Former Liverpool star Jason McAteer has revealed that his expectations of the Reds lowered after they failed to sign Virgil van Dijk and Naby Keita in the summer.

The Merseyside giants, who are currently fifth in the Premier League, were heavily linked with signing both Van Dijk and Keita from Southampton and RB Leipzig respectively during the summer transfer window.




Although Liverpool managed to sign Keita on a deal which will see him join the Reds next season, they failed to reach any kind of agreement with Southampton for Van Dijk.

The defender’s potential switch to Liverpool was the transfer saga of the summer, with the Anfield outfit having to publicly apologise to the Saints for illegally approaching the player.
 


But the rumours refused to dry up and the Netherlands international was still heavily linked with joining Liverpool; Van Dijk however stayed put at Southampton.

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And McAteer, who feels Liverpool would have challenged for the Premier League title if they had had Van Dijk and Keita in their ranks, now expects his former employers to finish in the top four, with probably a cup final appearance.

“Before the start of the season, with Liverpool’s transfer targets being Keita, Van Dijk, [Mohamed] Salah and [Andrew] Robertson, the targets were obviously out there in the public and if we would have got all the targets then I would have said Liverpool would be challenging”, he said on Betsafe.

“But we didn’t get Van Dijk and Keita decided to come next season, so my expectation slightly lowered from challenging for the Premier League to top four and probably a cup final.”

Liverpool have lacked consistency this season, but McAteer believes Jurgen Klopp’s team are very much in the running for a top four finish.

“At the moment its ups and downs, we have had problems”, he continued.

“Defensively it hasn’t been good enough and offensively it has been fantastic on its day.

“I think Arsenal is the standout result, probably the weekend [as well when we beat West ham 4-1], it was absolutely fantastic.

“I think it’s going to be one those seasons where it’s either feast or famine – we either win 4-0 or get beaten 4-0.

“I think until we address the defensive problems by bringing in new personnel, new faces or maybe slightly tweaking the formation which we did at the weekend, it’s going to be a topsy-turvy season.

“But at the minute we are very much in the hunt for a top four place.”

Liverpool are next up against Southampton at Anfield on Saturday.