Date published: Thursday 4th February 2021 3:51 – Joe Williams
John Barnes thinks Manchester City can afford to lose “two or three main players” whereas Liverpool can’t handle it.
The Citizens are currently seven points ahead of the Reds, with a game in hand, after Liverpool lost 1-0 to Brighton on Wednesday evening.
Jurgen Klopp’s men have been suffering from injuries this season and Barnes reckons it is the lack of squad depth that has cost Liverpool so far this campaign.
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Barnes told BonusCodeBets: “Manchester City can afford to lose two or three main players and bring other players of similar quality in as replacements but Liverpool can’t.
“Due to the injuries they’ve had, [Virgil] Van Dijk, Alisson and other main players, Liverpool are having to rely on their top 12, 13 players and if you don’t have them all it’s tough. When [Diogo] Jota came in when the front three didn’t perform he was great, but he’s injured now too. Liverpool are missing a lot of key players.
“Decent players have come in to fill for the injured players but if you have to concentrate hard and perform as best you can every single week without your top players it is difficult to play with any consistency.
“Liverpool are also having to get used to playing a different style of football with these different players coming in for the injured ones. They’ve been so used to playing one particular way for the last three years and to change that now is hard.”
On Thiago Alcantara, Barnes added: “Thiago is a fantastic player, but Liverpool has to get used to how he plays and he has to fit into how the team plays.
“Liverpool won the league and Champions League without him so they shouldn’t change the way they play drastically, but if little tweaks are needed then it is going to take time for the player and team to get used to each other.”