John Barnes certainly knows a thing or two about success at Liverpool. A decade at Anfield produced two league titles, an FA Cup and a League Cup - not to mention a return of 84 goals in 314 top flight appearances. But the trophy cabinet isn't so prevalent at the Merseyside club these days; Liverpool have won just two honours since their unforgettable night in Istanbul over a decade ago.
That illustrious past often creates unnecessary pressure on those trying to make something of the present at Anfield. Jurgen Klopp guided the Reds to Champions League qualification last season, but a slow start to the current campaign has inevitably raised questions over whether the German gaffer can take the club back to the realms of regular trophies and titles.
Liverpool legend John Barnes, however, an ambassador for Bonus Code Bets, believes Klopp is still very much the right man for the job. Speaking exclusively to Football FanCast, he said; "We need better players. You can only ask any manager to maximise the potential of the team. I feel he maximised their potential when they finished fourth last year and I still think that they will be challenging for between fourth and sixth this season - they can certainly still finish fourth.
"So yes, he’s still the right man. Things haven’t always gone our way but when you’ve got top managers managing all the top teams - Arsenal, Manchester United, Manchester City, Tottenham and Chelsea - you can’t really get a better manager. So what it boils down to is maximising the potential of the squads they have. Which is why City are first, United are second, Spurs are third and so on because they have the best teams.
"Liverpool aren’t doing as well as they can at the moment but I think it’s obvious that had we got the players Klopp wanted - Naby Keita and particularly Virgil van Dijk - we would have improved. Now, because we didn’t get them, maybe some managers would have gone and bought some other players, but if you know you’re eventually going to get these players, Keita at the end of the season and maybe van Dijk in January, why spend £60million knowing that you’ll sign them at some point anyway? As I said, a new manager won’t necessarily do much better. Brendan Rodgers is a top manager, and Klopp isn’t necessarily going to do better than him."
Barnes also shared his thoughts on Klopp's surprising treatment of Dejan Lovren during a 4-1 defeat to Tottenham Hotspur last weekend. Already two goals down, the Liverpool boss hooked off the Serbian centre-back after just 32 minutes - having played a culpable hand in both concedes. But the former England international thinks the decision was justified - and it reminded him of former winger Jimmy Carter once lasting just a matter of minutes after being brought on from the bench.
Barnes said; "At the time we were still in with a chance of getting back into the game and Klopp obviously felt that he needed to take him off. Obviously you want to keep Lovren onside, you want to keep his confidence. But at 2-0 you still you have a chance of getting back into the game and so he took that decision based on trying to win the game. We got it back to 2-1 and the third goal was the killer. But he’s paid to make decisions like that - the player won’t be happy but it was brave call and we’ve seen top managers do it in the past. We’ve seen Jose Mourinho and Louis van Gaal do it in the past, because they know you have to try and win the game.
"I never took a player off that early as a manager, but I remember once it happened to a sub at Liverpool. Jimmy Carter came on from the bench and he was hooked off a few minutes later!"
Considering Carter lasted just five league games at Liverpool, that doesn't bode too well for Lovren's long-term future. But the fact of the matter is that Klopp is stuck with the Serbian until January at the earliest, when reinforcements may or may not arrive via the transfer market. Graeme Souness may have not have lost too much sleep over showing up the young winger back in the 1980s, but due to a lack of realistic alternatives, Lovren is an important member of Klopp's squad almost by default. An out-of-form, low-on-confidence Lovren may cost him dearly over the next few months.
https://video.footballfancast.com/video-2015/PL25(11-12).mp4