Liverpool targeting the right players?

Are Liverpool targeting the right players this transfer window? We have already made 4 signings this window and I think that these players will add depth and quality to the side but the players who are set to sign don’t really attract my attention.

 Dejan Lovren was solid for the Saints this past season but to me he is about the same level as the defenders we already have. At around 20 million, he’s not cheap. Rumors are going around that Dortmund defender Mats Hummels will make a switch to Manchester united for around the same money. To me he is currently one of the best defenders in the world, not only for his country which he was instrumental in helping win the world cup.

For Dortmund he is equally as monumental, he single handedly kept his team in the Champions league against Real Madrid, keeping the formidable BBC at bay for much of the game in which they narrowly lost out.

I understand the whole debate of bringing in the marquee signing and the opposite of bringing in a few good players instead. I have discussed that at length in the past. Hummels is just one example of the best of both worlds, a world class player for the price of an average to good player. There are others out there.

This brings up another point, the price of players. I understand that the price of players is directly proportional to their performances for club and country as well as what the club think he’s worth. Usually players are grouped into a certain price bracket according to their ability or profile. Ronaldo, Bale and Suarez are classed in the 75-100 million bracket which is the highest of anyone.

Of course you then have Messi who is probably priceless but is rumored to have a buy-out clause of around 200 million. The newest player to maybe get into that elite group is Colombian James Rodriguez; talks are that he will be sold to Real Madrid for around 70 million. Purely based on his performance at the world cup his price sky rocketed.

There was a comparison recently with Toni Kroos and Adam Lallana who were both sold for around the same amount. And even being a Liverpool supporter there is no way that they are worth the same. Not taking anything away from Lallana, he is a great player but not in the league of Kroos who is world class at the moment.

This brings me to my next point; players in England have inflated prices. Why I have no idea, if you had to buy Lallana from a club outside of England he would have gone for around 12-15 million instead of around 20 million. Sunderland are wanting to buy Borini from us for around 14 million. Again from any other club outside of England he would be 7-8 million.

We bought Coutinho for that kind of money and he is class and could turn out to be a world best one day. He certainly has the potential. Liverpool only paid 22 million for Suarez who turned out to be the best striker in the world this past season. So the price of players doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with their ability. Gareth Bale would be an example of price equals performance, he was bought for an astronomical fee and he has proved he was worth it by helping Real Madrid to “La Decima” their tenth European Championship.
The best thing for Liverpool to do is to find players like Hummels that will give you huge amounts of quality while not costing you an arm and a leg, mind the pun.

When do players really peak?

There is a huge debate surrounding about when players reach their peak. Most people believe that a player reaches their peak at around the age of 26 to about 28. There is a lot of evidence to back this up, Messi, Ronaldo and Suarez arguably the best players in the world are all around that age.

You can’t really argue with that but what about all the other data? Paul Pogba(21), Eden Hazard(23), Raheem Sterling(19), Romelu Lukaku(21), Koke(22), Philippe Coutinho(22) and James Rodriguez(23) all well below the so called ‘peak age’ had outstanding seasons for either club or country and for some both. You might say some of these players haven’t proven themselves yet over a few seasons. To that I will say: Toni Kroos(24), Mario Gotze(22), Marco Reus(25), Thomas Muller(24) and Gareth Bale(24). All proven players some who have just won the world cup, in particular Gotze scoring the winning goal.

Now you might even say that these players are still young so it is easy to perform at the highest level as compared to someone who is 27 and been playing for a number of years. Then you would have to look at Phillip Lahm(30), Steven Gerrard(34), Andrea Pirlo(35) and Gigi Buffon(36) who all competed at the recent world cup, Lahm captaining the winning Germany. If you’re still not convinced I would just like to point you to a one Miroslav Klose who at the age of 36 became the all time record goal scorer in world cups.

So if the sentiment is true that a player only reaches their peak at around 27, then the world better be ready for a wave of world class players in about 5 years.

Players surplus to need?

I am not someone who is “win at all costs” I do however like to win and when I see Liverpool lose I’m not too fond of it. I do understand that it was a friendly fielding a very young side and that Rodgers was testing out young and fringe players to see who would stay and who would leave. There were still some worrying signs in the game against Brondby last night. The defense was non-existent when the last goal was scored which happened way too often last season. I therefore don’t understand Rodgers thinking playing Agger who has been very shaky in defense over the last season.

