Liverpool legend Tommy Smith believes the trend that has seen the Reds slide down the table and out of Europe must be reversed in this summer’s transfer market. He wrote in his column for the Liverpool Echo:
“I’m encouraged to hear we are only going after players of top calibre because it sends out a signal that we really mean business. Our slide away from the top level, out of the Champions League and now out of the Europa League too, must be reversed now. In truth it’s a great tribute to the owners and everyone else now involved that we can even talk like this. John Henry, Tom Werner and everyone at FSG have done a terrific job getting to know Liverpool FC and share in the dreams of the fans. It’s clear to me they are interested in us winning, not in making a fast buck like Hicks and Gillett tried and failed to do. So it’s time for an Anfield revival and it must start now. The pieces seem to me to be in place. So let’s just forget this season – it’s gone – and move on together as one.”
Smith highlights one player he believes will not survive the cull of deadwood this summer:
“There is too much deadwood on the books still and if we can get transfer fees for most of it, then aside of any investment the owners make, we might be able to collect a reasonable sum to spend. Joe Cole is one player I’d expect to move on. The lad has ability but injuries have clearly taken their toll on him and he’s not the player he once was. He could not get a regular game at Chelsea and his future now has to be away from Anfield too.”
This week it is former LFC WAG Amii Grove!
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Joe Cole unfortunately was never a favourite for me.I was amazed that the ‘REDS’signed him!But to the future;I am convinced that we supporters are going to be disappointed again,because Man Utd will sign two players that LFC want!,(A.Young & Enrique)this is the same old Fungusface Ferguson about to gazump LFC again!He has always had the cash to do that! I’ve lost count of the times he has been able to do that to Liverpool over the years! He has even had a word in Charley Adam’s ear to stop that transfer also!However if LFC’s new owners are true to their word some good players should arrive at Anfield,but the way I see it is that LFC are going to have to pay ‘very high wages’ to attract good player otherwise they will go elsewhere for European football!
Liverpool should hold on to their money until January as no top player will come before the season starts with no Champions League football on offer. It is possible in January that a player like Lucas Barrios may become available if Dortmund only finish 3rd in their group in the Champions League. The squad is big enough to manage until January. There is no point in signing players like Downing,McCarthy,Nzogbia and Marveaux as these players will not improve the squad one bit. It is goalscorers this team needs, as the team and squad are full of players who ‘do not score many goals but do create chances for others’.
@Kenny – Nzogbia wouldn’t improve a team regularly featuring Maxi Rodriguez/Raul Meireles/Dirk Kuyt as its starting ‘wide-men’!? 😮 Even Downing would be a massive upgrade over that lot (although not to the extent necessary to elevate the club back where it aspires to be…)
And what are you on about, the squad is full of players who do not score goals but do create chances? All that Kuyt, Meireles and Maxi can really do is finish off chances laid out for them, preferably on a plate (Meireles not so much tbf, but the point is that he has not proved to be a particularly creative force either so far)
Even without the investment though, another major reason to get rid of the deadwood would be to reduce the wage bill.
The likes of Kelly/Ayala/Insua/Coady/Pacheco/Suso/Ngoo etc could EASILY equal the contributions that we got/could expect from the likes of Skrtel/Konchesky/Aurelio/Poulsen/Maxi/Jovanovich/Cole/Ngog etc, and would do so at a mere fraction of the wages shelled out to the latter names. At the same time, the younger guys have the potential to grow with age and experience to be better players, whereas the latter names have proved that they are incapable of delivering the type of performances that you expect from your experienced team members.
To win the title next season Liverpool need serious goal power. Nzogbia,Downing and players like these are all well and good but the money spent on them would reduce the amount available to spend on a quality goalscorer. I have long advocated getting rid of all the crap in the squad as I have mentioned my list several times over the last 5 months, but the point is that the small money selling these players would raise would also have to be used to pay off the contracts of these crap players like Cole,Aquilani,Jovanovic,Poulsen,Konchesky,Ngog among others. Kuyt and Maxi’s goals tally for the season was given an inflated look by Kuyt’s penalties and by Maxi’s goals against Birmingham who forgot they were in danger of relegation and Fulham who had nothing to play for. Meireles forgot about scoring after his paltry 5 goals for the whole season. Selling all the crap would still leave an outfield squad including Adorjan,Ngoo,Wisdom,Coady,Robinson,Flanagan and Gulasci of 21 for next season which would be enough for a 38 game Premier League season.
