Watching Liverpool struggle last season brought to my attention a few things that we lack as a team. One of those weak areas is the lack of forwards with aerial presence. Too many long balls were lumped towards Dirk Kuyt and Fernando Torres for my liking and it highlighted how little a threat we pose in the air. We could also do with more pace throughout the team. I noticed that when we are usually presented with an opportunity to cause real damage on the counter-attack, we don’t show enough urgency in our play and end up not taking advantage of the situation.
When you combine the attributes of pace and aerial presence (added to decent technical ability of course) you get a seriously gifted player, and my hope is that this summer, (depending on whether Torres stays or not) is that we recruit a striker who has both of these qualities. I hate to say it but Chelsea were impressive last season when they bulldozed their way past teams using the strength and aerial presence of Didier Drogba. Their strong season really highlighted how effective pacy target men can be, while even Arsene Wenger has made a move to give his team this type of player with the signing of Marouane Chamakh, who has built himself a reputation for being strong in the air.
It seemed that Rafa recognised that we needed this type of player last season when he admitted to being interested in signing Kenwyne Jones from Sunderland. The move didn’t happen of course and it may have divided many fans opinions, but it was positive to see that Rafa Benitez at least tried to strengthen one of our weaker areas of the squad.
What’s needed is a strike partner who can create space for Fernando Torres much in the same way Emile Heskey helped Wayne Rooney top the scoring charts for England during their World Cup qualifying phase (don’t worry, I wouldn’t for one second hint that we re-sign Heskey).
Although Rafa didn’t get to finish his work in rebuilding the squad and giving Torres a pacy, physical strike partner, I’m hopeful that whoever takes charge will be thinking along the same lines as his predecessor in prioritising signing an athletic target man. I’m not specifically asking for Kenwyne Jones, as his finishing has at times been poor, therefore he doesn’t convince me.
What Torres needs though, is somebody to play off who can consistently win balls in the air for him to latch onto. So for this reason, I would be very satisfied to see us sign a target man with decent pace perhaps in the mould of Edin Dzeko. I say ‘in the mould of’ Edin Dzeko because I know that while we’re under the ownership of Hicks and Gillett, we’ll have to lower our targets unfortunately. As it’s been said before, new investment really can’t come soon enough for Liverpool.
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perhaps someone like peter crouch? oh no, hold on, rafa sold him, silly me!
you said benitez never got a chance to finish rebuilding…..i thought he got six years and built his own squad! so, because it failed you think he should have a chance to start again?
i dont want to see a long ball game at liverpool. we have endured more than ten years of that crap from our two previous managers. the beautiful game used to be georgeous when we played it prior to two defensive, and occasionally long ball idiots. stuff the likes of jones where the sun dont shine.
Kenwyne Jones at Liverpool. No.
Just no.
Yesh, we’ve struggled a bit ever since Crouch decided to go. He’s been quite hard to replace. It’s almost a pity that Torres’ first season in England was so injury-free, as it was that lack of game time (and the bigger pay packet Portsmouth promised) that persuaded Crouch to go. Would have been useful to have had Crouch this year.
I agree that we have enough of those long ball tactics and defensive tactics. I hope Dalglish gets appointed as the Manager. At least we can be hopeful of something like what he did before .. bought Beardsley, Barnes and Houghton when Everton won the league. What we saw in return was an attack minded, championship winning Liverpool team. His response to challenge has been to go on offensive and win. That is what we need. Liverpool can and should win playing the beautiful game. My worry is Hodgson would be cautious and play a tactful game. It might yield results but in the long run, I do want to see Liverpool playing beautiful soccer.
@steve
CROUCH WANTED TO LEAVE
crouch and torres werent combining well, torres is better, so crouch left because he was on the bench all the time.
cant stand you sodding idiots with your ill-informed media rhetoric
SO Boris has just decided that there’s no live for Crouch If Torres plays in the side.
Why on the earth?
One player upfront, also in the home game at Anfield…shocked…
I’ve never seen Torres – Crouch’s duo during Benitez’s reign, and it was a sensational wrong decision by manager.
FACT.
On tactical thoughts: totally agree with susu.
However, from my experience, I can’t define Hodgson a defensive minded manager: He looks to practice different tactical approaches, according to the resources which He hands.
For example, He played a defensive style with a poor side like Cottagers in order to get EL final: that’s the only way.
Hodgson followed a defensive approach with plyrs like Konchesky, Hangelaand ecc ecc: honestly, I can’t blame the man for that because I whould have excatly do the same things.
Benitez played a “catenaccio style” many times, in away games this season, with plyrs like Aquilani, Torres, Gerrard, Babel in the side.
Benitez has played whole season with the double DM system, and I never heard to blame him for that.
We may already have the perfect man in Ngoo. I know it’s far too early for him as a regular, but he could be fast tracked into the first team squad. This is an area I think Kenny would be ideal for us, we have so much talent finally coming through and he knows all about it.
@boris
and why did crouch want to leave? because of bungling benny’s mis-management! moron!
@phil
ngog has been fast tracked into the first team but sadly, he doesn’t look anywhere near good enough!
when Crouch played at liverpool gerrard and torres were strikers.. alonso masch at middelfield.. Crouch wanted to play regular football and it just didnt happen at liverpool and dont for get that WE ARE POOR so we had to sell him.. i think it went like 6m + crouch = glen johnson
It should also b3e noted that Crouch was offered a significant wage raise by the then solvent Portsmouth, add those factors in and its clear that Rafa couldn’t have kept him happy at LFC
Rafa didn’t get the time and money to “rebuild” Liverpool from the f***ing yanks. End of story.
When it comes to Kenwyne Jones.. NO, would rather see that Liverpool secured a striker more like Darren Bent, who scored 25 goals in 40 games for a under-top-10 side = sickness.
isn’t this whan Jovanovic is for…?
if he does decide to come
i love steve mcauleys comment, he says it as if hes very clever when he clearly cant be if he talks like that aout rafa, he had 6 years of selling to buy, you can build a good squad by strengthening what you already have, he never had that luxury and still managed to bring us success
idiot, you either work for sky sports or are a united fan
rafa had the money and the time, just not the right amount of money at the right time. if you took all the money he’s spent in the last six years and gave that to him to use over the next half decade I bet we’d be league champions at some point. but the owners gave him $ to spend at inconsistent intervals which didn’t allow benitez to play the market the way he wanted. he wants the money for gareth barry, so our owners wait til he signs for city and then they give him the 20 mil for robbie keane? bassackwards if you ask me.