John Barnes believes Arne Slot will turn things around with his revamped Liverpool squad and backed £116m signing Florian Wirtz to shine at Anfield.
The Premier League champions have already lost five of their first 11 games, more than their entire title-winning campaign last season.
Slot and sporting director Richard Hughes spent around £450m in the summer, including a British-record £125m deal for Alexander Isak.
Roughly half of that was recouped through player sales, but the major overhaul has contributed to a turbulent start, with Liverpool heading into Saturday’s trip to Nottingham Forest having suffered seven defeats in their last 10 matches.
“Liverpool have spent a lot of money and bought a lot of players, but with that comes the uncertainty as to whether everyone is going to go well straight away,” John Barnes told Footy Accumulators No Tippy Tappy Football podcast.
“Five new players have come into the team, two full-backs (Jeremie Frimpong and Milos Kerkez), which are important positions for us, they’ve now got to get used to a new way of playing.
“Then there’s midfield where you had Jordan Henderson and Fabinho, who were strong defensive midfield players who worked with the full-backs, now we’ve got more creativity there.
“You’ve got players like Florian Wirtz, and Ryan Gravenberch is now playing in there, you’ve got players like Hugo Ekitike, so we’re finding our feet with them.
“The most important thing is that they’re all good characters. They’re not going to sulk and throw their toys out of the pram if things aren’t going well.
“But finding a way of playing, particularly with Wirtz who I think is a very good player, and finding a home for him with a team and a system that’s going to suit him, is important.
“The whole idea that because you’ve got great individual players means you’re going to win matches, that has been a bit of an issue. But because they’re younger and inexperienced, they’ll be here for a while, and we’ll get it right because they are good characters.”
On Wirtz, who is without a goal or Premier League assist since his move from Bayer Leverkusen, Reds icon Barnes added: “I think he will [prove to be a success]. I think he has been doing okay.
“He’s been playing well, he’s been creative, but I think that because the team hasn’t been consistent, we’re looking at him as part of that inconsistency.
“But when he’s on the ball and in terms of what he does, I think he’s been very good.
“The problem we have is that before, we were a team that passed the ball much quicker and got it forward quicker.
“Now we’re having a lot more touches in midfield and up front, which means that when teams get back behind the ball with 10 men, it’s difficult to get through them. We’re still finding our feet with that.
“I’ll give them the season, and I think we’ll finish third, which will be a disappointment for Liverpool fans, but I think moving forward, we’re in a healthy place.
“Mohamed Salah can start every game, it’s just the fact that Liverpool are now playing in a different way. In the old days, Trent [Alexander-Arnold] was the creator and Salah was the finisher. The way Liverpool played was designed for Salah to score goals, whereas now we are playing in a much different way.
“Now you’ve got Wirtz, you’ve got Ekitike, who’s dribbling a lot, you’ve got [Cody] Gakpo on the left, so we’re playing in a different way, which means Salah isn’t going to be as impactful.
“It’s nothing to do with (Salah) himself being 33, it’s the fact that the team is now playing in a different way to create chances for different people.
“It coincides with the fact that he’s 33 and people are putting two and two together, but he can’t start every game, but he won’t start every game now because we now have an abundance of strikers, so therefore he can be left out, but we have to come up with a way of playing that suits the team.
“We seem to be trying to fit all the star players in, which you can’t do.”
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