Liverpool need more experience and quality to mount title challenge: Steve McManaman

SINGAPORE – Liverpool are in for a challenging season ahead as they cope with some high-profile departures, and former Anfield star Steve McManaman believes they need to sign more experienced, quality players to bolster their bid to reclaim the English Premier League trophy.

This summer, the Reds have seen scoring talisman Mohamed Salah, Andy Robertson and Ibrahima Konate leave on free transfers. Curtis Jones is set to join Inter Milan, while Hugo Ekitike, Conor Bradley, Giovanni Leoni and Joe Gomez are in the physio room. This has raised concerns about squad quality and depth ahead of their first league match at Newcastle United on Aug 23.

Young players like wonderkid Rio Ngumoha, who turns 18 on Aug 29, have given the Anfield faithful some hope for the future, but McManaman warned that “talents for the future don’t win the Premier League this year”.

He said: “Rio’s a superstar in waiting... he’s got immense talent. But he’s 17, 18 and he cannot fill Mo Salah’s boots because Mo was scoring 30, 40 goals a season for almost every season.

“Some of the kids like Trey Nyoni and James McConnell are getting older, which is good. But it’s a challenge with the league and the Cups and the Champions League, and Liverpool need a bigger, deeper, stronger, more experienced squad than they have now.

“Unfortunately, in football everything is about winning here and now. So, as much as we’ve got a huge amount of talent... we need more experience to help them get through it because it’s hard playing in the Premier League.”

The 54-year-old former England international, who also played for Real Madrid and Manchester City, is in town as part of Standard Chartered Bank’s partnership with the Reds.

Following a 20-minute media roundtable at the bank’s headquarters at Changi Business Park on Aug 21, he appeared at a Standard Chartered football clinic for 100 children aged seven to 13 at CARE Singapore – a non-profit organisation that helps at-risk youth – and also attended a dinner with the bank’s clients.

With the transfer window closing on Sept 1, Liverpool have been linked to Brighton winger Yankuba Minteh and Paris Saint-Germain forward Bradley Barcola.

But business has been slow – they have signed only centre-back Jeremy Jacquet and winger Victor Munoz for around €100 million (S$148 million), and brought in centre-back Ronald Araujo on loan from Barcelona. This is a far cry from the €483.13 million they splurged on players last summer.

Besides being impressed by Araujo’s ability to neutralise world-class attackers such as Vinicius Jr in La Liga – despite having to take a couple of months off due to mental health issues – McManaman also has high hopes for the highly rated Jacquet and Munoz, and hopes that attackers Alexander Isak and Florian Wirtz will come through after a bumpy first season.

Reds manager Andoni Iraola also has his vote of confidence, with the former Liverpool winger opting to overlook pre-season results in which they squandered 2-0 leads to lose to Leeds United (4-2) and Monaco (3-2) as their key players were still coming back from the World Cup or working their way back to full fitness.

He said: “Everybody’s been incredibly impressed with what Andoni did, the signings he brought in, and the style of football he had at Bournemouth, so the Liverpool fans will really appreciate the way Liverpool play under him.

“They prefer some intensity into the game, and I’m not saying Arne Slot didn’t do that, but I thought last year it did slow down a little bit from his first year and Jurgen Klopp’s last year. That bit of intensity around the pitch closing down, hunting people down.”

While he hopes his beloved club will come good at the end of the season, McManaman appeared to tip the scales in Arsenal’s favour for having a strong and stable squad. They have added Bruno Guimaraes, Ezri Konsa and Christos Tzolis, while losing only Leandro Trossard, as their rivals Manchester City and Liverpool are still in flux.

He added: “Arsenal have got an extremely strong squad, and the fact that they were very dominant last year – absolutely they can do it again.

“Man City have lost Rodri, Tijjani Reijnders, James Trafford, Nathan Ake, John Stones and Bernardo Silva... and that’s without even mentioning Pep Guardiola. Elliot Anderson’s come in, but they have lost a lot of experience and a lot of what made them great.

“Everybody just needs to wait until Sept 1 to know what we are going to deal with for the rest of the season.”