Liverpool need not worry about getting a knock at the door from Barcelona this summer.
With Lionel Messi set to be on the move, there are concerns Barca could turn to Reds stars Mo Salah or Sadio Mane to strengthen their ranks this summer.
But that won't be the case, according to former Liverpool winger John Barnes, who believes Barcelona will look to different solutions.
"You can’t replace Lionel Messi," he told BonusCodeBets.co.uk. "Barcelona can’t replace him with Sadio Mane or Mohamed Salah because they are different types of players, you’ll have to come up with a different solution to how you want to play and whether Ronald Koeman would like that type of player, we don’t know.
"You can’t look to replace Messi with one player, it’s impossible as there is no player like him.
"What he has to do is come up with a formula, you can’t replace Messi like-for-like, so I don’t think that’s going to be an issue for Liverpool."
Messi has been strongly linked with Manchester City, Liverpool staying out of the race despite the Argentine superstar telling Barcelona he wants out.
But according to Barnes, Messi might not suit the Premier League despite his undeniable talent.
He added: "Lionel Messi is 33-years-old, he’s not the same player he was, particularly coming into the Premier League it’s a hard, physical league where he’s not playing for Barcelona in terms of being used to playing with those same players for the same way for the last 15 years, he then may take time to adjust, people take time to adjust to him, you may not have that time at 33-years-old.
"I don’t think that Premier League football will suit him.
"Manchester City will suit him more than any other club because they have Pep Guardiola and their playing style may be similar to Barcelona’s, it will take time to bed him into a new way of playing, a new team and a new group and the team getting used to him.
"He will inhibit your big players, like when Antoinne Griezmann went to Barcelona, he was inhibited, Philippe Coutinho was inhibited because it was all about Messi.
"It’s fine for it to all be about Messi when’s he’s 25, 26, 27, but at 33-year-old he isn’t the powerhouse that he was, so to then write all your players off as being subservient to Messi wouldn’t be the right thing to do."
