Liverpool will have to consider sacking manager Brendan Rodgers if results do not improve, Anfield legend and ESPN FC pundit Steve Nicol has said.
The Merseysiders were eliminated from the Champions League after a 1-1 home draw against Basel on Tuesday, and they sit ninth in the Premier League table ahead of Sunday's trip to Manchester United.
Rodgers has had to deal with the departure of star forward Luis Suarez in the summer, while Daniel Sturridge has spent much of the campaign sidelined by injury.
However, Nicol believes Rodgers, who guided Liverpool to second in the Premier League last term, needs to engineer an upturn in form soon if he is to remain in his post.
"If things don't change then ultimately Brendan will pay the price," Nicol, who won five league championships and a European Cup during his career at Liverpool, told talkSPORT.
"If this team keeps performing the way it is, I don't think they will have any other option [but to sack him].
"We are not even halfway through the season yet, and I'm guessing most people don't expect Liverpool to get into the top four."
Rodgers re-invested the 75 million pounds brought in by the sale of Suarez with eight new signings, but all have struggled to varying degrees.
Nicol believes the level of backing Rodgers gets in January will be an indication of the Liverpool board's intentions.
"We will find a lot out in the transfer window," he added. "He has spent a lot of money, and the question will be: Are the Fenway Group [Liverpool's owners] going to back him in the transfer window?
"If they don't, that tells you he has only got the second part of the season to at least get the performances better.
"The biggest surprise is how bad the performances are. The result against Basel was a complete disaster on so many levels. The performance level, the fact they are out of the Champions League and the fact they now go into the Europa League, which is going to do nothing but harm them in the Premier League.
"You really wonder where this team is going. He has tried to add to the squad to make it better and somehow it has turned the other way. It is a team that is completely rudderless.
"If you watched the game against Basel and the game against Sunderland, they don't look to have any imagination going forward, and defensively they look at odds. This is just a desperate time for Liverpool."
Nicol also told ESPN FC's television show that Rodgers' tactical changes during the Basel game had a detrimental effect on Liverpool's bid to overturn a 1-0 deficit at half-time.
"Basel outplayed them," he said. "This game was dead until Steve G stepped up and put that free kick in the back of the net.
"When you come in at 1-0 down at half-time, you have to be bold. What he did was bring one left back on for another left back. It made no sense."