3 Options Liverpool have to get past the Suarez ban
Then there is the other side of this: what big (or small) clubs are going to be willing to let us have a good striker on loan for 6 months, knowing that it may well come back to punish them in the long run? I mean, we could have inquired about Nicolas Anelka, or speak to Tottenham about taking Niko Kranjcar, or any one of Manchester City’s dozen strikers but would any of these clubs be willing to do business, knowing that we may get the best out of these players and pip them to a Champions League spot? It is highly unlikely. So what we’re left with is the dregs to choose from, or taking a chance on a potentially decent signing from abroad until the summer.
The third option is to stick with what we have. I mean, we have Andy Carroll and Dirk Kuyt – both are out-and-out forwards. Then there’s Craig Bellamy, who we will get maybe one full game out of per week? There is also Suso and we could always call back Dani Pacheco from his loan spell. Then, you can throw Steven Gerrard and the goal-scoring monster that is Maxi Rodriguez in to the mix and it suddenly doesn’t look so bad. Over the years Gerrard has often been our leading goal-scorer, usually in an advanced second striker roles. He could play out wide, providing the ammunition to Andy Carroll or he could play just behind a lone striker or a front two.
With a straight-forward target man like Carroll and two very adaptable forwards in Kuyt and Bellamy, there are definitely options there and as Bellamy has shown recently, he is more than capable of scoring goals from nothing, which is a quality a top striker needs these days. There is even a case for playing Gerrard as a striker himself; he has all the attributes and, after a long layoff, maybe pushing him further up the field would offer him more freedom and relinquish some of the responsibility, allowing him more time with the ball and more opportunities to boost his fitness and confidence? Then there is Maxi, who in the past 12 months has shown that, given the chance and the right support around him, is capable of being a highly prolific midfielder. So really it is just a matter of how we use our available resources in Suarez’s absence.
Of course, there is always the chance that this might backfire horribly, the window will close and we’ll be stuck without a world class striker. Then again, there is also the argument that, as good as Luis is, he hasn’t exactly been too prolific, so we may not miss him as much as we think in terms of goal scoring.
Which is why I believe that the third option is our best bet at the moment. We may lose Suarez for 8 games but we’re not desperate, we still have players that are capable of scoring goals. We have definite options. Admittedly, some are better than others but they are there and they are proven. We also have to remember that the transfer window has only just re-opened and will be open for another 4 weeks so there is also no rush. We should stick with Carroll, Bellam and Kuyt for the time being, supported by the fit and able Gerrard and, again, let’s not forget Maxi. In the meantime, we should keep doing our homework, keep an eye out home and abroad for any potential bargains and, should it become evident by the final week of January that a striker is a must, then we can make our move.
Articles courtesy of David Tyrer at Live4Liverpool
8 responses to “3 Options Liverpool have to get past the Suarez ban”
Whichever option doesnt really augur well for the club. The only thing ood is the timing of the transfer window. Buy 1 excellent striker instead of 2 0r 3 mediocre players like what we had done in the past.
The Russian league is only starting in March and Suarez’s ban is over by the end of January: Just try and get Eto’o on a two months loan!
SMARTEST THING I HAVE HEARD IN A LONG TIME
let player from reserve team play lol.
As much as the FA/media want this to be ‘black and white’ – it isn’t – and such binary reduction puts them now in racial profiling waters.
The FA are now guilty of the very thing they self-righteously tried to rail against. Now we have a murderous political campaign against Suarez, Dalglish, and Liverpool, who have already been politically blackmailed into giving up their appeals and issuing a player apology. These outside groups like Kick it Out are now seeking to further defame a player based on a kangeroo court, a probability case, and the FA’s own admission of character preference (which is legally unethical if not racially motivated). They have ignored Evra’s own slurs and threats to Suarez, Evra’s history of racial epithets supported by video, and the previous FA dismissals of his ‘character.’ The FA took an unprecedented case, an unprecedented procedure, an unprecedented punishment and decided to aim it at a South American player with a poor command of English, new to the country. As it’s official scapegoat, they chose a person of mixed race, denigrated his worth in court, and produced a decision based on lip readers from Manchester. They should be ashamed! This of course deflects from the much more cut and dry case involving a British player, the England captain no less. By the lack of parity in treating these players the FA is promoting something akin to racial discrimination.
The fact that Lord Ousley is affiliated with Manchester United makes the recent statements all the more regrettable. If you truly want to kick racism out of football you have to be equitable and fair in accessing all sides of the race question, and all cultural associations. You also must consider that you are trying to assassinate the character of a player that used the Spanish word for ‘black’ when the original charge was falsely based around the much stronger N word. What you are seeking to defend will actually bring about more racism in football because now any player can get another player banned and politically assassinated on a hearsay allegation. Recent actions, and the statements from people like Jason Roberts, are actually promoting inequality, subjectivity, and racial profiling. Witness how the media have sanctimoniously jumped in based on such reductive political correctness and how the player’s own mother now fears for his safety. Also,do a modicum of research on Suarez’s race relations, there are videos a plenty on youtube, and you will find that there isn’t a less racist player in the premiership.
Wonder how long this will be on the shelves in Tesco as the FA goes PC mad.
http://www.tesco.com/groceries/Product/Details/?id=257182735
you speak as if the club have not been doing their homework for the past 6 months and only just started scouting players. that is ridiculous… if anything they must have identified lots of targets and those are probably not going to change after another 6 months…