Without trying to take any of the shine off Christmas and all the joy it brings and, with a bit of luck, all the points it’ll bring Liverpool, January is only round the corner; just over 2 weeks away in fact. January will bring Liverpool and Roy Hodgson the chance to add some quality to the squad and maybe release some of the dead wood bringing down the standard of our playing staff. However, the big question is, with Liverpool being linked with seemingly ever player under the sun, what positions should the manager be targeting in order to bring the team out of the bout of indifferent form we find ourselves stuck in.
For me, there are four positions that need strengthening within our ranks and hopefully NESV and Hodgson in particular will recognise these problems and aim to rectify them over the course of January. The four positions in which I feel we are at a weakness are, in no particular order:
Centre-back – Over the past decade central defence would be the position that any Liverpool manager would least worry about but it has became alarmingly noticeable in the past year or so that we are now struggling with fitness and form in the heart of our defence. With age not on their sides, the likes of Jamie Carragher and Soto Kyrgiakos will not be around forever and, with Carragher in particular being so influential over the past decade, they will need to be replaced. This, coupled with the loss of form of Martin Skrtel and the injury problems Daniel Agger has suffered in the past few seasons, a centre-back has became a priority in the transfer market with players such as Gary Cahill of Bolton and Roger Johnson of Birmingham being linked with an Anfield move.
Left-back – Many Liverpool fans doubted the credentials of Paul Konchesky when Roy Hodgson brought him in from Fulham over the summer and many of Konchesky’s performances in a red shirt have done nothing towards silencing his critics and the majority of Liverpool fans believe that the Englishman is no improvement on the left-sided defenders we have seen fail to impress at Anfield over the past few years. Whether or not Fabio Aurelio is able to make the left-side of defence his own is yet to be seen but with his constant injury problems, it is difficult to accept that left-back isn’t a problem for Liverpool. Such left backs as Sampdoria’s Reto Zeigler and Oscar Wendt of FC Copenhagen have been linked, although neither, in my opinion, are of the quality that is needed to improve our squad. In terms of left-backs, with a lack of impressive left-backs available in the market today, Hodgson would have to pull a rabbit out of the hat to bring in a left-back at a reasonable price with the required ability to slot in alongside our defence.
Continue Reading on Page 2 . . .
coentrao, mata, llorente, banega, young and david luiz.
if we cannot spend around 90 mill net spend in total, we might as well pack it all in now.
llorente
young
coentrao
then the rest in the summer, bearing in mid we gave around 20 mill that could be got from player sales,
if we cannot invest in this type of player now, we are finished, just look at what spurs have spent, they have spent well over 141 million in under 3 years, its what you have do at least once to get your squad up their and once you have good players its alot more easier to manage.
oh and get a manager who the players want to play for, and get a manager who can bring in the better standard of player
need a bloody defensive midfielder with good technical ability..lucas is good bit not world class..
if i was roy there are these positions that we need to strengthen and these players we should get:
1. lassana diarra or mahmadou diarra 10 mp
2. charles nzogbia or ashley young 12mp
3. eden hazard or dimitry payet 15mp
4. loan one of adebayor, santa cruzz, cassano free,
players we should get off on January are :
1. kuyt 8mp
2. poulsen 3mp
3. maxi 3mp
4. jova 4mp
So nesv need to spend for about 19 or 20 m pounds for these players we would have perfect midfield and deadly attack imagine this
DIARRA MEIRELES
NZOGBIA HAZARD
GERRARD
TORRES
THIS WOULD BE AWESOMEEE AS FOR DEFENCE WE SHOULD STICK TILL MAY ….. SO MAY WE MUST FOCUS ON BRINGING 2 CLASSY DEFENDERS SUCH AS CAHILL N SHOWCROSS TOGETHER WITH TAIWO..
