Barnes warms to the magic with Dalglish back in hot seat

There's a sense of familiarity about it: Liverpool manager Kenny Dalglish makes up for the loss of his top striker by bringing in new, younger recruits.

The 2011 scenario at Anfield with Fernando Torres replaced by Luis Suarez and Andy Carroll also played out in 1987 during Dalglish's first spell in charge of the Reds. Ian Rush was departing for Juventus so John Barnes and Peter Beardsley came in to bolster the attacking options.

The move reaped immediate rewards as Liverpool won the old first division by nine points in the 1987-88 season with both Barnes and Beardsley in starring roles, alongside John Aldridge, who had been recruited six months earlier. But the Reds fell short of collecting the double after Aldridge missed a penalty in a shock 1-0 loss to Wimbledon in the 1988 FA Cup final.

It was the tail end of Liverpool's dominant period, which yielded another three major trophies in the next four years. Barnes would go on to score 84 goals in 314 league games for the club, while Beardsley netted 46 times in 131 matches.

Working as a pundit on Asian satellite television during Liverpool's week of change, Barnes could see the parallels between the two eras, although in 2011 there is no chance that 59-year-old Dalglish will make the occasional contribution as a player as he did during his first spell in charge. His final Liverpool appearance came in May 1990 when he was 39.

'Suarez is a fantastic signing and while Carroll is a bit of a gamble it does show the intent of the owners to put money into the club,' Barnes, 47, said. 'That is the most significant factor because Liverpool really needed to take care of the attacking side of things.