Former Liverpool striker John Aldridge has urged manager Jurgen Klopp to change his transfer policy and buy a top-quality striker.
Liverpool's season is in danger of collapsing after Monday night's 3-1 defeat to Leicester City, with the team currently outside the top four and having been eliminated from both domestic cup competitions in January.
Aldridge believes Liverpool need to target a "physical" striker similar to the likes of Manchester United's Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Tottenham Hotspur's Harry Kane.
"He needs to go after players with the aggression, the physicality and the character to cope with these demands," Aldridge wrote in his weekly Liverpool Echo column. "He needs players who can fight when the going gets tough. We simply don't have enough of those type.
"Against Leicester, it struck me as obvious that we need a tough, physical centre forward.
"When a defence is under pressure, they need somebody up front who can hold the ball up, take a knock off a centre-half, flick a header on, run the channel and give you an outlet, someone who starts the fight from the front."
With Daniel Sturridge and Divock Origi struggling for form, Klopp has used Roberto Firmino in the false-nine role throughout the majority of the 2016-17 campaign.
Aldridge, who made 104 appearances for Liverpool over four seasons, insists that the club must do business in the summer in order to recruit an out-and-out frontman.
"Firmino is a nice technical footballer, but he's not that kind of striker. It's not his game," he added.
"It's the hardest thing in the world to sign a top, top striker, but we have to get out there and find one. A [Robert] Lewandowski, who Klopp found at Dortmund, a Harry Kane, an Ibrahimovic, [Diego] Costa. The top sides have that kind of player, we don't
"The trouble is, where do you get them, and how much do they cost? Because let's not forget, Liverpool need at least one midfielder and at least one centre-half too. That's the spine of a team. And they don't come cheap."