The late sale of Javier Mascherano to Barcelona over the weekend has meant that Liverpool have had little time to bring in any new players. They acted quickly in buying Raul Meireles but they failed today in bringing another much needed player: a striker. Some may criticise Roy for loaning out Aquilani and finding a replacement before seeking a striker, I won’t slate the manager for doing such a thing. He obviously felt Aqua was not the type of player he needed, clearly with the acquisition of Joe Cole any place in the starting lineup for the Italian was unlikely as he also prefers to play in an advanced midfield position. Meireles, although not that similar in style, plays in the same central midfield postion akin to Mascherano and Alonso; he will pull the strings in midfield and for me it was an essential purchase. That leaves us with the gaping hole up front though.
Roy has said himself in recent days that he wanted a striker. He had looked at various options such as Ola Toivonen, Ricky van Wolfswinkel, Mario Gomez and Carlton Cole in recent weeks. The most likely deal that became apparent today was for Cole but a swap deal involving Ryan Babel never materialised. West Ham manager Avram Grant told Sky Sports News:
“We needed time to think about it and it didn’t happen. It was one of a few options to do something there but we couldn’t do it.”
In the end no move for a striker came to fruition and Roy Hodgson must now persist with three options: Fernando Torres, David Ngog and Ryan Babel until January. It is not an ideal scenario, especially for Fernando Torres. I am a firm believer that Torres’s injury problems over the last two years have been down to him being overplayed. When he has been tired or has had a minor injury he has volunteered to play as managers know his importance to the team. Although Ngog and Babel are decent players, I know Roy will start Fernando in matches even if he isn’t fully fit because of his abilities on a football pitch.
The acquisition of another striker would have lifted the burden, not solely because of greater options, but because the standard of player who was brought in would be trusted by Roy to start in place of Fernando if there was any injury concern. During the next few months, just like Rafa Benitez has had to in recent seasons, Roy will feel he has to play Fernando rather than risk either Ngog or Babel who have plenty of potential but have nowhere near the current experience of playing the lone striker role like the Spanish international. Even Carlton Cole, who is not close to Torres’s standard, would have been a good addition as he can hold up the ball, win headers in the air and play the lone front man, leaving Roy not having to revert to playing Torres if he is not fully fit.
The biggest test in the next few months now will be to ensure Torres stays fit and the new Sports Science team under Dr Peter Brukner will have their work cut out as Roy will endeavour to play Fernando in more matches than he would have liked. The lack of movement on the striker front on the last day of the transfer window has big repercussions for Fernando Torres as it does for the entire Liverpool team. Let’s hope the Spaniard lasts until January, when HOPEFULLY we will be under new ownership and can afford to have a regular sized squad with decent backup.
Follow us on twitter @live4Liverpool
Live4Liverpool is recruiting columnists. For further info contact the site editor at editor@live4liverpool.com
Excellent article. Really enjoyed it- it made sense.
PATHETIC – 18 months lookinf for a striker and a speedy winger and NOTHING – when Torres gets injured – SEASON OVER AND DESERVEDLY SO.
Stop making excucess for Hodgson and Purslow. Liverpool have sold players for about 15000000£ more than they have bought. They both had a lot of time. It`s a disgrase the work they are doing. Purslow have been a joke ever since he came.
It is very poor by Hodgson in my opinion to have not signed a better striker than Ngog since he took charge of the club. He had plenty of time to get a striker as a priority and to have failed in that task is beyond excuse. Ryan Babel is better than Carlton Cole so we had another lucky escape there. I have a Man Ure friend who was snickering at the news of Paul Konchesky and possibly Carlton Cole going to Anfield.
We didn’t expect anyone as good as Torres but the likes of Huntelaar or Trezequet would have been much better than Ngog in the starting 11. Even Robbie Keane back on loan would have been better than Ngog, whose first touch is usually poor imo.
Imagine if Man Utd’d back up to Rooney was just the young Italian lad Macheda? They would struggle badly. That’s basically the situation we are in AGAIN because of our last 2 managers.
Poor transfer activity ruined Benitez in the end and Hodgson hasn’t shown himself to be too clever in the market when couldn’t get a better striker than Ngog since he took the job. Harry Redknapp might have signed midfielder Van Der Vaart for £8m so you have to wonder what the hell Hodgson is doing when we are stuck with Lucas in midfield and Ngog up front.
i find it hard to believe you are making excuses for Hodgson. Pathetic really.
If they sold Mascherano too late to bring in another one, why not take Barca to the cleaners? (please see Berbatov to Man U saga)
They have 15 million pounds to buy a striker, winger or playmaker….No player has been added. this window has been a dissaster. A reminder of things to come under a manager out of his depth. He simply can not operate the transfer market. Waits till the last minute to find deals good enough for players who want to fight relegation. Just the kind of player Hodgson is looking for.
Still, we have Konchesky. Better then Evra, Acole etc….pathetic. Unbelievable what is happening to my club
And this comes after being given a game and a half by the powerhouse of football that is West Brom.
