Kenny Dalglish looks all but set to stay now as Liverpool manager beyond the end of this season after an upturn in the club’s fortunes both on and off the pitch since his emotional return to the club. The squad currently at the Scot’s disposal is short of quality in certain key areas, so let’s take a look at where Dalglish’s summer transfer priorities lie this summer.
While there may be sexier and more glamorous positions to start with, Liverpool have struggled sorely to acquire quality full-backs for quite some time and the endless conveyer belt of mediocre talent coming in and out of the club shows no signs of slowing down just yet. In Martin Kelly, the club have one of the league’s brightest young defensive prospects at right back, which alongside current first-choice England right back Glen Johnson, should see that the right back berth is well stocked with options – but it’s at left back where the real problems lie.
The aforementioned duo of Kelly and Johnson as well as Fabio Aurelio, Paul Konchesky, Daniel Agger and Danny Wilson have all had a stab at playing at left back for the club this season and to varying degrees of success it has to be said. Glen Johnson has performed admirably in the role since Dalglish’s return, but this tactical shift has more of a stop-gap feel to it and therefore it cannot be considered as the long-term solution to the problem.
If Fabio Aurelio wasn’t so injury-prone there would be no debate over the issue, but Aurelio is often hampered by injuries and rather unfortunately for both club and player spends just as much time on the treatment table as he does on the pitch. The less said about Konchesky the better. Wilson and Agger can ‘do a job’ out on the left, but that is neither player’s strongest position and they may be required elsewhere.
Lest we forget the retuning Emiliano Insua who is currently on loan with Galatasaray in Turkey. Most people that know me well enough will know how strong my views on Insua are; he’s positionally inept, slow, poor in the air and prone to being targeted by the opposition, the club will do well to shift Insua in the summer as he’s simply not up to the task of playing week in week out for a top Premier League side.
Other than at left back it’s clear that a dominant centre half is required. While the need for this isn’t as obvious as the need for a new left back, at centre half, a mixture of a loss of form, injuries and age has seen Liverpool look vulnerable at the heart of defence at various junctures over the course of this season.
Martin Skrtel is the club’s most natural defender in my opinion, yet he seems to be playing well within himself at the moment and his form has dipped worryingly from the dominant displays fans became accustomed to seeing every week when he first signed for the club. Kyrgiakos, while a fan favourite and a presence in both boxes, lacks the pace and ability to be anything more than a backup option for too much longer. Agger remains susceptible to niggling injuries and Jamie Carragher turns 34 next January.
Danny Wilson and Martin Kelly do point to a brighter future, but neither looks ready to take up the mantle that will gradually be passed on by Carragher just yet. It may not be a position in urgent need of an overhaul, but with one eye on the future, the position will need addressing sooner rather than later.
Now we reach the position that has remained the club’s Achilles heel for a period of time approaching around a decade or so now – the wings. During his time as Liverpool boss Rafa Benitez seemed inherently suspicious of any player with even a semblance of pace. The side has lacked real penetration down the flanks for years now and with Dalglish noted for his preference for expansive football, pace out wide will be essential to the team‘s future style of play.
On the right hand flank, Dirk Kuyt does a perfectly serviceable job and may yet be asked to lead the line more regularly in the future after his 7 yard hat-trick against Man Utd this month, but he’s a containing option rather than an outright attacking one. On the left, apart from Joe Cole – a player whose move to the club in the summer has failed to revive either the club’s or the player’s own fortunes – remains the best alternative of a bad lot. Maxi Rodriguez remains an anonymous waste of space; a player capable of complicating even the most rudimentary of tasks and as such should be dispensed with given half the chance.
Liverpool have had quick wingers over the years, they’ve had skilful ones too, but never the twain shall meet it appears at Anfield in recent seasons. Recent links to the likes of Ashley Young, Gervinho and Charles N’Zogbia in the last few weeks only serve to highlight that this area appears to be one that’s right at the top of the club’s agenda in the summer when it comes to their recruitment policy and it’s one that’s long overdue in terms of priority.
