
John Barnes' Granny wrote:Liverpool were coming towards the end of their cycle under Daglish when Souness took over. Daglish revamped the side with the signings of Barnes, Beardsley, Houghtan and Aldridge in the late 1980s but no real thought was put into the adding to an aging defence and central midfield.
Souness wasn't helped by the rapid demise of John Barnes (who in 1987 to 1990 was probably the best player in Britain) and Ian Rush's inability to rediscover his old form.
However, he made major errors in selling Beardsely, Houghtan and Staunton, and could have probably got another year from Steve McMahon as well.
Souness correctly understood that change was required, but he tried it far too quickly and made the wrong choices in his transfer dealings. Had he held on to the three players I mentioned above (all three were major players for their clubs when they left Liverpool and showed that they had years of good football left in them) and was a bit more crafty in his new signings (i.e. had signed some of the players Man UTD or Blackburn bought instead of the likes of Dicks, Ruddock and Stewart) things could have been a hell of a lot different.
However, I grew up with the teams of the 1980s and it was difficult to go from watching us beat Coventry 6-1 away to losing 1-5 to Coventry in the space of 3 years, and aside from the Scum incident, that is what tarnished Souness in most fans' eyes.
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