If I Was the Liverpool Manager Part One

The 2014/15 season is well and truly underway with the first seven games having flown by in the Premier League. However, it has been more of a slower struggle for Liverpool than anticipated after their brilliant second place finish last season.

Many of the new signings have struggled and whilst it is early days yet in their Liverpool careers, none have set the world light. Given that there were nine arrivals over the summer it is worrying times for manager Brendan Rodgers and his transfer committee at Anfield.

Many Liverpool fans, myself included, were slightly underwhelmed with the summer signings given the amount of money spent, the football and achievements of last season coupled with the attractiveness of playing in the Champions League.

Liverpool were supposed to be a big draw again, yet it seems instead of being rejected by top players (Diego Costa, Willian last summer) we’ve decided to not pursue them at all. Granted, Brendan Rodgers may not possess the same managerial allure of a Jose Mourinho or Arsene Wenger and Liverpool are yet to establish themselves as a consistent top four side, but £115m should have brought better quality than it did.

Of course every club looks for gems and Liverpool have had a couple already under Rodgers in Daniel Sturridge and Philippe Coutinho (who I maintain will rediscover his best form but is just going through a particularly bad patch, although he will never reach the level of, for instance, David Silva), but it is hard to hit the money everytime and for every Sturridge there has been an Iago Aspas and Luis Alberto.

There may well be gems that have been bought this year and are yet to be unearthed, such as Emre Can, who has struggled with injuries but even at £10m he was an expensive investment. Moreover, many of the players pursued by the Reds were not being hunted by the rivals they should be competing with.

Dejan Lovren and Adam Lallana had outside interest from Spurs, Arsenal ended their pursuit of Javi Manquillo and reportedly turned down Mario Balotelli while Chelsea opted against signing Lazar Markovic. Meanwhile, Alberto Moreno was interesting Atletico Madrid and he has, so far, been Liverpool’s best summer signing.

I admit it is early to be making judgements on Rodgers’ signings this summer but there are alternatives to these nine players and if I had been given £115m to spend then the squad may have looked rather different.

[ffc-gallery]Part One looks at the first four alternative signings.[/ffc-gallery]