Liverpool Premier League Odds: John Barnes says Reds don’t need to sign anyone

The World Cup is almost here but we're already starting to cast our eye at the next Premier League season. We're delighted to have Liverpool and England legend John Barnes on board as our official World Cup Ambassador throughout the tournament and it would be remiss of us not to ask his thoughts on the current situation at Anfield.

Here are John Barnes thoughts on all things Slot, Salah and squad strength, as well as the Liverpool Premier League Odds for 2026/27...

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New customers only. Deposit via Debit Card & place first bet £10+ (1/1+) on Sports in 7 days. £30 Sports & £20 Acca Free Bets within 10 hrs of settlement. 7-day expiry. Eligibility, payment excl. & T&Cs Apply.

Premier League Odds

We spoke to 62-year-old John recently and our first question was around Mohamed Salah and his recent outburst on social media, directed in a thinly-veiled way at Arne Slot's tactics.

Was Slot right to give Salah his send off on Sunday?

“Absolutely Slot did the right thing. I mean Salah’s going, so if he was staying it could have been a bit different, but as he’s going, it was good for everybody to see Mo leave on a high.

I think Mo was wrong to do what he did and what he said. If you analyse what Mo said, he’s saying that any Liverpool manager needs to be subservient to the way Jurgen Klopp played as a non-negotiable, which is rubbish. Any manager at Liverpool needs to say they’re doing it their way, not Jurgen’s way, so for Mo to say that ‘heavy metal football’ is a non-negotiable is crazy and ridiculous, so he was wrong to say it. 

I think Arne Slot was the bigger man to give Mo his send off for being a great servant.”

John Barnes

“Well, we won the league by a stretch when we signed Wataru Endo and Federico Chiesa. After that, we’ve signed [Alexander] Isak, [Florian] Wirtz, [Hugo] Ekitike, [Milos] Kerkez and [Jeremie] Frimpong. The solution to the problem isn’t just signing players because we have players here.

If somebody comes in, then what are we going to do with Isak, Ekitike and Rio Ngumoha, who’s coming through. We don’t need to sign anybody as far as I’m concerned because we need to work with what we have. 

We need to get the balance right, we need to get the blend right and unfortunately people believe the solution to any problem is just to keep signing more players.

I’ve seen we’ve been linked with Jarrod Bowen because West Ham United have been relegated, but I think what we have already is enough and I’m sure they can all stick together and work together.”

John Barnes

We then asked Barnesy if he thought the signings of last season would come good in 26/27?

“They need the fans to believe in them and support them. If you just keep being negative and booing the manager, then it’ll never happen, regardless of how good the players are.

We need to have a positive vibe around the manager because there’s going to be times when they don’t play well. From an attacking perspective we’re fine because we’ve got Rio Ngumoha coming through and Wirtz, Isak, Ekitike and [Cody] Gakpo are all very good.

I think we should possibly strengthen in the defensive midfield area, but I don’t think we need another superstar player, we don’t need that many superstars in the team when you’ve got hardworking players.”

John Barnes

Finally, we asked the former Liverpool legend about another future Reds cult hero...

"With Andy Robertson also departing, do you believe Milos Kerkez has the capability of being Liverpool’s left-back in the long-term after a difficult first season?"

“Let’s start improving and getting better before thinking about the long-term. He has the potential to do that, but I think what needs to happen for himself and Jeremie Frimpong is that they need to just focus on being full-backs. Kerkez just seems to be getting forward all the time and attacking, but they’re both young and inexperienced.

If you look at what Sunderland did, they changed their whole team, whereas what we’ve done is add five new players to play with six existing players, so to get that blend and balance can take a bit of time.

For both Frimpong and Kerkez, they have to stop feeling that they’re replacing Trent Alexander-Arnold and Andy Robertson. I’m not saying that they necessarily feel that way, but they’re playing that way by being all attack, attack, attack because as a unit we need to be stronger defensively.”

John Barnes