Fans should expect a central midfielder or two to arrive in the summer too. Lucas has shouldered much of the defensive burden in the middle of the park for much of the campaign and he could do with some help alongside him. Christian Poulsen has failed to set the world alight, and if the Hodgson era displayed anything at all, it was that the deeper Gerrard sits, the less effective he becomes. A midfield enforcer looks to be a top priority with both Blaise Matuidi and Yann M’Vila rumoured to be in the frame.
Dalglish appears to fancy Meireles further forward than Hodgson did during his spell at the club and when the Portuguese midfielder is given freedom to roam around the opposition’s box, he has the ability to be a match-winner. Gerrard and Joe Cole should provide competition, as will Alberto Aquilani if he returns from his loan spell at Juventus at the end of the season.
It is thought that Dalglish wants to see the Italian at close quarters before making a decision over his future, even if the player would prefer to stay in his homeland next season. Jonjo Shelvey also appears to be in the managers good books after becoming the substitute of choice during his time in charge, yet more creativity is needed to ensure that this Liverpool side, which lacks both craft and guile at times, becomes more consistently dangerous in their endeavours going forward.
Well there you have it – the current Liverpool side is one which lacks both the sufficient depth and quality to truly trouble the best in the league. While the temptation may be to plough the squad with quantity over quality in the summer transfer window, something tells me that Dalglish is far too wily a manager to fall into that trap, one which became a staple of the Benitez era.
They will remain an inconsistent and frustrating side to watch over the next year or so, but they could do with toughening up of the spine of the team while adding some quality down the flanks – something which is easier said than done. Up top, the recent acquisitions of Andy Carroll and Luis Suarez mean that while the forward line is fairly inexperienced at this level, along with David N’Gog and Dirk Kuyt, it is at least well stocked and there are more pressing areas that require addressing first. In goal, the club will never need to replace Pepe Reina as long as he wants to stay at the club.
NESV have stated that they are at the club for the long-haul and that acquisitions willonly take place in an incremental fahsion as opposed to a radical overhaul of the playing staff. Should this continue to be the case, Dalglish’s priorities in the summer should be first and foremost a strengthening of the club’s options down the entire left hand flank, followed closely by a defensive and creative midfielder. Should the board duly oblige with a generous transfer budget, a centre half would not go amiss either.
What does everyone else think? Which area of the current Liverpool side needs addressing the most? Which player would you like to see the club sign for the areas listed in the article above?
The article was written by James McManus for FootballFancast.com. Make sure to check out the latest news, blogs and podcasts at FFC – ed.
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James, I agree with almost all your comments except for your implicit criticism of Rafa Benitez. Although admittedly a different type of manager than King Kenny, Rafa achieved amazing results with severely limited resources, positioning Liverpool at the top of the European football pantheon and enhancing the value of the squad to the extent that NESV were able to spend a cool £ 58 million on Suarez and Carroll without batting an eyelid – because the entire cost could be recouped from the sale of Torres. Dalglish is a great manager and we are lucky to have him at Liverpool, but Rafa is responsible for many of the good things that King Kenny can build on today.
Disagree with voland, above, rafa only made 4 good signings in 6 years at anfield, he was like a kid in a sweet shop signing a mixture of players, young, old, british, foreign all with one thing in common, they were garbage. Leto, gonzalez, josemi, zenden, leiva, dossena, pelligrini, voronin, ngog, riera, kyriakgos, pennant, to name a few, a lot of money was wasted on quantity not quality. We reds will suffer the knock on effects into next season too.
what a lot of s***e ! are you totally clueless Ecored ??!
there are far too many examples of Rafas greatness for a joker like you to come along and try belittle his achievements by throwing in a couple of low budget signings costing less than £1.5million each!
when rivals go shopping in the equivalent of Harrods and we’re trashing the bargain isles of Lidls but still beating the scum 4-1 and Real Madrid by the same scoreline, with the same bargain basement purchases, you gotta be doing something right !
simply put, we overacheived with Rafa in charge. but thankfully his legacy will continue to benefit the club for many years to come.
i think, we also need another striker to add depth to the squad, though its not a priority..
n’gog is absolutely useless and i wud like a striker to come in as an impact sub or replace in case of injuries..
