BLOG: An out and out striker in January?

Posted by Attack of the Kop On Saturday 8 December 2012 4 comments

If you were to ask any Kopite what their priority signing would be when the transfer window opens in January, 9 times out of 10 you would likely get the same – probably unrealistic – names: Klaas-Jan Huntelaar, Edinson Cavani, Fernando Llorente. It’s no secret that our main shortcoming is scoring goals. Our chance conversion has been in the bottom 3 since the season started – a problem we also had under Dalglish. The failure to secure another striker on the Summer deadline day would have been catastrophic had it not been for our magical Uruguayan hitting a purple patch in front of goal. Suarez currently tops the Premiership charts; scoring 10 of our 19 league goals – our next highest scorer being own goals on 3, and then 6 players all on a league goal apiece. Reading and Southampton, both currently occupying the drop zone, are on 19 and 21 goals respectively.

There’s an on-going argument as to where Suarez best operates, with many suggesting buying an out an out finisher and moving Suarez away from the centre of a front three. Personally, I feel moving our little Uruguayan onto one of the flanks would be detrimental to his and our performances. He’s the type of player who is constantly involved in an attack, one minute he’ll have the ball down the left wing and the next he’s nutmegging the left back on the other side of the pitch. If he’s placed on the wing you lose his movement, his constant harrying of centre backs and his influence. It appears Brendan Rodgers has the same thoughts – with rumours being bandied about regarding players like Tom Ince, Daniel Sturridge and Theo Walcott. All of these players play out wide for their respective teams, with Sturridge and Walcott both publicly voicing the fact they would much rather be played as the main striker. 

All three of these players would be an improvement on the squad and add a much needed versatility. In the Summer we sold three of our biggest attacking threats in Bellamy, Kuyt and Maxi whilst loaning out Andy Carroll; the aforementioned players scored a total of 16 in the league between themselves. It was clear to see that we hadn’t replaced these players at the end of the window, bringing in Italian youngster Fabio Borini (who has been out through injury since mid-October) and largely unknown winger Oussama Assaidi.  Of course, Raheem Sterling and Suso have been brought into the first team; playing relatively well – but neither should be expected to pick up the goal tallies of Kuyt, Bellamy or Maxi.

Another problem lies in the midfield. It’s not a midfield that you could be confident of hitting 20 goals between them. Manchester City’s scored 27 last season, whilst United’s totted up 31. Lucas has scored just once for Liverpool in the league since signing back in 2007, whilst Henderson, Allen and Sahin have all averaged low scoring seasons with previous clubs. Adding the fact that Gerrard hasn’t looked close to his best this season - managing just the one goal in 14 appearances - it’s really hard to see where the goals will come from.

So whilst many will be hoping we sign a big name striker in January, it seems to be more beneficial to try and get one of either Walcott or Sturridge, and - depending on what’s left in the budget - either buying a proven goal scoring midfielder or pushing Gerrard further on than how he’s being deployed at the moment. Rodgers himself has said that it could take him “6 or 7” transfer windows to shape the squad to his liking, so hopefully FSG will get behind their man and back him come January. 
Liverpool T-shirtsJordan Francis
@JordzYNWA

Who would you like to see the club purchase is January? Share your thoughts below! 

4 comments:

seo chennai said...

Hai...nice article...very informative post...i enjoyed reading this blog..thanks for sharing with us.

Cubic Zironcia Swiss said...

Hai...nice article...very informative post...i enjoyed reading this blog..thanks for sharing with us.

seo in chennai said...

nice articles....

tamil cinema news said...

good blog comments....

Post a Comment