Nzogbia and Downing were two of the highest scoring widemen in the Prem though…
Both also carry a threat with the ball at their feet in open play (unlike Kuyt or Maxi), as well as the capability to fashion chances for other players.
Liverpool need players to stretch the opposition across the pitch and create space & chances for the likes of Carroll, Suarez & Gerrard, not just more players to go hanging around the 6 box waiting for scraps like Maxi, Meireles and Kuyt do
I agree with you about the clearout necessary (Aquilani aside), but I think you underestimate the amount of money that would be saved by getting their wages off of the books. I also have no issue with some of the youngsters being taking on squad roles throughout next season either – surely they can’t offer any less than the likes of Maxi, Cole, Poulsen, Konchesky, Aurelio etc offered us this season??
Like you I have never been a fan of the likes of Maxi and Kuyt but the few goals Nzogbia and Downing would score would only replace the few goals Kuyt and Maxi would have scored from open play next season. The money spent on Nzogbia and Downing would not be recouped by selling Kuyt and Maxi so therefore the money needed to sign another goalscoring forward like Barrios would be reduced considerably. Nzogbia tends to play a lot on the rightwing cutting in so therefore this would not stretch teams much. Downing has improved but 18 million for him is way too much and I feel that the pressure of playing for LFC would be too much for him mentally, he flopped for England at the 2006 World Cup when there was pressure on him to produce.
You forget one factor involved in getting rid of all the crap. They will all want the vast majority of their remaining contracts paid to them before they pack their bags and leave, do you really think Cole,Poulsen,Konchesky and Jovanovic for example are going to go quietly unless they get huge payoffs?
The thing about football is that there’s always a bigger fool, that is willing to spend good money on rubbish, just because they’ve had the luck of getting a break at a big club.
Eitherways, surely it would be better for the club to pay part of the wages to get rid of the deadwood completely, rather than to pay the entirety of their wages while they continue to stick around blocking the path to the first team for our younger players?
The thing is, purely looking at the number of goals scored at the end of the season it looks like Maxi and Kuyt are productive widemen, which is how some fans are fooled into such ridiculous arguments as Kuyt was the best wideman in the league behind Ronaldo! lol
Buying another expensive forward like Barrios would leave Liverpool tied to a formation (some form of 442 with two traditional forwards) proven to be less efficient than the 433, and would force Suarez to play even more out of position (as a winger in 442) or see him continue to work more as a creative force than as a goalscoring force while the team is starved of width in the final third again (behind the striker in a 422 or 442 diamond)
I’m not Downing’s biggest fan, and haven’t been reading the hundreds of transfer stories floating around online enough to keep up with rumored prices, but even he would improve the team more than buying somebody like Barrios or sticking with Maxi/Meireles/Kuyt out wide
Suarez prefers to play wide left in a 4-3-3, so any fan expecting him to be a goalmachine next season is going to be disappointed. Carroll unfortunately is proving that the move is too big for him which is a shame, LFC should ring up Newcastle and try to sell him back to them for about 20 million as this would represent a profit on the deal for LFC considering it was Chelsea’s money that bought Carroll. Downing arriving would not improve things, like Carroll the expectation and pressure would be too much for him, without any disrespect to Villa, that is his comfortzone where the expectations and pressure are minimal.
Barrios would be an excellent signing and the South American link with Suarez would be a distinct advantage.
Suarez WAS a goalscoring machine while playing in a 433 though, so that logic doesn’t really work at all.
The problem is that nobody else was creating anything at Liverpool, so Suarez HAD to go doing all the creative work outside the box while our midfielders just gathered around the box to feed off of his scraps, instead of the other way around. As soon as we have better players behind him and he can conserve his energy more, his goalscoring rate will shoot upwards again. I don’t really want Downing, but I’d much rather have him come in than another big man up top.