Agree with Voland, disagree with Ecored. Rafa Benitez achieved great things with limited resources, without the backing of H&G and the Liverpool board, especially Christian Purslow the clown. The owners did not provide funds for Rafa to improve the squad and he was forced to adopt a sell then buy policy. Due to limited funds, Rafa sometimes had to look for free transfers and could not buy who he wanted. He obviously made some mistakes in the transfer market like the ones Ecored mentioned but how could you possibly include Zenden, Lucas, Ngog, Riera and Kyrgiakos. Zenden was signed on a free transfer and helped us to 3 trophies and one Cl final. Lucas was signed for just 6 mil and is now an integral member of the squad and has become a Brazilian international. Ngog was signed for just 1.5 mil and has scored 20 goals for Liverpool and is still developing. Riera was a great left winger and helped us to a second place finish in the league before he insulted Rafa and subsequently sold. Kyrgiakos was signed for just 2 mil and is a good back up centre back. And according to Ecored, Rafa only made 4 good signings in 6 years. This cannot possibly be true as I can name many more, including the ones mentioned above. Kenny is good but credit has to be given to Rafa for the things he achieved and for the things Kenny and NESV can build on.
Solution is simple as possible:
Kenny has to SELL the below:
Konchesky
Aurelio
Insua
Kyrgiakos
Darby
Poulsen
Aquilani
Spearing
Jovanovic
Maxi
Cole
N’Gog
El-Zhar
Degen
Estimated: 60m borrowed from sales.
Another 30m from NESV will total 90m for summer rebuilding.
Kenny MUST Buy the below listed:
G.Cahill (CB)
Taye Taiwo (LB) – FREE
Sylvain Marveaux (LB) – FREE
Steven Defour (MC)
Moussa Sissoko (DM)
Ashley Young (RM)
Charles N’Zogbia (LM)
Ricky Van Wolfwinskel (ST)
Also young potential starlets like: Flanagan, Robinson, Wilson, Coady, Pacheco and even Suso and Sterling along with Kelly who’s already there.
Squad will be:
Reina, Gulacsi
Kelly, Johnson, Agger, Carragher, Skrtel, Cahill, Taiwo, Marveaux, Flanagan, Robinson
Kuyt, Young, N’Zogbia, Gerrard, Meireles, Lucas, Defour, Sissoko, Pacheco
Carroll, Suarez, Van Wolfwinskel
youve been playing fifa too long mate
Defour will not come to LFC so forget that, and ashley young has stated he prefers manure as well. Cahill is a waste of money, 25m for a cb why would you when we need to strengthen our midfield and forntline first. I would (if i had the resources) spend heavily on 2 quality forwards/wingers. Then begin the rebuilding with essential mids that can stay as squad players (for depth) if and when we can muster up the cash for expensive world class talent.
Taiwo (free)
Glichy (10m)
Kranjcar (6m)
Gago (9m)
Sanchez/hazard (25-35m)
Lavezzi (20m)
Wolfswinkle (10m)
Affelay (10m)
Maveirux (free)
with a 4-2-3-1 formation
A bit of a stretch i know as some of these players (hazard and sanchez) are rated 25m +, and the total comes to approx 100m. But after an essential clearout to the tune of 35 – 50m plus whatever FSG is willing to invest it is a possibilty. We seriously lack creativity in depth, as soon as our key players are injured we resort to playing church league football. We seriously need to enhance our midfield across the board, as adding only 1 or 2 will only leave us in the same boat when injuries do and will come about.
Unfortunately there are very few youngsters who are really ready to step up permanently, Pacheco and Stirling amongst others still need a season or 2 to hone their game, in the meantime we need to develop a solid base for them to work towards.
Well thats it from me. Im going to go and play FIFA 11 now……..YNWA
To answer your question the LB, LW and DM positions must be filled, as everyone agrees, there’s enough in the youth squad to suplement the other positions throughout the season. There are so many players being linked now its hard to say anyone one in particular that would do the club justice. I’m trust in KK to make a good choice and believe comoli has had enough time to check out players and still more than enough time to get some in to fill the void. To be honest, I would like Rafa to come in and learn from KK for a couple of seasons then take charge again. but that’s just me I spose. YNWA.
