John Barnes: 'Liverpool must adapt to Christian Benteke'

Former Liverpool winger John Barnes has suggested that Liverpool need to find a way to adapt their style to suit Christian Benteke.

The 24-year-old joined Anfield from Aston Villa for £32.5m during the summer, and Barnes feels that his old club needs to put more balls in the box to give the Belgian chances to score.

The 51-year-old also praised the Reds' start to their season and their ability to pick up 1-0 wins while playing poorly, which he feels they failed to do in their last campaign.

Barnes told BBC Sport: "I'm optimistic for Liverpool, they seem to be able to win matches 1-0 even if they don't play well which they couldn't in the past, so I'm hopeful.

"Obviously when you look at two years ago, when we had the quality of Suarez, Sturridge who is not there with his injury, Gerrard was two years younger, Coutinho, Sterling, we don't have that.

"So maybe we have to change the way we play a little bit to be a bit more, not necessarily direct but to get the ball in the box for Benteke. We are still finding that way to adapt to him, he has to adapt to us."

Benteke has scored one goal in four games this season for Liverpool, who will face their rivals Manchester United at Old Trafford in Saturday's evening kickoff.