Former Manchester United midfielder Owen Hargreaves says Liverpool can be a career killer for a centre-half.

Hargreaves insists Southampton defender Virgil van Dijk wouldn't save the Reds with their current system.

He explained: "I played with Rio [Ferdinand]. I had this conversation with him this summer about Michael Keane, he had lots of options, could have gone different places.

"I said that if I'm Michael Keane, as much as I want to play for Man United again, maybe at Liverpool because that was always an option, I would want to play as a centre-back where I was a little bit protected, where I had people in front of me.

"Because if you go to Liverpool, and you go to Manchester City, Van Dijk is not going to fix Liverpool. As good as he is, he's one of the best, he'll play for Barcelona or Real Madrid one day, in my opinion he's that good.

"But if you're full-backs are like [Borussia] Dortmund were against Tottenham, Dortmund were brilliant but they virtually had two players back within 70 yards of their goal, two players. I mean, I don't care how good you are, you need a bit more protection."