Rafa to come back and learn from KK, are u on crack?
The response by Joseph Deccahe was all but spot on. I think the INS and Outs were realistic. But Taiwo whilst free doesn’t have as much creativity going forward and I would go for Enrique from Newcastle. Also Defour is on a promise to united. Charlie Adams for low fee or Sahin from Dortmund could be the creativity we need. However this list is huge and I worry that this may take more time than one preseason to put together .
Rafa ia a crap manager. He has dug the brave which Hodgson has buried us in.
Here is a list of some of Rafa’s failures:
1. Lucas
2. Kuyt
3. Reira
4. Josemi
5. Maxi
6. Ngog
7. Keane
8. Aquilani
9. Insua
10. Aurelio
Only a dud would consider Rafa a good manager.
And he won u champions league. Wake up dud.
Rafa win the champion league with Houllier’s players. Mostly all the player bought by Rafa were useless.
Are you serious mate?? Were nando, xabi alonso, mascherano, reina, kuyt, skrtel all useless. Wake up!!
Well balanced article. The priorities you laid out are in the right order as well. I hope Kenny Dalglish, Camolli and NESV (FSG) understand the gravity of the situation and the lack of depth that is affecting the club.
Granted it is not easy to fill all the holes in the current squad but with proper focus it is doable. It is my view each position should have two good quality players while the current reserves provide the 3rd layer. With a combination of good ‘Bosman’ signings (such as Taye Taiwo); offloading of ineffective players (Maxi, Jova, Poulsen, Degen, Paul C., etc.) with good intelligent signing of replacements from struggling giants with quality players such as Stuttgart (we can think of Tasic, Gentner, Kuzmanovic, Trasch, etc.) and Schalke (the likes of Howedes and Jurado come to mind); I would also add Marko Marin as another attractive option from Germany. It is worth our while to look at good quality players from Eastern Europe as well (C. Ansaldi, Honda, Dzagoev, Ibricic, Noboa, D. Kombarov, etc.) and other quality pickings from France (Sakho, Mbengue, M’vila, Mathudi, Erding, Sissoko, Gameiro, Gervinho, etc.) Belgium (Pocognoli, Biglia, Defour, de Bruyne, Witsel, Lukaku, etc.) Dutch (Vertonghen, Moreno, Pieters, Wijnaldum, Toivonen, Dsudszak, Wolfswinkel, etc.) Italy (V. Ruiz, Criscito, Rafinha, Veloso, Inler, Sanchez, Cavani, etc.) and Spain (N. Monreal, Canales, J. Martinez, Filipe Kasmirski, A. Herrera)need to be closely evaluated.
By the way, I will be very happy if we loan out Ngong and sign Papiss Demba Cisse to ensure competition and sufficient choice in attack.
“Maxi Rodriguez remains an anonymous waste of space; a player capable of complicating even the most rudimentary of tasks and as such should be dispensed with given half the chance.”
please go to anfield and watch Maxi. then judge. he’s not great on tv but does a decent job and is a useful squad player.
So the Maxi that plays at Anfield is different from what we see on TV. That is the lamest defense you’ll ever hear. Or why doesn’t that apply to other players.
I agree with the article, Maxi is the worst player in the team and should be gotten rid of given quarter of a chance.
Id like to see Momo Sissoko back
Rafa achieved amazing results with severely limited resources, agree with Voland. Rafa is a crap manager, disagree with SivaRed.
Even Fergie & Mourinho had their own fair share of failed players and so do Rafa. But mind you both Fergie & Mourinho had good amount of financial backup from their respective clubs to replace players fast which Rafa did not have. I think you’re only interested in Rafa’s bad signings, what about his good signings as well? Alonso, Torres, Reina, Arbeloa, Reira, Mascherano and to name a few for the future the likes of Suso, Pacheco, Sterling and it goes on…Even KK admitted that he was so happy to own a strong wealth of young players that was left by Rafa..