Carroll has also barely played since joining because of injury, so I fail to see how he’s proved anything so far. And tbh I’m content with that, instead of us forcing him to play through the injuries and become a crock at the age of 23. While he was playing though at the beginning of the season, the guy was a beast and looked like being one of the best target men around already
The Dutch league is a low standard league. How many times have Dutch teams made it into the knockout stages of the Champions League? Kesman and Alves were goal machines in Holland and failed miserably in the Premier League, Van Nistelroy did transfer his form to the Premier League but he was the exception. It is strange that you do not rate or want Downing but yet you would prefer the club waste more money signing him rather then a goalscoring forward.
Van Persie is another Dutch striker that seems to have done pretty well in the Prem. How many La Liga strikers, bar Torres have been dominant in the Prem? Dzeko was a machine in Germany and has been pretty poor so far for City – does that prove that strikers coming from Germany will all flop? Forlan & Kanoute were poor to average in the Prem but prolific in Spain. Shevchenko was a legend in Italy and a shambles in the Prem. Does that prove anything about the quality in the leagues? Judge the player on his own merits not what other players have achieved before them…
The point about Downing is that a competent wideman would add more to our team than another good target man. We have a very good target man and a very good striker, but but no wingers and only Suarez to fulfill the wide-forward role. So if the choice was strictly out of Downing or Barrios, I’d definitely go with Downing
Ridiculous comments. Carroll is injuryprone and the move is too big for him so do you think that your pal Kuyt will be able to run around like a young fellow next season up front feeding off Suarez. What team wins the title with just 2 strikers in the squad. Van Persie spends at least half of every season out injured. Shevchenko was never going to succeed at Chelsea because their formation was based on Drogba on his own up front. Forlan was never going to succeed at United because he rarely got to play in his preferred position. Kanoute was hardly going to score 30 goals a season playing for West Ham. Dzeko has had his problems at City largely because everything is channelled through Tevez. You seem confused as to what league Barrios plays in. You have said elsewhere that you do not really rate or want Downing so where are you going with this argument. The best crosser of a ball in the Premier League is still Steven Gerrard so the logical thing in terms of crosses to a big targetman is to get Gerrard wide right as much as possible.
Barrios plays in the same league that a more prolific striker, Dzeko, just arrived from. It’s funny that you make all these excuses about why the strikers I named may have underperformed in certain situations, but it doesn’t even seem to cross your mind that there may have been excuses why some of those strikers from the Dutch league may have failed.
It’s also funny that elsewhere you say that I ‘hate’ Kuyt, but now he’s ‘my pal’?? He would be third choice striker, meaning that your math is a bit off – Carroll + Suarez + Kuyt = 3 senior strikers. Ngoo + Morgan would be two more strikers waiting for the opportunity to step in for injuries/loss of form. Not too dissimilar to Chelsea winning the league with Drogba and Anelka + Sturridge on the bench, no?
And for the last time, I don’t rate Downing too much, but a competent winger (which Downing is) would add MUCH more to our team than another good target man (like ‘your pal’ Barrios).
The German league is of a higher standard then the Dutch League. Barrios won the Bundesliga with Dortmund and is a proven goalscorer, while Downing played in a team that flirted with relegation. The South American link between Suarez and Barrios would be advantageous for the success of their partnership up front. In your current view of next season there is not enough goalpower in the current team or squad to win the title or get anywhere close to that target.
And the Italian league is of a higher standard than the German league – what does that have to do with anything? As I said, I’m concerned about the quality of the player, not the league or a player’s predecessors.
