Our Reds have been very active in the transfer market, signing seven new players at the time of me writing this preview, the eighth, Divock Origi remaining at Lille on loan. However, reports suggests that Brendan Rodgers is not done yet with signing players.
For me, I would give Brendan Rodgers and his team an eight out of ten rating in transfer activity so far.
Unfortunately Adam Lallana has picked up an injury and is not expected to start this weekend, but we all know he is a quality player and should be an asset to the team.
Rickie Lambert’s Cinderella story continues with a return to his beloved Liverpool. Although he has failed to impress so far pre-season, we know he is quality. I think that he may be a little overwhelmed by returning to Liverpool, and let’s be honest, any Liverpool fan would be.
Dejan Lovren pulled on a red shirt for the first time against Borussia Dortmund on Sunday, and looked like a giant. I could not be happier to have him on board. J
avier Manquillo was a signing I knew little about, but a signing I felt we needed. For me, our right back position needed some improvement, and from his performance on the weekend, he looks like an exciting talent.
I have not seen a lot of Lazar Markovic or Emre Can, although Can manhandling Balotelli did impress me.
Plus we are close to finalising the Moreno move, so all in all, I am very satisfied with the work put in. But if we could sign one major name before the transfer window closes, then I would be over the moon.
Post-Suarez
To be honest, when it came to light that Liverpool were in negotiations with Barcelona regarding the sale of Luis Suarez, I was indifferent at best.
There is no denying he is one of the best players in the world, but his attacks of madness was starting to become more of a hindrance than an advantage. So after the World Cup bite, I had washed my hands of him.
When the deal was done, I was satisfied that we got a decent price, although I personally thought we had sold him for between 5-10 million pounds too cheap.
However, I watched a clip of Suarez’s performances for Liverpool last season, and then the size of the loss really hit me. For all his faults, the man is a genius, and any team will be poorer not to have him. I do take some solace though in knowing he will not be with any of our EPL competitors.
For me, what I have found the most annoying post-Suarez are the fans of other clubs gleefully questioning where will Liverpool’s goals come from now, stating that without Suarez, we have no goals in us.
As if they do not know that the man who came second in the goal scoring charts last season wears a Liverbird on his chest as well.
So, I decided to review the goal scoring stats for last season and comparing the total goals scored by the top three goal scorers per team to Liverpool. I only looked at the Premier League, at our direct competitors and I also removed Suarez’s goals from the equation.
Here are the results in order of most goals scored:
Man City (Toure, Aguero, Dzeko) : 53 goals
Liverpool (Sturridge, Gerrard, Sterling) : 42 goals
Man United (Rooney, Van Persie, Welbeck): 38 goals
Arsenal (Giroud, Ramsey, Podolski): 34 goals
Everton (Lukaku, Mirallas, Barkley): 29 goals
Chelsea (Hazard, Eto’o, Oscar) : 28 goals
Tottenham (Adebayor, Erikson, Soldado): 23 goals
So, apart from Man City, we still scored far more goals than the other members of the Big 7.
Also, I think the loss of Suarez could actually be a blessing in disguise for Liverpool. Last season, Rodgers had to structure the team to fit both Suarez and Sturridge up front.
This season, we can play with a single striker leading the line, and play with five in the centre, with two deep lying midfielders. Basically, a 4-2-3-1 formation. This would give our defence more cover and also allow our full backs to push forward.
2014/2015 WE GO AGAIN
YNWA
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