Barnes talks about Klopp’s plans in the transfer market

former player

John Barnes

says that Liverpool can’t afford to pay for a big player for

Klopp’s

defensive plans.

He has told BonusCodeBets:

“It’d be nice if Liverpool could address the center-back issue, but these are not usual times when you can just go out and spend £50 million on a player to address positional shortages.

“You don’t know what’s going to happen with Covid-19 and from a financial point of view you don’t know what the future holds either.

“Maybe Liverpool would feel it irresponsible to spend a lot of money now, and I don't see any club spending a lot of money.

“I don't think they’d get the best set of center backs to change the way they play in the January window anyway, but if they felt that they could do that I'm sure they will.

“When Virgil van Dijk came and played alongside center-backs like Joe Gomez or Dejan Lovren, he calmed them down.

“No matter how they performed without him, with Van Dijk they showed their true value. It’s the same with Rhys Williams - I'm sure if Van Dijk was playing alongside him, he would have been much calmer against Manchester United [in a 3-2 FA Cup defeat], which would have helped the situation.

“However, for Rhys Williams to play alongside a midfield player who’s not a center-back puts him under pressure. Young players coming into the team shouldn’t be under that sort of pressure, but they are, because of the whole current circumstances.

“If you look at Trent Alexander-Arnold when he first came to Liverpool, to a good side, he played his role with confidence. He was not under pressure and he showed his worth.

“You wouldn’t want a young player to come into a team that's not doing particularly well and think they’re going to change that.”

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