John Barnes says a successful season for Liverpool would translate to Jurgen Klopp’s challenging for the title in the 2016/17 campaign.

Liverpool must aim to Finish as close as possible to the top in terms of points

John Barnes

The 48-year-old German head coach is set to embark on his first full season in charge of the Merseyside Outfit after Klopp was appointed as Brendan Rodgers’s successor in October.

Klopp guided Liverpool to two cup finals last term but the Reds lost to Manchester City on penalties in the League Cup showpiece before the 18-time English champions suffered a 3-1 defeat by Sevilla in the Europa League.

The Merseyside outfit, who have signed seven players in the summer transfer window so far, finished in eighth place in the Premier League table under the former Borussia Dortmund manager last term.

Former Liverpool skipper Barnes believes the Reds need to keep pace with the title challengers next term in order to have a successful season under their charismatic German manager.

“The aim for Liverpool this season should be pushing up the league and challenging,” Barnes told Sky Sports.

“We’d like to challenge to win the league but we finished eighth last year so you can’t say ‘unless we finish second or third it’s not success’. But as long as we’re moving in the direction and we’re competitive in every game we play and coming into April we are still not far off the top of the league, that’s success.

“I wouldn’t put them under pressure to say ‘unless we finish in the top four it’s not success’ because we could finish fifth and be six points off first or fourth and 30 points off first.

“Liverpool must aim to finish as close as possible to the top in terms of points, which would mean we’re competing with whoever wins the league. That would be success: Liverpool right in the mix with the best teams.”

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Klopp has signed Loris Karius, Sadio Mane, Marko Grujic, Joel Matip, Ragnar Klavan, Alex Manninger and Georginio Wijnaldum in the summer transfer window so far.

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