Liverpool are paying the price for the mistakes they made in the summer transfer window, according to former director of football Damien Comolli.

Brendan Rodgers’ side have won just two of their opening five Premier League games and Saturday’s 3-1 reverse at Manchester United was their second defeat on the spin.

Comolli warned in the summer that the Reds could be set for another season of disappointment after making so many changes to the squad, and he believes that their stuttering start is proving him right.

Speaking on the Alan Brazil Sports Breakfast, the Frenchman said: “As I said before the beginning of the season, it was a massive gamble to change as many players as they did in the summer, as they did last summer.

“If you look at it on Saturday, the two full-backs were new and the left-back is not a left- back – and you could see that on the third goal.

“Out of three in midfield, for me they had not one new player, but two, because though Emre Can has been at the club for a while he has never played in midfield.

“The attacking three were all new players as well. So, in reality it is seven new players and they looked like they’d never played together before, which makes sense.

“There were people playing out of position, players like Firmino who have come back from the Copa America and hasn’t had a proper pre-season with the team.

“It’s going to take time, but I’ve said previously that it was a huge gamble that they took after they’d taken a huge gamble last season – and it is going to be difficult.

“By time they start to gel together, if they do, other teams will have a lot of points.”