Liverpool sporting director, Michael Edwards, is under increasing pressure this summer as a result of the clubs recent struggles, according to Simon Hughes.
Hughes joined Wednesday's OTB AM to discuss Liverpool's difficult season and assess what has gone wrong for the club over the past few months.
With economic restrictions forcing the club to sell before they attempt to bring in any players, Edwards and manager Jurgen Klopp face an uphill battle to restore Liverpool to the heights of 2020.
"There is a lot of pressure on the sporting director, Michael Edwards, this summer," Hughes admitted.
"He is going to have to trade well to create the financial environment that allows Liverpool to go and sign the players that will make them a team that is capable of finishing higher than eighth, put it that way.
"There is a lot more pressure at Liverpool because of the economic landscape in which they operate. They cannot really afford to have many high profile mistakes."
A combination of several long-term injuries, as well as an inadequate amount of time to prepare for each game, has hampered Liverpool this season.
Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp and Diogo Jota before the Premier League match at Anfield, Liverpool.While all clubs are struggling with the high workload and relentless pace of competition, Jurgen Klopp's squad, who have relied on their physicality and willingness to run to spur them to success over the past two years, have faltered more than most.
They have struggled to match their renowned intensity of the past and Hughes described this season as a "dramatic fall."
The problems Liverpool have faced may have been assuaged had they managed to offload certain players last summer and had that occurred they might have entered the January window in a stronger financial position.
"They had three players last summer that they did want to sell," Hughes said.
"They had expectations of revenue coming in of around £60 million for those players.
"In a pandemic, it is difficult to judge what the market value is but had some of those players been sold, I am talking about Xherdan Shaqiri, Harry Wilson and possibly Divock Origi as well, if they had been sold then possibly Liverpool might have had the funding to go and get a centre-half in the January transfer window."
(AP Photo/Jon Super)This all begs the question as to whether Liverpool will be able to make their moves in the summer market.
"I found the newspaper reports in the last couple of days to be interesting," Hughes continued.
"There is a suggestion that they are going to back Klopp.
"There is a feeling that the team does not need an overhaul and if Liverpool can get key players fit and have the appropriate amount of rest over the summer, which is interesting given there is a European Championship this year, that they would have a much better chance of getting to where they want to be.
"They are going to need to make two top quality signings really in certain departments.
"I think central defence is still a glaring problem and then further up the pitch there needs to be more support in attack as well."
(Photo by Attila Volgyi/Xinhua)Despite the issues the club have faced domestically, Liverpool will play RB Leipzig on Wednesday evening in the second leg of their Champions League last-16 tie.
With a healthy 2-0 lead from the first leg, Klopp's men will be heavily favoured to progress.
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