John Barnes believes Manchester United must abandon the past in order to regain their spot at the top of English football.
United dominated English football during the tenure of Sir Alex Ferguson, winning countless trophies across his tenure at the club, but they have failed to win a league title since his departure, and are currently on their fourth permanent manager in Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.
The Norwegian is expected to bring back the good old days to Old Trafford after playing under Sir Alex between 1996 and 2007, but in the eyes of Barnes the club need to move away from the vision of the past they are now chasing.
“Look at the Manchester United players they have with Rashford, Pogba, Mata and Sanchez. They’ve got good individual players but they haven’t got the right attitude, the right commitment, the right determination," he told BeIN Sports.
"Player for player, when you talk about Sanchez, Pogba, they’ve got good players, but the harmony is not right and that’s why Liverpool are ahead of them. You get these players motivated, apart from they need a few defenders.
Gary Neville discusses Alexis Sanchez's Manchester United 'mystery' and makes prediction
“I think the biggest similarity is when it started going wrong at Liverpool and we started going on about going back to the old days, the boot room, back when we were champions.
"I think they had to get away from that. When Van Gaal came they didn’t allow him to do it, Mourinho, now Ole is talking about getting back to the old way with Sir Alex Ferguson. You’ve got to forget that and move forward.
“Liverpool needed to forget the Bill Shankly time and what we had done all those years and give whoever the manager is their head to create a new identity which is what they’ve done with Jurgen Klopp.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer explains Manchester United team selection and confirms fresh injury
"He [Souness] was right to do what he did but in terms of the animosity and the way he did it, probably doing it too soon. That’s why they say it’s probably better to be the manager after the manager that takes over.
"The big difference for me as well is that the lesser teams, the Bournemouths and Palaces, have players that on any one occasion can beat the big teams. The way that Ferguson managed, those days are gone. Even if you brought Sir Alex Ferguson he’s dealing with a different time with different players.
"With Liverpool we should have got away from that or the manager should have been allowed to do that. If you got a big manager he isn’t going to want to play second to Sir Alex Ferguson.”
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer issues transfer warning to Manchester United players
Manchester United see the best and worst of this squad vs Huddersfield
