Hello Fellow Liverpudlians,
Being a die hard Liverpool Fc Supporter I have approached OurKop.com to write for them, I hope my views are fair and logical to all readers.
Sitting back in South Africa anxiously waiting for the new season to get underway, I have taken up trying to follow Liverpool’s play in the transfer market, reading every single byte of information online, searching through my Blackberry, reading Newspapers, anxiously waiting for Sky Sports Breaking News on news that Liverpool have made the scoop of the summer transfer window and have signed a big name player.
I have been thinking recently what Liverpool needs to finally win the premier league. I mean we have been blessed in a cruel kind of a way by not qualifying for Europe. We do not have to travel outside England; we do not play midweek games, leaving Liverpool to concentrate domestically only. While the favorites (Man U, Chelsea, Arsenal, and Man City) will be playing a whole lot more than us and stand a better chance of star players picking up injuries and hopefully collapse in the chase for the League.
So I am left with these questions, where do we lack in the coming season to win the league?
Okay, so we know the two key positions we need to strengthen are Left-back and Winger.
In terms of a left-back, we have a strong youth academy that will eventually throw out some great players, like for me the find of the season being Martin Kelly. But for the now part, José Enrique does look like a great buy (if we are not beaten to him by Arsenal).
Winger: Stewart Downing, I would definitely sign him and he will enable us to use the full potential of Andy Caroll.
Now the midfield questions, Dalglish seems to be going midfield crazy (with Charlie Adam and Stuart Downing poised to join). How do we fit in Gerrard, Kuyt, Henderson, Lucas, Meireles, Adam, Downing and Spearing.
The answer is simple; Strength in Depth. That is the factor that always denied Liverpool the league. While our main competitors have 2, 3 or 4 players per position, Liverpool were lucky to have 2. Without Torres or Gerrard we would collapse. Now with the King managing the players and giving us the depth we sorely needed, I know we can win the League. I am sure we will get busy in the transfer market and we will be ready to claim number 19 and our Title of being “England’s most decorated Team”.
Looking forward to 2011/2012 Season. A defining moment for all Liverpool Supporters.
This is the season! We are ready for the season here in South Africa.
OurKop.com would like to welcome Craig Naidoo from South Africa to the team
agree with your point on needing to fill out the squad and do believe having no euro football will be good for us as we havnt givin much priority to the domestic cups in recent years. whoever we sign we must get off to a great start if we wana be in the title race. we played really well after we got knocked out of europe last season so should use that exspierience to good effect this year.
i think liverpool need to act fast,because it will be difficult for them to sign a player if one of the champions league teams are targeting the same player
It would be nice to think we could win the Prem next season, but I think we will finish top four without further signings. Johnson is not the best right back i’ve ever seen but he did a good job when on the left whilst Kelly can cover both right back and rightside central defence with Flannagan also doing OK at right back. We also have three new players already in Gerard (now fit) Aquilani (now back) and Henderson. Maybe it would be better to wait a season to see how we progress especially with the other youngsters that are breaking through if we keep filling our requirements by buying in then we will stifle (cant spell that!) our own relatively free talent. The thing that bothers me about specialised wingers is the space they take up in the team, you can’t play Kuyt Carrol and Suarez plus wingers and to play them further back weakens the midfield defensively, I would prefer to see the team that started most games under Kenny with Gerard in if fit. I am a big Carrol fan but right now he would be warming the bench and Maxi would be given the chance to show that his late season form was no fluke.
A good article, well written, but sorely missing the point, I’m afraid.
Of course we want to win the Premiership – that’s a given, but if the only reason that we win it is because we don’t have the distraction of European football, then it’s hardly a step in the right direction. You could go further and say that if we get knocked out in the first round of both domestic cup competitions, we actually need only play around 40 games between now and next May – ie a dead easy season which would reduce the likelihood of injury and fatigue in players and would allow us to focus purely on winning all of our weekly prem matches.
