"We certainly need to improve. The manager knows it and agrees that we need to bring players in," says the Reds number ten.
"In that respect I'm not anything different from him, or Steven Gerrard.
"Sure we've had some hard luck stories along the way with key players missing but the basic lesson is that this season was not nearly good enough.
"We have taken a bit of a step back from a few years ago and now we need to take two steps forward.
"We can still qualify for the Champions League in fourth spot. In fact, I guess we are favourites now, but a club like Liverpool can't settle for fourth place.
"When the dust settles, it has still been a bad season. Even if we get the result we need against Newcastle on Saturday and end up fourth it will be a season we will want to put behind us quickly.
"We'll celebrate, have a lap of honour and a drink, but it's not been a great season.
"We haven't won a trophy and we're so far behind the top three. It's plain to see the three teams above us have opened up a big margin and things have to be done to try to bridge that gap."