"At St Mary's his body language was flat and hesitant and that carried over to his finishing, which was light years away from what he is capable of," said Lawrenson.
"At the moment there are all sorts of theories going around about what is the reason behind his poor form. I've heard people saying he is not bothered and will be off in the summer, the usual conspiracy theories, as well as that he is not the same player he was.
"I don't agree with any of them because no player of Michael's class becomes a bad player overnight and am a great believer that somewhere between the headlines and the criticism is the real player, and with the support of Gerard Houllier - who is fantastically loyal to all his players - he will soon be scoring again."