Liverpool legend John Barnes has said that the Reds should be targeting squad depth this summer, rather than marquee signings that will come straight into the team.
Jurgen Klopp’s side have spent heavily on their first team in the last two transfer windows, splashing out over £100million to bring in Alisson Becker and Virgil van Dijk.
Having invested in their starting 11, however, Barnes told The Liverpool Offside that backup and bench players should be the club’s number one priority in the coming two months.
“I’m looking for something exciting but not necessarily anything new,” the 55-year-old said. “Last season we needed players like Virgil Van Dijk and Alisson to come into the team to be the main pieces in the squad and maximize the potential we had.
“This year, I don’t think there are any players who will be coming in to take the place of [Mohamed] Salah, [Sadio] Mané, [Roberto] Firmino, or Van Dijk, so instead what we need to do is supplement the squad.
“I don’t think we’re going to go out and get a player for £100m to go straight into the team, but we don’t need that. But there are players out there who can improve the next nine or ten players after that, which is a relatively easier thing to do.
“Our current rivals, even [Manchester] City included, currently need a few players to improve the first XI and there aren’t that many players out there like that. We don’t need that and we’re just looking for players to improve the squad.”
OPINION
Barnes is exactly right here. Liverpool have spent enough on their first team in the past few transfer windows and you can’t really see where Klopp could strengthen. Centre-back was a key area, but the Reds look like they will have enough options now that Sepp van den Berg has come in from PEC Zwolle. Elsewhere, attacking midfield is another area which you might say could be strengthened, but with Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain coming back from injury next season, he could be like a new signing and could well fill that void. What’s more, if Liverpool were to splash out on another attacker or – for example – Bruno Fernandes – it will likely cause a little bit of a stir in the team, with the likes of Fabinho, Jordan Henderson and Georginio Wijnaldum having played so well. All in all, Liverpool should definitely look to the bench for where they could strengthen because it is very unlikely that they will find someone worthy of replacing whoever is currently in their first team.
