Liverpool Need Six or Seven Player to Replace Luis Suarez – John Aldridge

Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers has been told to sign between six and seven players to help bear the loss of Luis Suarez, whose move to Barcelona is close to being confirmed.

Rodgers has already clinched deals for Adam Lallana, Rickie Lambert and Emre Can, but despite Lazar Markovic and Divock Origi being set to join in the coming days, the Northern Irish boss is being pressured to make further signings.

Suarez scored 31 Premier League goals last season and was the double player of the year and after pushing eventual champions Manchester City all the way last term, Liverpool would risk taking a step back if they were unable to replace the Uruguay international.

And former player John Aldridge wants Liverpool to overstock their attacking resources and says the club need as many as seven further players in order to be competitive during the new season.

"By all accounts the Belgian lad Origi, he'll be loaned back for a year," Aldridge told Sky Sports News Radio.

"He's one for the future, he's very young. He's done really well in the World Cup considering how old he was. He's been thrown into the limelight up front instead of Lukaku and he's done extremely well.

"Liverpool are looking down the line with him but even with Suarez we needed a bigger squad, a more vast squad than what we had last year with the games that we're going to have to take on next year.

"There is a lot of work to be done by Brendan Rodgers and the club itself to bring in possibly six, maybe seven players in."

Liverpool have been linked with a move for Schalke forward Klaas-Jan Huntelaar, who has just a year to run on his current deal with the Bundesliga club, but the German side have stated they are unwilling to do business despite stalling on negotiations over a new deal.