Some Reds fans will argue that Rafa Benitez has left Roy Hodgson with a high class starting eleven. No doubt, if we look at possibly our strongest starting line up, there is much to be optimistic about: Pepe Reina, Glen Johnson, Jamie Carragher, Daniel Agger, Emiliano Insua, Maxi Rodriguez, Alberto Aquilani, Javier Mascherano, Steven Gerrard, Yossi Benayoun and Fernando Torres. To most this would seem to be a very strong line up, more than capable of achieving the top four place required of them, but somehow last season, this was not the case.
Why and how this happened is down to a number of factors. Significantly injuries to some of our key players and the lack of form of others definitely played a part. With Fernando Torres, Steven Gerrard, Alberto Aquilani and Glen Johnson all out for good parts of the season, the strong starting eleven was weakened significantly. The big problem then, has been seen to be squad depth. The lack of real class on the substitutes bench and any real options to change games when things were not going so well, certainly contributed to our poor showing last season and eventually seeing Rafa Benitez exit the club.
The lack of squad depth has been blamed on a lack of funds, and to some extent this is true when money from Robbie Keane and Xabi Alonso’s sales were not fully reinvested into the playing squad, leaving to Rafa relying on players such as David Ngog up front and to buying an injured Italian midfielder who would take months to settle into his new surroundings. Not all of this can be blamed on the lack of funding though. If we look at supposedly our best starting eleven again, you begin to see holes in places you shouldn’t, most significantly at the back. Jamie Carragher’s form was out of Rafa’s hands but the introduction of both Glen Johnson and Emiliano Insua was down to Rafa.
With Fabio Aurelio injury prone as he was, an able deputy should have been ready and waiting but because of Rafa’s decision to sell John Arne Riise in favour of Italian flop Andrea Dossena for £6m, we were left with a young Argentine Emiliano Insua. To be fair to the player, he tried his best, but he was just not ready to play as regular left back in the Premier League. Both he and Johnson are a lot more attack minded than previous players in the position, a positive move by Benitez you would think to encourage more attacking play, but it caused greater problems in defence and an element of the side that was once its bedrock ceased to be as effective.
Of course, this is not to dwell on past actions. Hodgson now has to form his own team out of a good nucleus of players left to him. The big problem though, is that good nucleus may opt to mutiny. The player’s highlighted in bold above are all those who have not committed their future to the club. It would rip the heart out of the club, and we would certainly be left with not only a squad lacking depth, but a first eleven too. If ever such a situation arose we would be truly heading for mid-table mediocrity and Hodgson has the biggest challenge on his hands since Bill Shankly, something that John Aldridge believes to be the case:
“He’s got a massive job on his hands at Liverpool. I think this is the most important stage in Liverpool’s history since Bill Shankly took over with what’s happening off the field with the owners and the lack of stability at the club. Something had to happen as soon as possible and you had to go in and test the situation about which players need to go out, what you’ve got to bring players in and who you can keep. That’s very, very important as Javier Mascherano has been using the wild card about his wife and there’s question marks about Fernando Torres and Steven Gerrard. They’ve got to be sorted out ASAP.”
For the club’s sake let’s hope he succeeds.
Follow us on twitter @live4Liverpool
Live4Liverpool is recruiting columnists. For further info contact the site editor at editor@live4liverpool.com
Rubbish talk ! You ignore the fact WE HAVE NO ATTACKING Cover!!!!! Torres out and what? NO GOALS!
Did you even read the article? HE said “Starting XI” SO its not rubbish talk at all.
