With the Liverpool Daily Post reporting recently that Jay Spearing could well make a loan move to Wolves this season, it got me thinking about some of the imbalances still apparent in our squad. Although there hasn’t been any real news on his predicted departure, Christian Poulsen will also likely depart this summer if a club can be found for him.
With both Poulsen and Spearing seemingly out the door, it will leave Kenny Dalglish with only one realistic holding midfielder in Lucas Leiva . Although there is now tremendous faith in Lucas after his stellar season last campaign, I still think it would be unwise to go an entire season relying on one player to continue in the holding role.
For sure, it could be argued there is no need for another as the Brazilian showed last year he has tremendous fitness levels which saw him play in nearly every match for the Reds. On top of this, there is less matches to play next season with the Reds not being in Europe, so it seems logical that Lucas could cope well on his own.
I would draw the line though at those who think the Reds could go without a recognised holding midfielder at all in some matches this season. Some fans who have suggested their first choice eleven next season have proffered a central midfield trio of Aquilani, Gerrard and Adam, and although I admit this looks very exciting on paper, the likelihood of such a formation working in reality is negligible. For one thing, you would be asking Adam to play as the most withdrawn of the midfield trio, and one thing we know about the Scot last season is that he can’t tackle. His foul count and his reckless lunge on Gareth Bale is testament to that.
In addition, when considering Lucas, you have to consider that he has had a long summer with Brazil at the Copa America and after having only a short break from football he may not be as fresh or fit as he was last season. His form may dip or he could pick up an injury; it is something you really shouldn’t take a risk on by not having a backup option.
It is one of the reasons why I have been advocating for us to buy a strong physical defensive midfielder like Yann M’Vila or Blaise Matuidi . (The Reds have actually been linked with Lee Cattermole for £10million but I am hoping this is nothing more than a rumour).
If finances dictate however that the priority for signings lies elsewhere, such as left back and centre half, the Reds may have to look in house unless either Spearing or Poulsen stay. The most logical choice would of course be Conor Coady .
The youngster has impressed in pre-season already, after scoring against Guangdong, and the fact he has already featured in many squads under Dalglish at the back end of last season, suggest King Kenny maybe keen to give him a chance in the first team.
The most likely scenario would be that he features in a few League Cup ties next season, but with FSG and Kenny keen to ensure that exciting youngsters have an opportunity to progress to first team level, I feel Conor may have the talent to step up if he is called upon. What do you think?
Article is courtesy of David Tully at Live4Liverpool
conor coady is a future liverpool captain, he is strong, tall, can pass and shoot, confident penno taker and reminds me of a defensive gerrard. i think it is his breakthrough season along with andre wisdom, adam morgan, suso and raheem sterling.
this is the worst article ive read all summer,wot a load of crap.who writes these things?we just spend 50 mil on midfielders and you are talking about m villa and maitudi.what are you on mate??forget midfield its done and dusted,we need a striker and a couple defenders and finish.
Agree with alex I think That’s the last position we need to think about, n conor coady…? There’s bout another 4-5 youngsters who r a lot talented than him. We need a foward y not give Pacheco a chance ahead of ngog who is useless! N Wat bout sterling, suso, adoran who a lot better than coady, should taken them to the tour of Asia, would of done them well. But we know daglish is the person to can make these kids into superstars!
Must agree, midfield is NOT done just cause we have “too many” midfielders, what we have atmo is too many attack-minded midfielders and quite a few of those are deadwood. Conor Coady should get his chance this season me thinks, or we may even play Gerrard there now that he’s older and so injury-prone.
I agree with what has been said so far and some of the tallent we got knocking on the first team door is really exciting times for our beloved club but think the point of the article was to show the lack of cover for the holding role in the middle of the park which he has a point imo. Cody will come on more than expected I think and also think he’s a better player than spud and certainly don’t want Adam playing that role and as mush as he can’t tackle he had a bad habit of getting caught on the ball as last man in the middle and Blackpool conceding from it.
The articles in general on here have gotten a lot worse, but this one is the best in a long time…
What are you fools on about comparing Coady to Adorjan and Suso –
You are comparing a Defensive Midfield player to two withdrawn Second Striker/playmaker types??
The author made it perfectly clear who our DMs are, and put up a reasonable argument for Coady getting a chance if Poulson is sold and Spearing loaned out.
You are talking about having loads of midfielders – when they are clearly all creative or attacking mids – that happens a lot in comments on LFC pieces at the moment, but to do it when the author has just been explaining to you the difference between types of midfielders?
Did you even read it FFS?
The mind boggles…
After two defenders: LB & CB, the next position most urgently in need of attention is a natural defensive midfielder – as outlined above, Poulson is no where near good enough for LFC, Spearing is good enough to be third choice but we need a top DM to challenge for honours.
Lucas is a good hard working pro who is much improved, and he would be sure to keep a top new DM like M’Vila or Matuidi share and focused by giving them competition to get in the side.
This article makes sense if you have any understanding of football.
sharp* and focused