Now all people have been saying is how Liverpool have too many midfielders and will have to trim the squad but now we are faced with this gaping hole in our team, people will realise that Liverpool are not in the business of filling their playmaker role with any midfielder and need to replace quality and flair with similar.
So who steps into this void? Well with the signings of Henderson and Adam and re-appearance in the city of a certain expensive Italian there could be a few pretenders to the throne. Meireles game is too different and he doesn’t possess the qualities to be able to turn a game on its head in a moment but his contributions are effective elsewhere. Using Lucas as an attacking option is a non starter as he too doesn’t possess such qualities as our scouting network has managed to find the only Brazilian footballer who looks out of his depth when in the opposition penalty area.
So really we have three candidates. For me the worry with Aquilani is although you see glimpse of sublime touches and flicks they are too inconsistent to rely on and he never looks to be the sort of player who will run at the opposition and beat a man. This too is a worry with the fact that he spent the last season on loan in Serie A where the game is nowhere near as fast paced or physical so he may struggle to get with the pace of the Premiership. He could prove his worth if still with us by the season kick off but I can see it more as an impact player from the bench. Henderson made an amazing start to last season although we can all be forgiven for not realising what was going on in the rest of the world in those dark ‘Hodgson days’, but in the second half of the season wasn’t as ‘stand out’ as in the previous six months. He has a lot of ability and potential for sure and can certainly add to the first team at the moment, but I see that more in a role alongside Gerrard in a master and apprentice situation where he is learning from him.
That leaves us with Charlie Adam. He has a lot of positives in his favour, after all last season he managed to turn games on their head with the limited assistance of what can be accurately described of a team of Championship standard players. So that makes the feat even more of an accolade. He proved he is not scared of doing it at the bigger opponents as he sparkled in games at Anfield and Old Trafford amongst others. He was consistent over the course of the season and was pivotal in everything that Blackpool did that was good. His set pieces are a real danger and giving him a chance of one on the edge of the box is as good as giving a penalty away, remind you of anyone? His range of passing is top class which is why people have already earmarked him as the Alonso replacement we have been so craving. More importantly he is extremely comfortable with the ball at his feet, even when running at opponents and likes to run at teams and have them on the back foot. The only negative is whether he can step up to being a small fish in a big pond after being a big fish in a small pond for so long.
While I am not going to heap on the pressure of saying there are that many similarities in their game that he is a ready made replacement for Gerrard, he certainly ticks more boxes than anyone has come close to doing for some time. Kenny being the cunning Scot that he is, probably already has the attacking plays in his mind with Adam being at the lynchpin of them all, and if he is the player to take on this task we will all look on in relish. One thing is for sure Kenny is by far the best man to bring the best out of fellow Scot Adam. To be a great team, you should be able to replace every player on that pitch with another player without disrupting the effectiveness of the team. We have never been able to do that when missing Gerrard, we need to be able to do this if we are ever going to challenge. Tina Turner famously sang ‘We don’t need another hero’, she was wrong, we do and although only time will tell Charlie Adam is looking the prime candidate for the role.