Pundit dismisses Sancho, Liverpool links and names only player Klopp must sign

Jadon Sancho TEAMtalk

John Barnes is adamant Liverpool won’t be in the running to sign Jadon Sancho in 2021 – but has named the one player he should look to bring in.

The Borussia Dortmund was chased, to no avail, long and hard by Manchester United all summer.

With the Bundesliga side sticking rigidly to their £108m asking price, United were simply priced out.

The failure to land him has been deeply analysed, with one German football expert offering some excellent insight.

However, while United could yet relaunch their bid for Sancho, it’s claimed both Liverpool or Bayern Munich could trump them to his signature.

Liverpool legend Barnes, however, isn’t so sure. Barnes is adamant Jurgen Klopp doesn’t need Sancho. He also doubts whether he could get into the side ahead of their famed front three.

“I can’t see Sancho getting in ahead of [Sadio] Mane, [Mo] Salah or [Roberto] Firmino,” Barnes said. “So for him to come he would have to fight for a place and not necessarily be in the team.

“I don’t think anyone from the front three will be replaced and seeing as they’ve just signed [Diogo] Jota and they have [Divock] Origi and [Xherdan] Shaqiri, it dosen’t make sense to get Sancho.

“I’d be very surprised if they get him. It’s good to get great players, but are Liverpool going to spend £100m on one player, I doubt it very much. I don’t think that’s one that will happen.”

Assessing their summer arrivals, Barnes insists it was very much a case of quality over quantity for Klopp.

“Their window been as good as anybody else’s in these times. They’ve got two excellent players in Thiago [Alcantara] and Jota.

“So rather than getting players just to make up numbers and be in the squad, Klopp’s got quality players in. They can come into the team without spending a huge amount of money.”

 

Barnes names one player Liverpool should sign

Barnes has though shared his thoughts on Liverpool’s shock 7-2 thumping at Aston Villa last time out.

While he is adamant it is not the time to panic, he does believe signing a new centre-half could become their next target.

“Conceding more goals has nothing to do with the personnel in the back four, Liverpool are just playing differently,” Barnes explained.

“They’re playing a much higher line because Klopp has tweaked the system and they’re looking to score more goals. They are giving away more chances as a result of that. It’s not got anything to do with Trent Alexander-Arnold, Virgil Van Dijk, Joe Gomez or any other players – they are all fine.

Kalidou Koulibaly TEAMtalk

“If you want perfection then of course you could go and get Kalidou Koulibaly. But you’re not going to get perfection. Liverpool have lost one game and lost one game last year and one game the year before.

“This was a bad performance but I’m not getting carried away thinking all of a sudden the wheels have come off.

“They were fantastic against Arsenal. This is not a situation where Liverpool should make any knee-jerk reactions and say if anything is wrong.

“They were 20 points better than everyone else with a similar team as last year. I don’t see what the problem is now. It was a terrible performance in one game. Iff this continues you could maybe start asking questions. But nobody will get carried away after one performance.”

 

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