A big win in Scotland hasn't changed Liverpool's requirements in the transfer markets, according to Rio Ferdinand and Michael Owen.
Jurgen Klopp's Reds put seven goals past Rangers on Wednesday night to put one foot in the Champions League knockout stages. Roberto Firmino scored twice and Mohamed Salah delivered a six-minute hat-trick, while Darwin Nunez and Harvey Elliott were also on target in the come-from-behind victory.
Still, despite the victory, the pundits feel Klopp's team remain in need of refreshment. The arrival of Nunez and Fabio Carvalho over the summer has helped change the age profile of the squad, but there is still an opportunity to do more.
While former Man Utd man Ferdinand has urged Liverpool to spend, he doesn't think they should stray form the deliberate transfer policy which has served them well so far. "They don’t go out and play scattergun games in the transfer market and I think they need to stick by that," he told BT Sport.
"But they do need to bring in new players. I think [Sadio] Mane’s been a big loss. At the moment it’s not going the way they wanted it to but I think in time it may catch up."
Senegal forward Mane, who scored 23 goals in all competitions for Liverpool last season, moved to Bayern Munich over the summer. The 30-year-old has blown hot and cold in Bavaria so far, but his midweek Champions League goal against Viktoria Plzen was his second in the competition and eighth in total this term.
Do Liverpool need to spend in January? Have your say in the comments section
Mane, Roberto Firmino and Mohamed Salah all turned 30 within a year of one another, prompting questions about the age profile of Liverpool's squad. And this is something former Reds striker Owen mentioned on BT Sport when debating what his old club needs to do next.
"The worry for Liverpool is a lot of their best players are their older ones," the 42-year-old said. "The [Virgil] van Dijks, the Salahs, [Jordan] Henderson, Fabinho, they’re players that are 30, or approaching 30, or in Henderson’s case well into their thirties. So they’re the ones they’ve got to worry about."
Liverpool have been looking at younger additions in recent windows, and even the older members of their squad were recruited when approaching their peak, if not a fair bit earlier. Ibrahima Konate was just 22 when he joined from RB Leipzig in the summer of 2021, with Luis Diaz - who had just turned 25 - arriving from Porto a few months later.
Klopp's team have been linked with a number of other younger players, with Jude Bellingham chief among them. The England midfielder, who has been impressing at the Reds manager's former club Borussia Dortmund, only turned 19 in June.
