Glen Johnson has hit back at Emmanuel Petit's claim that Liverpool overpaid for 'overrated' £123m summer signing Bradley Barcola, insisting the winger is "world class". The former Reds defender has backed the France international to come good after an indifferent start to his Anfield career.
Barcola struggled in an unfamiliar centre-forward role on Wednesday as Liverpool saw their 100% winning start to the Champions League league phase come to an end with a 3-2 defeat to Fenerbahce in Istanbul. The France international had starred in his previous Champions League away game, netting a superb hat-trick in the 6-3 success at LASK.
Those goals remain the only ones Barcola has scored in his 13 appearances for the Reds since his mega-money move from European champions Paris Saint-Germain on August 31.
Petit's criticism
Earlier this month, former Arsenal, Barcelona and Chelsea midfielder Petit, who won the World Cup with France in 1998, claimed: "£120m? I would never put that price tag on the table. We all know that in France.
"We know that he is a quality player, he could sometimes be great, but he doesn't have consistency during games. He was good most of the time with Paris because of the whole team behind him.
"I would probably have spent £60m or £70m, maximum. That's my opinion. It's becoming common now that English clubs are spending so much money on overrated players."
Johnson's defence
But Johnson, who made 200 appearances for Liverpool, scoring nine goals and creating 13 more after a £17.5m move from Portsmouth in June 2009, believes Barcola is "world class" and insists he should not be judged on his transfer fee.
He said: "I don't think Barcola is overrated. I think he's world class. I've been a fan of his for a long time. I think he's brilliant.
"I think what Manu Petit is trying to say is that he wasn't worth that money. I think that's what he meant. There's no doubt about his talent, his ability and obviously fans have the right to think whether he's world class or not. That's up to them.
"But I think what Manu was actually meaning was the fact that there's some other players who are really good that are going for half the money.
"So I think he meant more of that, than actually being not as good as people say. Because that's two different things.
"You need the talent there to compete with each other. I was hoping Liverpool would sign him before. The financial stuff, that has nothing to do with us. We just want to see the best players at Liverpool and how they can get it done.
"And the best players will play. And the ones that aren't playing have to improve. It can only be a good level of competition."
Attack options
While Barcola's France international team-mate Hugo Ekitike remains sidelined, Reds boss Andoni Iraola still has a wealth of options to select from in attack. Cody Gakpo, Rio Ngumoha and Victor Munoz, along with Barcola, are battling for the two places on the wings, while Lewis Koumas has impressed the new head coach enough to become a viable back-up to Alexander Isak in the striker's position while Ekitike continues his recovery from a serious injury.
Isak made it seven goals in 13 games when he headed Liverpool in front against Fenerbahce and after a tough first season with the 20-time English champions beset by fitness problems and injury, the £125m signing from Newcastle United is beginning to find his very best form.
"No-one wants to be injured but I think it's very important for attacking players to have games under your belt," said Johnson, speaking to PariuriX.com. "A rhythm of games to find that flair and the confidence to pull the things off that they can do so well.
"So it's hard for them if they're in one game, out for two, back for two, out for one. It's very hard to get that consistency. But his ability is not questionable. It might be hard to rely on him in terms of when he's available."
The Reds play their final match before the international break on Sunday when they travel to struggling Crystal Palace in the Premier League.
