How will LFC line up in the next few weeks?

LIVERPOOL got off to a bright start in the league collecting ten points out of a possible twelve, prior to the recent dip – post international friendly.

The great start came with a great deal of positive problems for manager Brendan Rodgers; unlike in seasons past this year’s squad has depth in almost every department this coupled with a few injuries in some positions, means that Rodgers is going to have a hard time coming up with his starting eleven and assigning positions in the next coming weeks.

The question before the start of the week was whether Suarez would be brought straight into the starting eleven as soon as his ten match suspension was over or he will be slowly eased back into the team with a few substitute appearances but, that is no longer the question.

Philippe Coutinho injured his Shoulder in the 2-2 draw away at Swansea, according to the Liverpool FC’s official website he will have a surgical stabilisation on the AC of his shoulder, possibly ruling him out of action for a period of three to four weeks.

This probably means that Suarez will be in the starting eleven as soon as he becomes available for selection, the big question is where will he play? Daniel Sturridge has played centre forward in all games this season and has scored 6 goals. At Chelsea he played the majority of his games wide on the right of midfield, much of his improvement since he joined Liverpool has been attributed to the fact that he has been playing in his much favoured position at centre forward. Suarez on the other hand is without doubt one of the top centre forwards in the game.

Rodgers last week said that neither Sturridge nor Suarez is the main man at Anfield and made it clear that there is no room for big egos in the dressing room; in other words he was trying to say that neither of them is going to be dictate where they play but, that decision will solely rest on him.

The first possibility is for Sturridge to continue to lead the attack as the centre forward as a reward for his efforts while Suarez will come in either on the right or the left of attack in Rodgers favoured 4-3-3 formation. Another possibility will be for Suarez to play just behind Sturridge in a 4-2-3-1 formation which was used against Swansea. Playing Suarez in the number 10 role is an option but it comes with a few negatives, the role comes with a few defensive obligations whether Suarez will be willing to track back on a regular basis remains to be seen. The last less likely option is for Rodgers to play Sturridge on the right of attack in a 4-3-3 formation and play Suarez in the centre. That will not go down well with the ex-Chelsea forward as he probably feels that he has done enough to warrant a position as the centre forward.

Liverpool must take comfort in that Luis has played many games at international level as the supporting striker to Diego Forlan and Edinson Cavani, and he may have no qualms in playing such a role.
In the centre of defence four man are fighting it out for two positions. Kolo Toure and Daniel Agger started together in the first two league games then Toure got injured and in came Martin Skrtel in his place for the game against Manchester United and produced a man of the match performance. Agger was not available for the visit to Swansea thus paving the way for new signing Mamadou Sakho to make his debut for the Reds, the French international had a good game even though there he made a few errors.

At this moment it looks like there will be no permanent centre-back pairing. Deciding on who starts at the centre of defence for the upcoming games will be a very difficult task for Rodgers. Agger has the edge over the other three by virtue of his abilities, this may mean that Sakho will be coming off the bench or will play left-back unless Rodgers decides to play to left sided centre-backs.

That leaves Toure and Skrtel to fight it out for the other position. Toure has had great start to his Liverpool career and has been solid in the games he started at centre-back while Skrtel has shown the manager that he is still a good defender despite not getting much game time this year. Whoever gets to start will keep in mind that any bad games may see him relegated to the bench.

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