HERE we go again. With 10 games remaining, Liverpool are now 10 points behind fourth-placed Arsenal, Champions League qualification seemingly out of reach.
A League Cup trophy added to the already vast cabinet at Anfield is realistically consolation for a pretty mediocre season for the Reds.
A question that will need to be answered is why?
Why after having spent over £110 million in the last 12 months, have we only scored 33 goals this season (an amount that is surpassed by West Brom and Blackburn)?
In last week’s Echo, John Aldridge commented that if Robin van Persie played for Liverpool, we would be challenging our Manchester rivals for the title. Describing van Persie as “priceless” he argued that Liverpool’s lack of an out and out goalscorer this season has been our biggest problem. A look at the current statistics of Liverpool strikers in comparison with van Persie, reinforces Aldo’s comments:
Luis Suarez
Games Played-23 Goals Scored-6
Andy Carroll
Games Played-26 Goals Scored-3
Craig Bellamy
Games Played-21 Goals Scored-6
Dirk Kuyt
Games Played-25 Goals Scored-1
Robin van Persie
Games Played-27 Goals Scored-26
This is a statistic that would have been shunned by any Liverpool fan at the start of the season. There can be arguments raised about how many more goals Suarez could have scored were it not for his 8 game ban. However, after a 6 months of so much promise last season, the Uruguayan has failed to deliver what was hoped for by so many of the Anfield faithful. Andy Carroll’s nightmare scenario does not look to be ending. It does not need to be said that his goal return in light of his enormous transfer value, is almost as embarrassing as a certain Spaniard’s who is having similar trouble finding the back of the net in West London. Dirk Kuyt is a player who works hard for the shirt. His lack of goals this season is not helped by the fact that in most games, he starts on the right. Even so, he has been reliable in front of the net in previous seasons, in whatever position he has played. The only forward man to have really impressed this season, Craig Bellamy has contributed 6 league goals, mainly from the bench. Considering that the club paid absolutely nothing for his services, it places the Welshman amongst the bargains of the season. Overall, it has just not been clinical enough in front of goal.
So, is a striker all Liverpool really needs to mount a serious title challenge in the future? Well our defensive record is consistently good. Conceding just 26 goals this season, only the unyielding Manchester City defence has conceded less. Martin Skrtel, Daniel Agger and the ageless Carra, have been a real force to be reckoned with. The club is also blessed with one of the best midfielders in World Football (and I am not talking about Jay Spearing!). Steven Gerrard has the ability to single-handedly win a game for Liverpool. You only need to look at the Derby to realise that. The rest of the midfield lacks player consistency, this not being helped by the long term injury to Lucas. However, on their day, the likes of Charlie Adam and Stewart Downing can produce magic.
A striker may be the only missing piece of Kenny’s jigsaw. However, the chance of large investment in another striker may be doubtful. Liverpool are not a club who stand for failure. Another £25 million striker who arrives and does not produce would be embarrassing. If investment is made, it would have to be in a proven goalscorer, who is capable of a goal count that matches van Persie. The type of players that are capable of this may well be either out of Liverpool’s reach financially or disenchanted by a Champions League void that is a current thorn in the club’s side. Damien Comolli commented the other day that ‘big-name players’ would be interested in joining the club after watching their League Cup win. It could be argued that anything less than Champions league qualification, will not attract a striker anywhere near capable of scoring 20+ goals a season. So yes, the club probably do need a new striker, but will a single addition to the squad bring the title back where it belongs? It’ll be an interesting summer.
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You can criticize Suarez all you like but when you have players like Downing, Henderson ,Adam and Spearing in midfield even MESSI would have struggled to score goals mate. I’d like to know just who is J Aldrige thinks we should buy. Does he think that his mate KD should buy another British striker cos their just brilliant. Cos I know that in the past he used to have a pop at Benitez for buying to many foreign players. IMO he has to get rid of the rubbish he bought in midfield first and than buy another world class striker. After all we r having a great season and we won the CC so there shouldn’t b a problem attracting world class players.
Maybe he thinks we should buy Messi 😉
Only if we could. He just scored his second goal for Barca 2nite.
What has to be remembered is that Van Persie has scored 26 goals without Arsenals midfield performing. Gervinho, arshavin, Ramsey, diaby and song have all been fairly average this season and RVP has still managed to produce. By no means do I think our midfield is good enough but Suarez should have scored more goals.
To be fair Demba Ba has scored 10 more goals than Suarez so far this season and looking at statistics not a single Newcastle player is within the top 30 assist stats.
Just a striker is not enough. Steamroll me if you wish but I believe we need midfielders, here is why :
Spearing is not good enough, it is quite apparent that he is not. We need cover for the excellent Lucas, unless Spearing improves like Lucas did and proves me wrong. In that case will be more than happy to eat my words.
And Hendo as Steven’s understudy has not yet worked out. He needs to be more energetic, make positive runs, be proactive and show the desire to run behind defenders. A younger Stevie have been doing this for ages! So we need a quality attacking midfielder.
I know we need wingers, Downing so far have not been stellar, but I do not think he has been a disaster and I think in the long term he will do the job, if not be amazing but he will do a job when asked. So in my mind these are the two positions we need to look at as well, along with a striker.
Unless….unless products of the academy step forward, do not know much about that so would not comment.
ARosicky and Song are having one of their best season.Song produced the assis for rvp second goal at anfield and that’s nt the second this season.Arteta and Gervinho are not left behind.Except gerrard and lucas other are not just worth it for now.Gervinho is not a good scorer,but he’s doing d dirty job and wenger and all arsenal fans are loving it.But who is to reap suarez efforts.Mid-fielders score goals as well,but at anfield,defenders score more goals than our midfielders! Bar gerrard and bellamy.Give them penalty they blast it away.All waste of money.Don’t blame suarez yet,we need another striker though,d midfield need attention as well.Maxi is always good when called upon,bt kenny won’t stop keeping him on d bench cos he’s not british.We can see,carrol and suarez are nt compatible on d pitch.
Great article Matt.
Agree that all strikers have underperfomed, with the exception of Bellamy. More creativity in midfield is needed and perhaps a signing like Lucas Moura from Sao Paulo could be drafted in or Thiago from Barcaelona? But we can’t forget about the talent we have coming through such as Sterling and Suso. Perhaps to soon, but you don’t know until you try, and they could definately do a better job of suppling Suarez and Carroll than the useless flops Downing and Adam. Any season where we don’t finish is the top 4 should be considered failure, no matter how many domestic cups we win, so changes need to be made in the summer.
Look forward to more Pool Bobbing.