I would like to see Liverpool sign a good left and right winger and a good left back with that we can have one of the best if not the best starting XI in the premiership, Jovanovic is a back up striker and a natural left winger so he is Riera’s replacement and cover for Torres for free, a good player and a good signing. Kuyt can also be used more as a striker rather than a right winger and with N’gog and Pacheco developing rapidly I dont thin a forward should be the first priority like many other’s do. I would get rid of Benayoun,Babel,Riera,Degen,Spearing,Itandje,Cavalieri,El Zhar,San Jose,Nemeth,Martin{released},Plessis,Aurelio{released}, these players should raise around £30-35million and Hodgson has already been promised a budget of £20million plus sales which is the main reason it has been dragged out for so long ,he wanted guarentees.The first players we should buy are John Arne Riise£5million to start left back and a joint bid £40million{I think this would be enough maybe £45m but Villa would accept} for James Milner and Ashley Young to start right and left wing.Wayne Hennessey will be signed for £2.5m as a back up goalkeeper to repace Diego Cavalieri.If we had any other money I would sign a creative midfielder like Benayoun and I would pick Stephen Ireland ,he is available pretty cheap £8-10m, he can play anywhere across the midfield and would compete with Aquaman for a starting place.Any other money and I reckon Woy will sell Krygiakos for around £3-4million and try to sign Brede Hangeland as Carragher is getting slower every year but I would prefer Gary Cahill as he is much younger and English.Then last but not least in the unlikely event that we have money left I would then look up front and I think Carlton Cole would fit the bill,this guy could be class in a good side ,a very underrated striker or we could go for great future prospects like Conor Wickham or my pick would be Romelu Lukaka. Anyway if we sign these 3 mainly we will be very strong the other signings are more luxuries and I would only look there if we get investment.The starting XI will be in a 4-1-4-1 Reina-Johnson-Skrtel-Agger-Riise-Mascherano-Milner-Gerrard-Aquilani-Young-Torres and the squad would be GK-25-Reina/1-Hennessey/43-Bouzanis/42-Gulasci RB-2-Johnson/32-Darby CB-37-Skrtel/5-Agger/23-Carragher/16-Krygiakos{3-Cahill}/40-Ayala/34-Kelly LB-6-Riise/22-Insua RM-11-Milner/17-Rodriguez CM-8-Gerrard/20-Mascherano/4-Aquilani/21-Lucas/19-Shelvey/{10-Ireland} LM-7-Young/14-Jovanovic ST-9-Torres/18-Kuyt/24-N’gog/15-Pacheco/27-Dalle Valle/{12-Cole}
Donal – Why would Milner come to Liverpool when he has a megabucks offer from City all lined up?
As for the article – I think Rafa had something to do with the state of the squad and lack of depth. He bought a few great players (Reina, Torres and Alonso) but he also bought some absolute dross (Babel, Aquilani, Dossena, Lucas) He also wasted lots of money – Johnson for £17m when we needed a striker and £17m on Aquilani when we needed someone fit, Keane who wasn’t given a fair crack of the whip).
That Squad is Rafa’s except for Carragher and Gerrard so it was only fair he be deemed responsible for the poor season.
Not sure Hodgson is the man to turn us around but he’s probably the best we could get in our sorry state. We need to support him.
you all know i was never keen on rafa, but i will admit he did, as this article states, leave us with a starting X1 second to very few, my gripe was the money he wasted on s***e (not my only gripe). so here’s my opinion, for what it’s worth, javier seems intent on leaving, so with the money we get for him (we should hold out for £30m minimum) and with the sale of some fringe players and deadwood and the loose change dumb & dumber stump up, our woy could have a sizeable kitty to strengthen with 3 quality players, turan Has to be one simply because he WANTS to be one, a quality young player who actually yearns for the move! i will let roy be the judge of who else to bring in, i don’t know it all (i just THINK i do)
Bring back Riise? Sell half the youth team? Buy MILNER? Carlton Cole? Aye, you genius, mid-table mediocrity here we come.
Benitez to me did 80 good things and spoilt 40 of the good things he did. What’s dis scare abt Roy. As 4 me I want any coach different from the pig headed Benitez. Let Mascherano go if he wants mayb he’s only beta dan Lucas experienc wise if Lucas can continu wit his form 2wards d end of last season whil hoping dat Aquilani has adapted. Let Torres go if he wants to afteral he’s only a good finisher. Bad passes,poor dribbling,horrible crossings.
Hey!I forgot pls if liverpool wants to sell evrybody in d youth team tell them I said there are 2 precious lads they dont have to I mean Martin KellY & Pacheco bt if they insist they shld b sold, do alert me cos I’m ready to buy them.
sell riera, benayoun, degen and mascherano.. buy arda turan (a must as he is the reds fans), Reto Ziegler, Cahill… formation should be 5-2-2-1 Reina-GK Johnson-RB Ziegler-LB, Carragher-CB Skrtel-CB Agger-SW, Gerrard-CM Aquilani-CM Turan-LW Rodriguez-RW Torres-ST.. A discipline squad with a more attack minded
I do believe it’s down to the fact we have just a lone striker with 2 wingers that have limited pace. Dirk Kuyt, although a big fan of his, seems wasted on the right-side of midfield as he struggles to outstrip a wing-back. It will be interesting what Mr Hodgson adopts as his formation. I’m clueless to Fulham’s formation but I’m optimistic we will slip to a more conventional 4-4-2, ideally bringing another striker along with Jovanovic so we have abit of competition and flexibility.
the problem with insua is not that he’s too attacking, cos he’s not. he’s a fairly conservative full back who can overlap and do a job when required.
his problem is that he is just so one footed it’s unbelievable. he is completely unwilling to use his right foot for even the simplest pass. makes it so easy to read him and to pressurise him.