The South American link between Suarez and Sanchez would be beneficial to the entire team. Suarez is a proven top quality goalscorer, Sanchez is a proven winger capable of getting goals, Nzogbia has proven that he can score goals in the Premiership, Gerrard has proven that he can score goals, Carroll was one of the top strikers in the Prem (albeit for a short period only) before getting injured and transferred
Before I carry on anyway, let’s hear your idea for revamping the team to become a legit contender next season – and try to make it plausible…
Schalke of Germany hammered Inter and Schalke are one of the poorest teams in Germany. Bayern missed lots of chances against Inter due to poor finishing. Suarez will at most only score 20 goals next season, there is not enough goal power in the other players you listed to make a viable title attempt. United won the title with 4 strikers and not 3. I have listed on the other page we are debating on the team selections I would make for next season.
Inter beat Bayern home and away this year and beat them in the final a year previously, while Milan also reached several finals in recent years.
Even if Suarez ‘only’ scores 20 goals next season, Carroll was also on his way to 20 goals this season, Gerrard can also be expected to add 10 or so goals, as could Sanchez and Nzogbia. That’s already 70 goals, even without the other players upping their scoring rate due to the increased creativity and spacing in the team!
Who were United’s four strikers anyway? Rooney played all season, and as soon as Hernandez broke through into the first team, Berbatov became an afterthought as the 3rd choice striker (as would Kuyt for me). The 4th choice striker barely has to have any impact so I wouldn’t be bothered whether I was depending on Ngoo rather than Owen for a handful of appearances a season.
I see you still can’t answer how a rubbish team like Schalke beat Inter. Nzogbia prefers to cut in from the right so where will the increased spacing be there? Who are these other players you think will up their scoring rate? Berbatov scored 21 goals in the season just finished playing not regularly, do you honestly think Kuyt would offer that? Anyway with the Euros coming up next summer, Kuyt would not want to be only a sub as he would lose his international place so he would leave and you would need an experienced new 3rd striker anyway. Sanchez is only 1 inch taller then Sterling but yet you want the club to spend 35 million on a guy to maybe score 10 goals a season. Ngoo should have been blooded in the last few games of last season.
I don’t need to answer how a rubbish team like Schalke beat Inter, especially when a rubbish team like Inter beat Bayern 3 times in two seasons and Italian teams have had several CL finalists to Germany’s one in recent years.
Berbatov scored 21 goals last season, but (nearly?) all of them while he was still 1st/2nd choice striker. As soon as he dropped to 3rd choice, he offered about the same as I could expect from Kuyt, Ngoo or most other 3rd choice strikers at clubs using a 1 striker system… And if Kuyt didn’t want to accept the role of bench player (as I’ve said on many occassions that he wouldn’t) then it would be up to him to force a transfer and stop the fans bleating on about how professional he is. So if I could get the opportunity to move him on at a later date while Kuyt is forced to finally paint himself as the bad guy? Win-win!
Anyway, Ngoo and many of the other youngsters should’ve been playing a lot more last season, seeing as our first team players were so poor and there was no real pressure to deliver results, but they weren’t. Just because they should’ve, doesn’t mean that we should just pretend that they did pick up the necessary experience to be big players in a title charge next year.
Finally, I wouldn’t really want the club to spend £35m on ‘almost’ any player anyway tbh – if that really was the price for Sanchez then I’d back away and look for another winger that has pace, ability to score goals and create opportunities for others. Up to around £25m would be very reasonable a proven young winger capable of delivering 10 goals from maybe 32 games in his first season too (as long as they weren’t pretty much all scored in a single month like Maxi). Even Messi didn’t just get chucked straight from into the starting lineup from day 1 and neither should our youngsters; 5-8 league starts would be more than enough for them unless there were exceptional circumstances (e.g. a glut of injuries throughout the team/ the first team flopping again/ the youngster performs at a very high level etc)
I knew the Schalke thing would get you going. Ridiculous comment about Berbatov as he, Rooney and Hernandez rotated throughout most of the season. The club does not have the money to spend lavishly like you want so that is why the youngsters need to step up.
The Schalke thing got me going? Really??
Anyway, Berbatov was the starting striker the first half of the season and was on the bench most of the time during the closing stages of the season, when Hernandez was promoted to be played alongside Rooney.
I have not suggested an unrealistic amount of spending, especially when you consider the money that was saved when the new owners bought the club in the first place, and the amount of players that I would advocate departing Anfield also.
