Blood Red: Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp rules out taking over Germany
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Rio Ferdinand says talk of Liverpool sacking Jurgen Klopp is premature despite what he believes to be the biggest fall from grace of a title-winning side.
The Reds suffered their sixth straight home defeat in the Premier League on Sunday when they slumped to a 1-0 loss to Fulham at Anfield.
It leaves Klopp's side in eighth, seven points off a top-four spot, with the three teams directly above them each having a game in hand.
Speaking on his Five podcast, Ferdinand said that, whilst Liverpool's huge injury crisis was the issue that started the poor form, he does not believe the fix will be as simple as players returning to fitness.
He said: "It's the biggest fall from grace I've seen. Two Champions League finals back-to-back, they won one of them and then they won the league by a ridiculous margin. Then they have an absolute slump that's never been seen before like this, it's unreal.
"The way it's turned around, yeah we can look at injuries and stuff like that. Listen, I don't think there's even been a team that's won the league that has been decimated like this, the way they have. That's one bit that I'll give them.
"At the end of the day, the team has been decimated with injuries, the confidence that's then been zapped out of the whole group.
"You've got to remember, this took four or five years to build: this confidence and fear factor that became a constant around Anfield. Any team that played against Liverpool in the last two years, there was a fear factor, they'd lost it in the tunnel before they walked out.
"How are they going to get that back? How are they going to get that fear factor back? How are they going to get that standing in the tunnel, looking across and teams going: 'they can't be beaten at the minute, the way this team plays'.
© YouTubeRio Ferdinand says Jurgen Klopp should not be sacked as Liverpool manager
"They were scoring above two goals a game last season, this season, they have like 0.7, or 0.8, it's unbelievable the turn of events."
Despite this, Ferdinand said that there cannot be talk of Klopp leaving, arguing that the German is the right manager to rebuild the players.
He continued: "The biggest thing for Klopp - people are talking about whether he should get the sack or whether it's the same as Dortmund - you can't.
"The guy has too much credit in the bank in terms of what he's done for that football club. He deserves all of the time to get this club back to a place where they can start winning because they've got huge talent in there.
"But talent doesn't always win, it's not about talent all the time, you need the confidence, you need the mental capabilities to win games and to see games out.
"Right now, that's left the building. Too many players will have scars now, they've got to be rebuilt, there are some players that need to be rebooted and rebuilt because there's too many scars now.
"There's teams coming to Anfield with a swagger and everyone's followed the lead. It's like Man United, people used to fear going there, even still now I'd say a little bit, people walk in there and think they have a chance.
"People are going to Anfield and saying: 'Listen, you've seen them, they did it, they're the blueprint over there, we've got better players than them, we can bash them up'.
"That's how teams are going there, it's not going to just take a Van Dijk coming back on his own, or a Henderson coming back, you need all of them coming back and then you need them to come back into form.
"The transfer market, maybe, but you look at the front three - the confidence levels they have. Six months ago to now, it's like night and day - it's a rebuilding process in itself."