In response to SivaRed, saying Rafa is a crap manager is the biggest load of garbage. And naming those 10 players as failures? How can you call someone who scored a hat trick against Man Utd a failure? Any manager in the world would have Kuyt in their side. Lucas has become an integral part of our squad. Keane wasn’t actually a signing Rafa wanted and subsequently moved him on asap. Aquilani is a very talented player, Aurelio although injured a lot can hardly be considered a failure. Riera had 2 very good seasons for us. Ngog is still only 21 or 22 yet has already scored over 20 goals for the club. Rafa was intrumental in overhauling the youth system and bringing in Segura, former technical director of Barcelona. All these youth players that we see as having a bright future, including Martin Kelly, were brought in by Rafa. Rafa was instrumental in bringing King Kenny back to the club. And this is without naming his accomplishments on the pitch, lets be honest, with the resources Rafa was given by H&G, he overachieved. He won an FA cup, got a 2nd place finish and was the best side in the league that year despite the 2nd place, made 2 Champion’s League finals, winning one. To say only a dud would consider Rafa a good manager? Only a did would consider Rafa anything but a good manager. Had Rafa been giving the funds, we would have had Berbatov, we would have had Cristiano Ronaldo, we would have had Dani Alves.
The left side will need to be the main focus of the squad building, think the youth in Wilson and Kelly will be developed into the main centre backs, but shawcross would be a good choice to look at, I agree don’t aim at quantity this summer, its about the quality maybe adding only 3 marquee signings and I would target Adam Johnson, might be a long shot but the boys got talent,
Reina
Johnson Carragher Subotic Taiwo
Gerrard Adam Meireles
Hulk Carroll Suarez
Bench:Gulacsi,Skrtel,Agger,Kelly,Aurelio,Lucas,Eriksen,Aquilani,Marveaux,Elia,Bojan,Kuyt..from all these i love Hulk and Charlie Adam..i’d love to watch these two in a Liverpool shirt..Taiwo is free come summer and is a good player.YNWA
We need three world class players in the summer. Not 7 good players.
A new centre back beside Agger or Carra.
A new centre midfielder
A new left winger
I believe wingers are a priority as with Carroll coming in we must have out and out wingers.
But i do not see Young Sanchez or Hazard turning up many of the names mentioned are no chance.
I think Marveaux is almost a cert Taiwo will fix our L.B problem and Moussa Sissoko and Defour are chances as United will get Mvila.
Gervinho is a chance as is Griezmann and Afellay i do not see Elia or Kjaer coming either their form in Germany is not great.
Voland your spot on, Rafa had to work with limited resoources hence some of the cheap signings.Example= Kiriakos was signed for 2mill because the 2 Yanks didnt want to spend.I cant help but think what might have been if Rafa was backed properly & im sure Rafa still feels the same way. Anywayweve got Kenny and he must be backed to the full.I have loved this club for 30odd years & i can sense the good times coming back we have been through so much turmoil.
rafa is a good manager so is kk.lfc need a lb in jose E,of newcastle,ashely young,charles adams,mvila and adan turan or adam johnson and benzema.the club should sale,j.cole,poulsen,jovanovic,maxi,kyriakos and bring back aquilani.
Wingers.
Definitely think we should look at Scott Sinclair. He’s been in scintillating form for Swansea this season. Has great technique, blistering pace and can score and create chances in abundance. People putting Sanchez and Hazard up really need their heads checked. They are not going to move to a club outside of the Champions League. It’s that simple. Sinclair I would assume would be available at an affordable if not cheap price. I’d also suggest, and this one is a wildcard, having a go on Paddy McCourt of Celtic. I know he has a tendency to drift in and out of games but on his day he is untouchable. He’d be a good squad player if nothing else and a good impact player from the bench. I’d also not mind taking Aiden McGeady back from Spartak Moscow. He can play on either wing and can provide good ammunition. I think Dalglish would get the best out of all three and I think they’ve all got Liverpool type mentalities too. So that would be my ins: Sinclair, McCourt, McGeady, Adams, Enrique and if we would get a decent back up for Carroll & Suarez then happy days.