We both agree that the youngsters need to play a much bigger role in first team activities than they have in recent years (I too would MUCH rather have reserves sitting on the bench/on the pitch than average 26-30 year olds on big money), but I disagree with your idea that we can just suddenly start promote a bunch of inexperienced youngsters to first choice status and expect to be an elite team next year
You admit you do not rate Kuyt so bearing in mind with Suarez and Carroll in your starting eleven, do you see Kuyt as a viable scoring option from the subs bench? You say money was saved when FSG bought the club, what money are you referring to? Bear in mind this club had and still has a wage bill that is millions more then it should be. It is quality management from top to bottom that LFC needs both on and off the pitch. Ayres is excellent at the commercial side but Comolli and Dalglish seem to want the club to waste money on substandard rubbish like Jordan Henderson and to get injury prone bums like Marveaux in on yet another disastrous Bosman signing. When one adds up the amount of money LFC have wasted on substandard signings and the huge wages paid to these players in the last 20 years this money would have paid for a new stadium quite easily. LFC are trying to run before they can walk. The only way for the club to rise again is by making the youth system connect to the first team with not just 1 player a season but at least 4 if not more. The pyschological aspect of man management is one of the primary reasons why Ferguson has been so successful in the last 19 years at United, only when LFC has their manager doing the same will the club finally start to become No.1 in England again.
Suarez and Carroll would be starting in a formation with one central striker – changing the wingers or supporting players would be as much of an option as bringing Kuyt on to get a goal, but nevertheless yes, Kuyt would be as viable a scoring option as anybody is likely to have as a 3rd choice striker. You on the other hand admit that you do not rate Kuyt, and mention the wage bill yet propose paying Kuyt’s big wages to be 4th choice striker (or is that 3rd choice winger?)
LFC was worth a lot more than it was sold for, so FSG saved money that they would’ve reasonably expected to shell out in the purchase of the club.
What has happened in the last 20 years is largely irrelevant in this argument. Your proposal would see the club continue to flounder for a lot longer than necessary though, and miss out on the big money to be made in the CL, thereby stretching the pain out even further.
I won’t make such a statement as to assume that there is only one way to move the club forwards, but the one that has been proven most successful is to have a set of quality players that lead the way, win trophies and set a platform for the youngsters to build on (e.g. Barca and Man U in contrast to Arsenal).
Having a manager that refuses to accept anything other than wins and trophies as success is one of the primary reasons why Ferguson and Man U have been so successful. Only when LFC has their manager doing the same will the club become No.1 again.
Kenny “few goals that Maxi & Kuyt would score”? Idiot – LEARN!!! Maxi scored TWO hat-tricks in a fortnight and TEN League Goals in all whilst Kuyt? Top scored for us with 15 goals (13 of which were in the League). Both did MORE than their fair share in a VERY bad season for us so for a person like YOU to name them as scoring “Few goals”? Marks you out as rather the idiot to say the least…………
Maxi scored a hattrick against Birmingham who thought they were safe from relegation so were not trying too hard. He scored against Fulham and Newcastle who had nothing to play for. So excluding them he had a paltry 3 goals up to that point which was poor to say the least. I don’t count Kuyt’s 2 goals in the mickeymouse Europa League and of his 13 goals in the Premier League most of these were penalties that Gerrard would have been taking if playing in those games so Kuyt’s contribution would like Maxi have been pitiful.
@Simon – Maxi scored 7 goals in those 3 games when our season was already over, and 3 goals throughout the rest of the season. Funny enough, even with his hattricks he still wasn’t man of the match in either game. How often does that happen?? Apart from when Suarez was also the best player on the pitch while Kuyt bagged a hattrick against Man U…
I’m sure that Kuyt scored at least 7 penalties anyway, so aside from that hattrick, that would leave him with just 5 goals while being handed a guaranteed starting place and free role in attack throughout the rest of the season.
And you call that doing more than their fair share??
LEARN!!! Both were a major reason that it was a VERY bad season (again) for us. No wonder Liverpool are just a midtable team at the moment with these guys leading the way…