 Skrtel who has been great going forward and scored more goals last season than any defender in the Premier league but who also seemed fragile in defense at times. You sort of have an idea about what they have to offer, I would rather have given the likes of Ilori and Wisdom more of a chance to show what they can do in a red shirt. The only other explanation I can think of was that Rodgers wanted to give Agger a last chance to prove himself before making a decision to sell him.

I agree with building the squad for the more competitions this season and I fully back Rodgers and his vision. I do not however agree with just having players for the sake of making up the numbers, I feel we have too many anonymous players in our overall squad. Watching the game I hardly recognized the team I’ve supported my whole life. Most players remained anonymous apart from a few that stood out who were regular first team starters. Allen, Lucas and Flanagan had a solid game as usual and could easily slot into the first starting team at any time. The stands out players for me were Coutinho and Ibe who really put up their hands and you could see they were a cut above the rest. I think they will definitely be in Rodgers plans going forward well Coutinho at least, I hope Ibe gets a chance because I think he does deserve it. Suso and Borini tried really hard to impress as they are fighting for survival I believe.

I quite like Borini and I think he could offer support to Sturridge and Lambert or whoever else Rodgers beings in to the team. I also like Suso and think he would be a great squad player in cup games etc. I would like Ilori to get more game time to see what he has to offer because I think he could be a great player now and not only in a few years. I think we should follow Mourinho in selling players surplus to need and focus on the players we need and bring in others who can add to the group not just take up space.

Suarez a flop at Barca?

The star players that have left Liverpool in the past include: Michael Owen, Fernando Torres, Xabi Alonso and most recently Luis Suarez. In the case of Torres, his stardom decreased rapidly after his move to Chelsea and has never seemed to pick up again. 50 million pounds effectively got them a very average striker who on various occasions missed open goals. After Michael Owen left Liverpool he never reached to heights that he did at Anfield. Alonso having moved to Real Madrid did not have such a major drop in form because of the quality that surrounded him. However he did not regain the quality he possessed at Liverpool playing alongside Steven Gerrard. Will Luis Suarez follow suit and become a flop at Barcelona? I think that it’s a 50/50 call because he has been in such great form recently and he can usually make something of nothing all by himself. But on the other hand at Barcelona he is no longer that main man, playing alongside the likes of Messi, Neymar, Xavi, Iniesta and the list just goes on. He will have to find his place amongst these huge stars of the game who have almost won everything there is to win in world football. So will he cope not being the centre of attention anymore? I don’t think so, as with many strikers he is very selfish at times and I don’t think this will fly at Barcelona but I could be wrong. In the 2010 world cup he was very instrumental to a lot of Diego Forlan’s goals. So he might surprise me and become a very important part of their team. At the end of the season, Suarez was linked with many clubs including Real Madrid and Cristiano Ronaldo that he would not be happy about Suarez moving to the club. He said that the ‘BBC’ combination of Bale, Benzima and Cristiano was working well and that if Suarez came it would throw out the balance. What he probably meant was that it would be a bad idea to have too many selfish players in one team. Players seem to always want to move to a ‘better’ club and many times it doesn’t quite work out the way they expect.

star team vs star player

It’s all fine and well having a world class player in your team but it can also end up being a disadvantage. If you rely on him to carry the team and he has a bad game for some reason then you’re quite screwed. On the other hand it can be quite good because you can build your team around said player in order to maximize their abilities. On the other hand, having a team full of stars can also be a bad thing because maybe not all of the team are stars. Then they might have more pressure on them to be at that same level. In the example of Argentina where Messi is the main focal point of the team, immense amounts of pressure are placed on him to perform and most times he is marked so heavily that he can’t do what he normally does. The Argentinean team is not short of stars however, with players such as Angel Di Maria, Sergio Aguero and Gonzalo Higuain they should be able to offer support to Messi. In teams like this a great tactic would be to use Messi to commit players to defend him and then allowing the other players space in which to create chances. The opposing team may catch on and then spread their defenders but so doing will allow Messi more space, so either way you have chances. Liverpool used this tactic so effectively this last season because Suarez was so heavily marked it allowed those players around him like Sterling and even Sturridge to score some great goals. In a team like Germany who in my opinion have world class star players from 1 to 11. This might not be the case however because of the way they play, they play as a unit. A well oiled machine and every part (player) knows what they have to do. No matter who plays it’s the same, whether it be Ozil, Muller and Kroos or Gotze, Shurlle and Shweinsteiger the style and system remains the same. This is key because if one player is not having a good game or gets injured they can be changed with the knowledge that there will be no drop in quality. So the star team will face the star player on Sunday in the world cup final and we will see who comes out best.

