John Barnes. | image source: squawka.com |
Liverpool legend John Barnes upholds the popular perception among football fans that modern footballers are very soft.
During an interview with The Score on Kiss 1oo on Saturday afternoon, Barnes felt that the era of "hardmen" in football are long gone as modern footballers are no longer willing to put their bodies on the line for their teams.
Barnes, who played 403 matches and scored 106 goals for Liverpool between 1987 and 1997, said that when he was talking about Daniel Sturridge's injury-plagued spell at Liverpool.
Sturridge has played only 75 times for Liverpool since joining them in 2012 but Barnes felt that the number would have been much higher had he decided to play through the pain on some occasions.
"The culture of football has changed in England. When Phil Neal played for Liverpool, he played for 6 years without missing a match and you can not tell me that he was not injured at any given time during that period," he quiped.
"But modern footballers now can not play because they feel a broken fingernail. At times they take it to the extreme and if they feel in their own heads that they are not physically and psychologically fit, they do not play," he added.