Aston Villa great Paul McGrath says Liverpool's owners FSG are failing manager Jurgen Klopp.

McGrath wrote for the Sunday World: "If I'm looking for reasons why Liverpool are having a hard time, the first one that comes to mind is the board's failure to back Klopp last summer, when he wanted to buy Timo Werner from RB Leipzig.

"But Klopp had earned the right to get who he wanted, finances or no finances, by winning the European Cup and the Premier League.

"Before you point out that Werner isn't shooting the lights out at Chelsea, it doesn't matter. Klopp wanted a player, the board should have got him.

"But Liverpool's owners are American. And in American sport, the worst teams are replenished with the best young talent every year through their draft system.

"American sports teams are not familiar with the way Liverpool worked in the 1980s or Manchester United did in the 1990s – when you are on top you buy a big player every summer."