Liverpool's current attacking style is hampering the likes of Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mane according to Michael Owen.
The Reds are in the midst of a poor run of form that has seen them win just two of their last eight league matches.
Jurgen Klopp has seen his side fail to score in five of those games as their title hopes hang by a thread.
Their normally dependable attack has begun to falter and Owen believes their midfielders are not helping.
Thiago was signed in the summer, but the Spaniard has been accused by several former players of slowing down the Reds' tempo.
And Owen believes their midfield options are too similar and one dimensional which is having a negative affect on their forwards.
“I often think that Mane when he plays, and Salah, they’re better when they start wide,” he told Premier League Productions.
“Think of the chance Salah had early on [against Brighton ], he needs to start wide and run inside. As soon as Roberto Firmino drops in it leaves those gaps and they come wide.
"A lot of the time this season they’ve been starting narrow and then you’ve got nowhere to run - the only way you can run is out and away from the goal.
“I think Liverpool are better when they have width. They get clustering. They have a lot of samey players in midfield in Thiago, Wijnaldum and Milner.
“I would like to see them stretching play a lot more, upping the tempo, winning the ball high again, committing players forward to win the ball high, they have to do it, they have to stem it themselves because they don’t have the Anfield crowd.
“You can react off the crowd, it’s a powerful thing but they can’t call upon that now they need to do it themselves to get this monkey off their back.
“It looks like there’s no energy in the team. Liverpool are used to winning the ball high, keeping the energy up, keeping a high tempo game.
"All of a sudden now it’s just not the Liverpool I’m used to watching, they rarely hunt in packs any more.
"It’s just not what we’re used to at the minute and they need to find something quick.”