Hey Donal, stay off the crack. We are lucky you are not our manager. Milner is overated, he is average at best. As for the rest, you would sell most of our euorpean based players and bring in the english. Smart move. Not that i have anything against english players, but surely after the world cup you would limit the amount of english players in your team not increase them. Maybe im wrong. We don’t have the luxury to pick and choose, we need to be smart with our money, unlike the previous heir to the throne. 2 maybe 3 very good players will be enough to get us through the hurdle of the sale and then think about restructuring the team if the money is there. Unlike Rafas policy of buy 6 or 7 nobodies and hope they come good, we should get 2 maybe 3 if we can stretch it that far. This where rafa went wrong. In six years he could have bought 1 or 2 world class players a year and have a world killing team with the money he had spent, instead we are left with driftwood… Roy will change all of that i hope….
Yobo-that is not the youth team, most of the youth team is in the academy genius,Plessis is now 22 and El Zhar is 24,San Jose is already gone,Plessis is being released and Nemeth is overrated and has said he wants to stay in Greece so let him,the only young player you could argue for a stay is Spearing but Leicster have made a bid and want to keep him so let him go,half of the them arent good enough for Liverpool, Pacheco,N’gog,Shelvey,Ayala,Kelly,Darby,Dalle Valle and Bouzanis are the only top quality youth players that are in the first team squad, if you know anything about football and Liverpool you would want Riise back with are cash situation,he has been one of the best left backs in Europe this year, everyone seems to remember the own goal against Chelsea but Riise was a quality left back for many years and we have never really replaced him,he is 29 and has a few years left in him and the main thing is we can pick him up for around £5m ,you could not get a better left back for that price ,names such as Taiwo, Kolarov and Zeigler would be nice but they will cost £10-15m and on a limited budget Riise is the best option he even got in ZonalMarking.com’s team of the year. One of the best football fan sights by the way,it goes into tactics etc. in great detail.That blog is just what I would like to see happen with Liverpool but it is unrealistic,Carlton Cole is one I would like to see as he is English and we need a big strong target man who can hold the ball up and create space for Nando or other players, anytime I watch West Ham he is fantastic and he is miles better than Heskey, i’ll never know how he managed to go to South Africa.C.Cole would be my choice but Llorente,Carew,Crouch or Jones i’m just saying we need someone of that type and he is the youngest out of these lads only slightly , he is English and he is realistic,West Ham have said they will sell at the right price, to be honest I would prefer Crouchy back but that is never going to happen.Aquilani will prove himself this season again people saying he is crap I wonder do they actually watch football,when he was fully fit towards the end of the season he was one of our best players.Granted Milner is unrealistic but apparently he loves the club and doesnt want a move to either Manchester clubs because of his Leeds connections, also he is guarenteed a start at Anfield and with the likes of Silva and Toure signing for City maybe not so up there.Milner seems to be a good genuine lad who wouldnt move just for money remember Nando for example took a pay cut to come here but we will have to wait and see to be honest I think he will stay at Villa for another season but maybe he is money hungry and will move to Man Shitty.Even the likes of Lucas and Babel can prove themselves under Hodgson and if you think those changes would lead to mid table mediocrity you are very much mistaken im not saying we would win the title every year because anything can happen in football and other teams are spending a lot more but with that squad we would definetly challenge every year and plus it would be good to see a few more homegrown players in the team.The rumours are changing everyday though today I have already hear Gilberto Silva{hope not too old},Danny Murphy{again probably a bit too old but still a good player and could maybe do a Gary McCallister},Joe Cole{would be a great signing but everyone wants him so we will have to wait and see,Brede Hangeland{the type we need a bit like Sami was, a good defender who is dominant in the air and has very good positioning would be great version of Krygiakos and would start ahead of Carragher},John Carew{the type of forward we are missing he would be a good signing},Rafael van der Vaart{would be a great signing and we should definetly try to snap him up}
I really liked reading your site, and it looks great. If you get a chance you should check my site as well. I hope you have a nice day!