Liverpool aiming for top-four finish, says Michael Owen

Michael Owen believes Liverpool should aim for a top-four finish this season.

The Reds are bidding to build on their second-place finish last season and Brendan Rodgers has signed six players following Luis Suarez’s £75m move to Barcelona.

And Owen, who helped Liverpool win a treble in 2001, stressed that Reds manager Rodgers must spend the money generated from Suarez’s sale wisely to help Liverpool progress.

“If they can finish in the top four and keep building under Brendan Rodgers, who I think has done a fantastic job, as well as gradually filling the space left by Suarez and adapting to the Champions League, that will be a good season,” Owen told Sportsmole.

Owen added: “You’re never going to replace [Suarez] with one player. Liverpool have spent money on a variety of different players, but it’s going to be so difficult for them. They’ve not only lost a player that scores so many goals, but he also brings out an extra 20% in the players around him.

“I’d liken the situation to Tottenham and Gareth Bale. He was obviously a very important player, but perhaps they didn’t reinvest that money wisely – that’s what Brendan Rodgers has got to do. A couple of the players Spurs signed did well, but the rest didn’t, so you’d have to say they spent the money poorly.”

Rodgers has signed Adam Lallana, Rickie Lambert and Dejan Lovren, as wel as Emre Can, Lazar Markovic and Divock Origi this summer.