Manchester United midfielder took a swipe at his former rivals following the comprehensive defeat to Premier League leaders Manchester City.

Jurgen Klopp’s side now sit 13 points off the pace, having played a game more than Pep Guardiola’s pace-setters.

And Keane took aim at the Reds for “making a lot of excuses” and accused them of “believing their own hype” before concluding that they had been “bad champions”.

READ MORE: Roy Keane couldn’t wait to criticise Liverpool and ‘magnificent’ Jurgen Klopp

But Hamann has dismissed Keane’s views, emphasising the clear reason for the poor run of form due to the concentration of injuries at centre-back.

“Keane’s criticism is completely exaggerated. The problems can be explained,” the former Germany international told Sportbuzzer. 

“Not only is [Virgil] van Dijk missing, but Joel Matip and Joe Gomez are also. If the entire central defence isn’t there, even Liverpool can’t do anything.

“Thiago should pull the strings, but he still seems like a foreign body to me.

“Then there is the short break, the hassle of games. Freshness, dominance and impact are missing.

“In their heyday, they stole the air from opponents to breathe. Right now, they have to work very hard for every win, but I’m not really concerned about Liverpool.

“Klopp has achieved great things. The foundation for lasting success is in place.”