I think this shows why Hodgson was coveted by Liverpool and Benitez was shown the door – as he won’t make a fuss when the funds aren’t made available!!! We spent more money (net spend) in the same timespan in the last years under Moores than we have under the American jokers!!!
rubbish sorry hodgson is a waste of space, he knew he needed a striker but left it wat 2 late, he had loads of time. once again theres no way we will make top 4, and we be lucky to hold on to torres and co in jan if we do they will leave at the end of the season.I tell Moores is too blame for all of this, for being a fat greedy git, who didnt care about the club, but just making money, so sold out to the yanks who dont give damn.
No matter if they sell LFC will be behind utd in title wins and no longer a force. LFC are dead
We are supposed to be one of the greatest teams in the world and we can’t even buy a striker. We drew too many games last year,,,, you need goals too win games… Our current number one striker is cold,,, we need a hot one,,, like Toivonen, Wolfswinkel or Gomez. I can’t understand why we would be so short sighted to take a chance on not getting in the top four this year. The investment in a striker would pay for it self many times over with chaps league qualification. I pray that we see some revelation from our younger players IE: Pachecho or at last Babel starts to earn his wages.
Forgot to say I 100% agree they had plenty of time,,, they had plenty of time to sell the best youth prospect we had for years and bring in Konchesky,,,, for the sake of a few million more they could have had Cole or Toivonen,,,, talk about cut your nose off to spite your face… Idiots.
What the Babel swop show’s is that Roy didn’t have anymore money.
7th place again .
forgot. If you want to know more about the nice guy he is, read the comments on how Inter was not going for our players, ”spoke to Moratti…” word of honour, a friend and all that.
Really uncle Roy? How did that go? The man is simply naive. Ohh, and he is 62
Unbelievable, he must have had another word of honour from Avram about Cole…or someone else.
Nobody
Why has Poulson still got a job
I will blame RH for the Aquilani deal because it is a truly shocking piece of business. It’s a lose lose situation for LFC. All well and good if we have money to burn, but as we don’t have to 2 pennies to rub together it makes no sense.
If he has a blinder at Juve they can sign him on the cheap, so we loose, and if he has a stinker, he comes back – his value goes down further and we’re stuck with him – so we loose again. He deserved a chance, we all know he can play and he has had a full pre-season, and ultimately how did we benefit by letting him go for a season? Can the money saved on wages be used to bring in somebody else? No.. he might be back in 9 months and besides we didnt sign anybody with the money saved. LFC cant even name a 25 man squad so why let him go?
Not impressed with Konchesky or Poulson either. I accept that RH has no money to play with – but when we badly needed another striker, and you’ve had all summer to sort it – then the manager has to take responsibility for that, and if Torres gets injured for any length of time, then we will be in serious trouble.
Not happy with the manager, his tactics, his signings, the results or performances so far this season.
Not happy with the fact that our piss artist owners are still asset striping the club and have made a profit for the 3rd Transfer Window in a row
Not happy that my girlfriend has but on 2 stone in the past 3 months,
Not happy with the squad, which is clearly worse than it was last season, which means we can expect to finish lower than 6th
Just not happy
Not happy
Agree with ya, Spike. I’m not happy because I think a canny operator in the transfer market could make more of the actual money we do have. No excuse not to get a striker when Trezeguet went to a little Spanish team on a free and Drenthe from Real Madrid was available for left back on loan instead of Konchesky.
Poor tranfer market decisions is the greatest weakness of all our recent managers.
I think some people here are getting too carried away and blaming Hodgson for not signing a decent attacker. I’m really gutted like every Liverpool supporter but Roy said he wouldn’t be forced to buy a player that wasn’t right for the club.
To be honest, i’m fcuking glad we didn’t sign Cole – there’s much better forwards available who are much better than him.
Only 3 games gone lads and our squad isn’t that bad. Konchesky might not be the best left back in ther world but he’s a good Premier league defender who is solid as a rock. We need Raul and Poulsen to settle quick and hope Babel, Kuyt, Cole, Torres and Gerrard can grab the goals.
YNWA
Roy is not the manager for liverpool….He can be manager to divisyen 3 or 3 teams…PLEASE dont appoint old mans to liverpool….
Liverpool have some good striker likes Torres,Kuyt,Babel,Jovanovic or pacheco BUT NOT NGOG pls..
Then why somemore want to buys strikers..?
Only buy one roght winger.Kuyt play striker with torres…
I don’t want to get on the managers case already, but we have known that we are short up front for the last two years. Going out and getting a proven striker to play with/instead of Torres (when he is unfit of course) had to be one of our main priorities and we’ve left it too late again. Tottenham have just picked up Van de Vaaart for 8 million, WTF weren’t we going in for him ???
We had the money as we were willing to spend 10 million on Carlton Cole !!
as usual by jan, we will be out of the race for almost every competition esp the league. well what is new?
In Roy we trust.i think Babel will shine this season cauz Roy seems to know how to get the 100% potential of him.and if the real ryan babel will be unleashed,he will be one of the best strikers.ngog i hope will be the 3rd choice cauz babel’s got more potential.well should we change ownership in the next month and if money will be available for Roy in January’s trasnfer market,he can buy a cover if he wants to.i would have already bought Ola Toivonen as he is one of my favorites,but Roy wants a Torres partner.the best transfer would be if we bought Luis Suarez,from Ajax.bid for him 18-20 million in January and he’ll be joining our great team..lets go reds..in roy we trust