Surely the point is to become an awesome, all conquering team again, with the strength in depth to cope with all competitions in our stride. We’ve won in Europe and we’ve won domestic doubles and trebles in the past, so surely that’s what we need to be able to do again?
You mention the midfield question where we suddenly seem to have a glut of quality players and my only comment on that is that this is how it should be in every position on the pitch! Players should be constantly fighting for their place and an effective rotational system should exist without fear of drafting in less effective players. This is exactly why the Mancs have done so well for so long – there’s always as much in terms of quality on the bench as there is on the pitch. Last year, we had Torres on the pitch, with N’Gog as his replacement if anything went wrong! For those who need that spelling out, we had one of the most expensive strikers in the world, backed up by one of the least effective in the Premiership. It’s no wonder Torres moved on!
Personally, I have massive amounts of faith in FSG, Damian Commolli, The LFC Board, King Kenny and all of the management and coaching staff. In fact, I’m more excited about the short and long term future of Liverpool Football Club now than I have been for many years. They are a very impressive and intelligent outfit who will without doubt have a very well structured plan in place which will continue to build Liverpool back up to the glorious club that we all remember and so desperately miss. It may not even happen next season as these are still early days in the rebirth of LFC, but mark my words… when it comes, we’ll take some shifting from that top spot!
YNWA
Spot on Richard, totally agree with you mate! I’m really impressed with FSG, Damian Commolli, The LFC Board, King Kenny and all of the management and coaching staff. We now have a very good structure were before we had Tom and Jerry in charge and an overcrowded forgien coaching staff ( from rafa’s regime ), for me that has to be part of the blame why we have gone downhill as well as the bad buys, the bad freebies and bad management from the board! down to the staff.
I live in Blackburn and I’m a passionate Liverpool fan! My grandad is a Blackburn fan and I was lucky enough to see myself what a great job KK did there as my grandad used to take me back in them days!
That winning team for me was not the best on paper in the league that year but they had KK which we now have, they had a brilliant stiker in Shearer which we have Carroll plus they had Sutton who wasn’t brilliant himself but formed an awesome partnership with Shearer and which I’m confident Carroll and Saurez will as there both class acts in my opinion.
They also had alot of hard working players who give 100% every game in the likes of batty, sherwood, ripley, berg, graham le saux ( spelt wrong but who G.A.F ). We have these players already in the likes of carra, gerrard, kuyt, henderson, saurez in fact all the players will next season and the team will have a great togetherness and team bond just what I think really won Blackburn the league that year plus the awesome Shearer.
The future is bright and I can’t wait for the good times ahead 😀
I personally dont think we have a squad capable of reaching the top 4 as things stand, we played without any pressure and got some fantastic results but again we still suffered defeats at the tail end of the season.
we absolutely need to strengthen in order to bridge the gap to the top 4 and that has to be our main objective.
we are well stocked in right full back and I would even forget about a centre half and push kelly into that role as cover and maybe next season add more quality should we get into the top 4.
being bogged down with “out and out wingers” is not the answer we need players who are quick can go past players and provide decent deliver be that in the form of a cross to Carroll or even feeding it to suarez and the advanced midfielders, im not convinced at 15 million downing is the best fit. a must for next season is a top left back maybe even 2 as aurelio should be releashed and robinson is at least another year off being worthy of a spot on the bench. with regards to Adam well id much prefer a strong enforcer and let lucas and gerrard to provide the passes with aquilani and meireles the more advanced roles. henderson can play wide right if needed but i doubt very much he will play every game he is available now but probably be aclimitised over time, he is only 20 after all. the signs are good but we need to add quality to our impressive youth if we want a quick return to champions league then we can bring in the better players
the key to mounting a serious challenge in the title race is keeping stevie-g fresh and fit for the whole season,in order to keep him fresh there needs to be a lot of of depth,if we have spero,lucas,stevie,aquaman,henderson,meireles,cole,shelvey we only need to send shelvey n spero out on loan n we bring in adam n we have the depth we need to challenge for honourst