Liverpool made a late rally and won a flurry of games to sneak into the top four and finish third in the Premier League last season.
But they were far away from the team that dominated their way to winning the Premier League in the 2019/20 campaign.
Virgil van Dijk’s season-ending injury in October saw Liverpool lose their best centre-back and defensive leader early last season.
The Dutchman is expected to return to the team at the start of next season, but Anderton believes the Reds will need more than the return of their talisman to challenge for the title again.
He insisted that the squad need a few changes and tweaks, and pointed out that their front three were not at their best last season as well.
Anderton said on GentingBet: “Liverpool are going to need a few changes in order to compete again for the Premier League.
“I think that the front three were outstanding in that year or two years but they went off the boil a little bit last year.
“Obviously, they need Van Dijk back and that will make a huge, huge difference to them, but will it be big enough to get them back challenging?
“I’d be very surprised.”
Van Dijk decided against going to the European Championship with the Netherlands in order to be fit for Liverpool at the start of next season.
