I have been a Liverpool supporter for more than 45 years now and one of my fondest memories is of John Barnes in that superb team of the late 80’s. He really was one of the best players to ever play for us.
I was delighted to see him yesterday pop up on Sky with Jamie Redknapp and Paul Merson helping to analyse the game.
For me, Redknapp never really says anything of any consequence but Merson is quite good. However, Barnes’s comments were really insightful and really interesting.
He was basically saying don’t panic this is a team in transition and it’s going to take time to get us back to where we were. Still thinks we get top four but winning league ain’t going to happen this season.
He was also very good at explaining the technical reasons why we struggling. We have gone from a workhorse midfield that protected the back four to a more creative midfield that leaves us exposed defensively when the full backs bomb forward.
Redknapp was going on about the loss of Mane but for me that is not the problem. We scored two yesterday against this seasons top team and we scored three last week against a very good Brighton team. Nunez will come good but Salah has not been playing well since the AFCON and was almost invisible yesterday.
I agree with Barnes that things will still come good for us and top 4 is still very achievable.
Then, the question is, why did we move from a workforce midfield to a creative one...but leaving the defence as it was? As for top 4, impossible, we'll struggle to get top 6.