I remember what emanuel petit(arsenal97-00) said about season 2005-06 that man utd will be champions cuse in england champion is the team that has beter wings and at united there were ronaldo giggs evra and newille……
Gervinho/Nzgobia + Suarez in – Kuyt, Maxi, Spearing & Skrtel out
433
Reina(Jones)
Johnson(Kelly)-Kyrgiakos(Kelly)-Agger(Wilson)-Aurelio(Konchesky)
Gerrard(Pacheco/Cole)-Lucas(Poulsen)-Meireles(Shelvey)
Gervinho(Babel/Amoo)-Torres(Ngog)-Suarez(Cole/Jovanovich)
Those changes wouldn’t require too much investment and would deifnitely be good enough to successfully get us through the season at which point we could look to replace Kyrgiakos and Lucas or Meireles with bigger, stronger and more athletic replacements (also Torres & Johnson if they really want to move on)
Saurez/cardozo – 20-18mil
Turan/charles/young – 12mil
players out :- poulsen,cole,konchiskey.
Buy karncjar,bentley fr 5 to 8 mil.
Bring back insua and start playing fabio aurelio in starting X1.
Play 4-4-2 , gerrard on the right.
we need transfers,especially for the bench..for the starting eleven i would love a left back and a partner for torres..Reina-Johnson-Carragher-Agger-Coentrao-J.Cole-Gerrard-Meireles-Maxi-Suarez-Torres..i think if this team blends,it will come good.but from the bench the only players that are worth are kuyt,lucas,babel,skrtel,jovanovic.poulsen is worse than spearing,shelvey,..and i dont actually know why we bought this HUGE flop..Ngog will need time to become a good striker if he continues to play well.which means sell poulsen and buy 2 players for the bench.i dont expect nesv to splash 90 million on january,but i want at least one player.a partner for torres.
hulk,suarez,mario gomez,aguero,cassano,agbonlahor,toivonen…a partner for torres please!!
To get descent EPL players we don’t need to go to Europe to find them, look in your own backyard Man City are discarding internationals left & right look to secure a loan deal Lescott, Bridge, Ireland, Adebayor & co you cannot tell me PK Cole & Poulsen are better than those discards! Look @ the teams hurting after sacking their managers there’s sure to be a backlash effect.If I was to go after someone in Europe @ a cut price try Alvaro Negredo got loaned out to Almeria while @ Real Madrid & scored 19 goals his hero is Torres & can work up front in tandum or by himself & a defender David Stanton of Inter, the fact that the Chosen One rates him is enough to have a look @ him but to spend big money in January is short sighted and a basic knee-jerk reaction but I do agree with Stavros a partner for Torres & a PLAN B for Woy along with a diffrent formation.
I don’t feel that a new centre back is the priority since we’ve got Skrtel and Soto. Agger will return to full fitness in around a weeks time while we’ve also got young Danny Wilson who can do the job. Ayala is also coming back soon from Hull so I actually think that we’re quite well equipped at the back.
I agree that a new quality left back is needed as I think Konchesky simply isn’t up to the task. He’s a 29 year old mediocre player who just isn’t good enough for a club like Liverpool. Oscar Wendt is a quality left back who I think could be a good addition to the squad. Obviously Taiwo is also a good left back but he may be too expensive. Having said this, however, I don’t think Hodgson will invest in the left back area as it’s likely that he will spend most of his funds on attacking players.
It’s also clear that the team lacks width and I think we need an out-and-out winger who can run down the flanks and get crosses in. As suggested, N’Zogbia and A.Young are good choices who will no doubt jump at a chance to join Liverpool. I hope Hodgson makes this one of his priorities and get a decent winger in.
A striker is definitely needed. We need a player who can both compliment Torres and fill in when Torres is unavailable. Andy Carroll is a good suggestion and he would no doubt be a great addition to the team. I would also look at strikers like Benzema, Vucinic and F.Llorente.
Hope Hodgson spends wisely with the limited funds made available to him. He should think of getting a winger and a striker and forget about players like Carlton Cole or Peter Crouch.
we should get llorent,mario gomez,gary cahill,adam johnson,hugo lloris,ashley young,connor wickham,santi corzola,capdevilla,charles nzogbia,jordan henderson