John Barnes insists season is a success, even if Liverpool fail to win a trophy

Matt Jones - Editor 07:47 16/04/2019
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Mail
  • Pinterest
  • LinkedIn
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • WhatsApp
  • Pinterest
  • LinkedIn
  • John Barnes has insisted that whatever happens in the remaining weeks of the campaign it has been a successful season for Liverpool, even if they fail to win a trophy.

    The Reds are right in the Premier League title race with Manchester City, as well as among the favourites to win the Champions League – they hold a 2-0 first leg advantage over Porto in their quarter-final tie.

    They banished painful memories by defeating Chelsea 2-0 at Anfield on Sunday, with Sadio Mane and Mohamed Salah scoring the goals. The game fell almost five years to the day a costly error from talismanic captain Steven Gerrard saw the Blues win 2-0 on the same ground, a result that derailed Liverpool’s 2013/14 Premier League title bid.

    The Reds’ wait for a top-flight English league title has stretched into a 29th year, but iconic former player Barnes – a member of the squad that last lifted the English top-flight league title in 1989/90 – says that the club can be proud, whatever happens.

    “It’s been a fantastic season for Liverpool,” said 55-year-old Barnes, talking exclusively to Sport360 ahead of taking part in the DHL Swing Against Cancer Golf Series which gets under way with the DHL Open at Dubai Creek Golf & Yacht Club on May 2.

    “If we win all our games and they (City) win all their games they’ll have won the league and we’ll come second with 97 points, having lost one game all season. No-one can tell me that’s not a good season.

    “But, winning trophies is what it’s all about. Everyone says how the Premier League is and how teams are always beating each other, but we’ve only lost one game.”

    Liverpool FC v Manchester United - Premier League

    The Chelsea win sent Liverpool back to the top of the table, a point ahead of title rivals City, with the champions having a game in hand.

    If both teams win all their remaining games, Liverpool would finish second on 97 – a total that would have been good enough to win the title in every previous Premier League season bar last term.

    The 85 points they currently hold would have been enough to win the league in nine of the 26 total Premier League seasons.

    “No matter how it finishes, we already have enough points to have won the league in nine of last 10 years. You can’t ask anymore,” said Jamaican-born Barnes, who made 403 appearances for Liverpool in a decade-long spell.

    “We’re in the semis of the Champions League too so all you can ask is for your team to be consistent in every game they play.

    “We’ve won the majority of games, beat the teams we should beat and it’s been a great season. We can’t control what Man City have done, we can only control what we’ve done and we’ve been excellent.”

    James Milner is the only player in the Liverpool squad to be in possession of a Premier League winners’ medal – he won two with City in 2011/12 and 2013/14.

    But Liverpool players’ collective lack of experience – just like the perceived psychological weight of the Chelsea game both five years ago and on Saturday – has been dismissed by Barnes as representing something that puts the Reds at a disadvantage.

    “Until Man City won the league seven season ago, they’d never won it either so the whole concept means nothing,” added Barnes.

    John Barnes played for the Anfield club for 10 years and was part of the last Liverpool team to win the English league title.

    John Barnes played for the Anfield club for 10 years and was part of the last Liverpool team to win the English league title.

    “You have to look at the team that’s playing, look at the manager, the confidence in and around the club to win games. We’re not playing the game next week to win the league, we’re playing to win that match, and then the next match.

    “If you do that you’ll win matches.

    “Jurgen Klopp is the most important person at the club, building confidence in the team. People talked this week of the Chelsea game and the Steven Gerrard slip. Jurgen Klopp wasn’t here then, these players weren’t here then so it doesn’t affect them.

    “If fans get nervous it won’t affect the players because Klopp is so strong-minded and strong-willed, and those players follow his instructions to the letter, so if he shows no signs of cracking, the players won’t, even if the fans get nervy.

    “Chelsea was a nervy game, the first half we didn’t play so well and Chelsea had a few opportunities. But we had the belief and went on to win. The problem is Man City can also do that.”

    *To enter the DHL Open or any DHL Swing Against Cancer Golf Series event or to attend any of the evening events, email: [email protected]

    Recommended