‘Salah & Van Dijk are the new Barnes & Hansen’ – Liverpool title winner sees similarities with 80s icons

Liverpool boast world-class talent in their class of 2019-20 to rival that of iconic sides from the past, says Gary Gillespie, with Mohamed Salah, Sadio Mane and Virgil van Dijk the new John Barnes, Peter Beardsley and Alan Hansen.

Jurgen Klopp is looking to deliver a first top-flight title at Anfield in 30 years.

He has assembled a squad which has become serious contenders for major prizes at home and abroad, with Champions League and Club World Cup crowns already collected.

Some of the finest players on the planet have come together on Merseyside, with the very best being brought out of them by a demanding coach.

Gillespie, who won three titles with the Reds in the 1980s, believes the club’s current crop of players are a match from anything that has gone before them, with remarkable standards being set.

The former Reds defender told Love Sport Radio: “I think if we played the team back in the 80s on the pitch we played on we’d possibly win, but I think if we played them on these pitches I don’t think we’d have a chance to get near them.

“They’ve got world-class players across the pitch - the similarities are they have world-class players in good areas of the pitch, players who can make a difference.

“The guys that they’ve got, Salah and Mane and [Roberto] Firmino, we had Barnes, Peter Beardsley and a goalscorer in John Aldridge.

“A bit like Alan Hansen at the back, you’ve got Virgil van Dijk.

“It’s difficult to compare different generations but this lot are very, very good.”

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Liverpool have just completed a 12-month unbeaten run in the Premier League, with only two points dropped in the current campaign, and it is being suggested that they could match Arsenal’s ‘Invincibles’ from 2003-04.

Gillespie added on that challenge: “Of course they can but is it likely? I think possibly not. I think probably not because they’ve got too many games. It’s all about winning the titles for me.

“Winning tournaments and winning the competitions. If it happens then it would be lovely. But they still have to secure the title first.

“The way we were brought up is that you just have to focus on the next game and take it from there.

“They’re playing a quite intense style but they manage games very well as well. They dictate the pace of the game through the pace they have.”