Liverpool have had a great start to the Premier League season. I am sure if you had asked the team and fans if they would have taken 20 points from the opening 10 games before the season started, they would have taken it.
But the road is still long if the Reds are to finish in the top four and one area in the side that has shown weaknesses in the opening ten games is Liverpool’s central midfield. Brendan Rodgers has often gone with Steven Gerrard and Lucas in the middle but the combination seems to be struggling. Gerrard is not as dynamic as he was in seasons gone by which is expected as he starts to age. With Gerrard’s limited engine, it means Lucas is having to work double and he is struggling to cope. Jordan Henderson has also been used in the central midfield and whilst he has a much better engine than Lucas and Gerrard put together he still needs to work on his overall game. There is no doubt that in three or four seasons time, Henderson will be a top Premier League midfielder. But for now, we need someone to come in and help the Liverpool midfield.
The Northern Echo is reporting that Liverpool are interested in Newcastle’s French midfielder Yohan Cabaye. The paper says that Arsenal are back in the hunt for the midfielder they tried to sign in the summer but Liverpool are also monitoring the situation.
Arsenal had a £12million bid for Cabaye turned down in the summer and it is being suggested that the Magpies would be willing to sell for £18-20million. Arsenal went on to sign Mesut Ozil from Real Madrid for £42million so I would be surprised if Arsenal try to sign another midfielder in Cabaye. The Newcastle midfielder would be making a bad move if he were to join Arsenal as they have an abundance of options in that department. He would certainly get more regular football at Anfield.
One thing the current Liverpool midfielders are not doing is chipping in with goals. Now Cabaye is not a prolific goal scoring central midfielder but he has an eye for goal as we saw with his long range strike against us this season. If Cabaye is put in a team with better players around him, I am sure he will find the back of the net more regularly.
A possible scenario if Cabaye joins Liverpool is to play with a 4-3-3 formation with Mignolet, Enrique, Sakho, Skrtel, Johnson, Lucas, Gerrard, Cabaye, Coutinho, Sturridge, Suarez.
Having Cabaye at Liverpool, he would certainly make us a better team and give our midfield a bit more dynamism and creativity which is lacking right now. Cabaye would provide a new attacking threat to the Liverpool midfield but we still also need some defensive steal to replace or compete with Lucas. With all this talk of new midfielders we must not forget that we still have Joe Allen in the squad. The question now is, where does he fit in?
Lucas having to work double ? ? ? Are you for real . You should be writing for the Beano or Dandy . Steven Gerrard is asked to cover our ” back four protector ” , join in with the attack , playmake get all over the pitch in fact , Lucas is expected to do , well what is he expected to do ? Lucas is a liability and his uselessness affects the whole team