Robbie Fowler believes Liverpool should sell Mohamed Salah and reinvest the proceeds in rebuilding the squad.
Jurgen Klopp’s side are amid a rotten run of form, with just three wins in their last 14 Premier League matches.
Sunday’s 1-0 defeat by Fulham means the reigning champions have now lost each of their last six home games in the top flight.
Liverpool now sit eighth in the table with a seven-point gap separating them from the top four.
Fowler thinks his former club need to invest in the squad when the transfer market reopens in the summer.
And he has suggested selling Salah, who has been linked with a move away from Anfield, as a way to raise money amid the coronavirus pandemic.
“I’m not having a go at Salah - I love him to bits - but I truly believe that transfers now are largely about what players want, so the ball is in his court not Liverpool’s,” Fowler told the Daily Mirror.
“If he wants to go, then he should go. If a player wants to leave, we have to accept it’s in the mix. I’m a firm believer that if they are unhappy and want to be going, then they should be going.
“Jurgen Klopp has said the same, too – he doesn’t want anyone at the club who doesn’t want to be there.
"It is my belief that was his attitude with Philippe Coutinho. He agitated for a move. Liverpool turned it down in the summer because it didn’t suit them financially and in terms of bringing players in, but they did the deal in January and used the money to buy Virgil van Dijk and Alisson.
“Klopp didn’t want Coutinho because he thought his attitude wasn’t right, and he didn’t want that poison in his camp in the end.
“So if Salah is truly unhappy, if he is upset he hasn’t been given a new contract or whatever, then cash in, get as much as you can for him and use the money to make tweaks with the current team.
“I’m a fan of Salah, obviously, who wouldn’t be, but Liverpool didn’t miss Coutinho that much, did they?
“It turned out that he wasn’t quite so good as people thought anyway – the system he was playing in made him look better.
“Perhaps that’s the same with Salah. You’d miss his goals, but is it possible to find someone better – not necessarily as a direct replacement, but in strengthening the team as a whole?”
The Reds return to action against RB Leipzig in the last 16 of the Champions League on Wednesday.
Klopp’s side hold a 2-0 lead over the German outfit from the first leg.
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