Thursday 28 July 2016 15:38, UK
Liverpool's season should be judged on their Premier League finishing position rather than any cup success, says John Barnes.
After taking up the Liverpool reins in October 2015, Jurgen Klopp led the Reds to the finals of the Capital One Cup and Europa League last season, but an eighth-place finish in the Premier League means they will not be competing in Europe in 2016/17.
Liverpool finished 21 points behind champions Leicester City last season and Barnes says they must close the gap to the country's best this campaign.
"A success for me, with every team, is how well you do in the league," the former Liverpool winger told Sky Sports. "If you win the Europa League but finish 10th in the league, is that success? Not to me it's not. If you win the League Cup but finish 10th in the league, is that success? It's not.
"If Liverpool finish third but don't win a trophy or get to a final, that would be more successful. The quality of a team is shown over a period of time, which is the season. In a cup you can be lucky.
"The aim for Liverpool this season should be pushing up the league and challenging. We'd like to challenge to win the league but we finished eighth last year so you can't say 'unless we finish second or third it's not success'. But as long as we're moving in the direction and we're competitive in every game we play and coming into April we are still not far off the top of the league, that's success.
"I wouldn't put them under pressure to say 'unless we finish in the top four it's not success' because we could finish fifth and be six points off first or fourth and 30 points off first.
"Liverpool must aim to finish as close as possible to the top in terms of points, which would mean we're competing with whoever wins the league. That would be success: Liverpool right in the mix with the best teams."
Liverpool have already spent big money in the transfer window, with a £36m outlay on Southampton's Sadio Mane and the £25m purchase of Newcastle's Georginio Wijnaldum. Defenders Joel Matip and Ragnar Klavan have also arrived from Germany, along with goalkeepers Loris Karius and Alex Manninger.
The quality of a team is shown over a period of time, which is the season. In a cup you can be lucky.
The Reds are not alone in making significant investments, though, with the majority of leading Premier League sides spending large sums on new recruits. However, Barnes says the key work Liverpool will do this summer is on the training field, where he expects Klopp to relish the extra time he has to mould his squad in his style.
"Regardless of whatever players he brings in, I trust him to integrate a style that suits them," said Barnes. "I wouldn't be disappointed if Liverpool didn't sign big name players because he's signed Mane, Matip… players who he knows he can get the most out of.
"Can the players do what he wants? It doesn't matter about how good we think they are. No matter what players you have, if they can understand what you want from them and they can do it, you can be successful. All you can ask any manager to do is maximise the players at his disposal."
Liverpool pulled off several standout results last season, including big wins over Manchester City home and away, and Barnes expects them to add more consistency to their performances this time around, following a full pre-season under Klopp.
"Every season there is excitement all over football, all through the leagues; new players, new managers, renewed optimism," said Barnes. "And it's probably a more exciting time in the Premier League than before because we now have seemingly the top managers in the world there and a really exciting season ahead.
"From Liverpool's perspective, I'm really looking forward to it. When Klopp came last year I said I wouldn't judge him positively or negatively because it wasn't his team, he didn't have a pre-season with the players, which I think is important.
"To get your style over, to implement the strategy you believe in, really takes a good pre-season to do that. Last year he didn't have much time to work on anything. You could see at times they played well - against Man City and Chelsea - but at times they didn't.
"Looking at what they did on the odd occasion last year you can see that given time and given his influence over a longer period of time, particularly during pre-season, they will be able to do that more consistently."
John Barnes is supporting the Weetabix #Sportingstarts campaign for summer 2016, and was challenged to take up bubble football. #Sportingstarts will see over 15 million special promotional packs of Weetabix, across the whole Weetabix family, and every pack purchased will come with a £5 sports voucher PLUS a free or 2-4-1 sports session. See how he got on below or watch the full video here.
