Even if Suarez stays, attacking reinforcements are necessary

This past week the biggest news, as it too often does, has surrounded the complicated side-show swirling like a vortex around the uncontrollable nature of a certain Uruguayan.

The English media have said enough on the matter, most of it drivel, without me adding to this particularly puerile canon. And following Luis’ recent apology he’ll continue to be in the papers for some time yet.

However, during this same period Liverpool have also made further changes to their squad.

Southampton finally agreed to sell Adam Lallana for a fee of ~£25m, after a protracted delay as they waited for England to be knocked out of the World Cup (which didn’t take too long thanks to Luis) and Ronald Koeman to be appointed the club’s new manager.

Also we let another attacker go on loan, young Luis Alberto. He had been a big success at Barcelona B, but found it understandably difficult to get much playing time in a Liverpool team challenging for the title, with no other cup competitions to occupy his attention. Unlike many who have already written the youngster off, I believe a loan spell where he plays 1st team football is ideal, having now learned the style of play Brendan wants his players to enact. Fans may be surprised that he actually made as many as 12 appearances for Liverpool last season, though they were mostly as a substitute.

Furthermore, we have been linked with a host of other attacking talents. Alexis Sanchez (who starred at the World Cup but has other suitors), Xherdan Shaqiri (who has also starred at the World Cup notching a hat-trick), Lazar Markovic (a versatile young Serbian who is a key creative force for Benfica) and Divock Origi (a raw 19 year old Belgian who has been making an impact whenever he’s played in the World Cup). There have been many more names mentioned, but with these four, at least fans can be confident there has been contact by Liverpool.

The fact that we have bought a midfielder (Can), an attacking midfielder (Lallana) and a striker (Lambert) and are still in the market for even more attackers is perhaps strange given our goal scoring prowess last season and our clear defensive woes. However personally I think it makes a lot of sense.

Firstly there is the Luis Suarez situation. If we sell the best player in the Premier League we could never replace a player of that quality with one of similar quality, as Messi & Ronaldo are not on the market. When you sell a player like that it is best to spread the load amongst a number of players, and try to ensure you sign better than Tottenham did after selling Gareth Bale. Even if Suarez stays we need to compete in 9 Premier League games and 3 Champions League matches without him.

However, we were going after these attackers before Luis’ bite fiasco, indicating that perhaps Brendan wanted more options regardless. Last season we had no quality on the bench to change games when things weren’t working. Our squad of 25 players was in effect a squad of 15 or so that Brendan trusted. When we were struggling to break down Chelsea’s 10 men behind the ball and two parked buses, our only options on the bench were Aspas and Moses. Brendan clearly knows he needs to fix this.

Furthermore, when we had injuries defensively we had the players to cover. One time or another every one of our defenders, except Skrtel, was injured. However, when we lost Gerrard & Sturridge during the Christmas period we had no direct replacements, so we didn’t have enough quality in the final third against the big teams, losing to Chelsea and Man City.

I’ve said before that my priority signing for the Summer would be a left back and a defensive minded midfielder. We got the latter and have at least been pursuing the former in the presently stalled deal for Moreno. However I am certainly pleased that Brendan recognises that next season will be tougher for our forward line, not only because of the higher demands of matches but because many teams now understand the style of play that has borne fruit for us.

Brendan has done a huge amount right in his short time at Liverpool, but in his first two Summers at the club his signings have not particularly impressed. It was the winter signings of Coutinho and Sturridge that has helped the team, alongside the brilliant coaching methods of the manager.

Whatever happens with Suarez, Brendan will be very eager to continue to add to his squad, whether it be in defence or attack.

You can catch more from me on my own blog: http://taintlessred.blogspot.co.uk/ or follow me on twitter: @taintlessred