Liverpool signings

A lot has been said in this transfer window about what sort of players Liverpool should bring in. On the one side there are those who want big name, marquee signings that will instantly boost the squad. On the other hand there are those who want to build a young team who will be strong for years to come. This would then fall in with what Brendan Rodgers is building at Liverpool. I sit on the fence in this regard, I believe in what he is trying to build but I also want to see big name players coming into the team. I understand that big players are not always easy to land and do not always fit into the system but I do think that a club like Liverpool should have no problem in luring these marquee signings. I am of the opinion that players over the age of 27 are not viable for Liverpool based on the idea of building a young team that will be sustainable. There are however plenty of players well under that age that are world class and would fit perfectly into the team. Examples of such players are; Paul Pogba who could be convinced to come to Manchester United’s arch rivals, a team who gave him up and said he had no future at this level. Eden Hazard who didn’t seem happy at the end of last season could be another. We were beaten to his signature by Chelsea so I’m sure there would still be some interest there. He showed what class he has for such a young player. James Rodriguez who stood out at the world cup would be a perfect fit for the Reds, with his pace and skill he could link up nicely with the current players and form a very formidable attack. Jan Vertonghen who just makes it under at the age of 26 would be great cover at the back; he can either play left back or centre back. Eager to play in Europe he could be brought in to reinforce a back 4 that leaked many goals last season. I don’t know if Rodgers doesn’t favor players or maybe he feels they don’t fit into our system but I’m just so tired of seeing the likes of Real Madrid and Barcelona have their pick of players in the transfer window and the rest fight over the scraps. I want Liverpool to be the team that attracts all the stars and not be the team that sells all of their best players.

Will Liverpool cope without Suarez?

Will Liverpool cope without Luis Suarez? It will be very tough; he is as we all know one of the best players in the world at the moment. His record over this last season speaks for itself, scoring 31 goals and contributing to countless other goals. He was instrumental to Liverpool’s success last season. Even when he doesn’t score he causes defenses all kinds of trouble and most times creating chances for other players to score. Personally I would rather have kept him and built a team around players like him and Stevie etc. Now we have to find a replacement or a number of players to fill the massive gap left by Suarez. I find it quite unfair that Barcelona and Real Madrid have this power to bring in players almost at will. They already have Messi and Neymar, they don’t really need Suarez. If he is to leave which looks likely then we will just have to cope. Brendan Rodgers has already made some good signings this window in Adam Lallana, Rickie Lambert and Emre Can. Good players with a lot of experience who will bolster our squad especially with Champions league this season. Emre Can is only 20 years old but already has Champions league experience which the other two do not. What the other two do have is Premier league experience which will help as they already know what to expect. It looks like there will be a few more signings before the window closes with rumors of Markovic and Origi making a possible move to Anfield. Are these players good enough to replace Suarez? I think not, they might pay off in a few years but we need to capitalize on our good performance from last season. Therefore we need to sign big name world class players. Alexis Sanchez would have been a great signing but it looks as though he will be going to Arsenal. Klaas Jan Huntelaar is also a target of Rodgers and he could be a good signing. I still feel that Suarez is irreplaceable and he will be a huge loss. I felt that at the end of last season he was loyal but it seems otherwise. Regardless of the biting incident I think that Liverpool would have stuck with him purely because of his influence on the field. I might be wrong and they may be looking to off load him. Not that they say anything, all you hear is rumors about what is going on. A few players I would like Liverpool to sign would be: Jan Vertonghen as we should look to bolster our defense that was leaky at times. Alberto Moreno as we sorely need cover at left back because I don’t think that Enrique is good enough moving forward. I think that Real Madrid left back Fabio Coentrao could also be a good signing as he is not getting game time in Madrid. I like Xherdan Shaqiri as he offers some physicality which we lacked a bit last season. I think we need to make one big name signing with the money we get from Suarez; players like Paul Pogba, Mario Manzukic etc. just to make a statement that we are still here. Mats Hummels would be a fantastic signing but he is wanted by a few major clubs but I suspect that Jurgen Klopp will fight to keep him at Dortmund. There was also talk of a move for Mario Ballotelli, I’m in two minds about that as he is a world class player but I don’t think he is a big team player. Whatever happens and whoever Rodgers decides to sign I have faith in him that he knows what he is doing. I hope that we can still be fighting for the title next season with or without Suarez.