It Needs to be Business ‘Not’ Usual For LFC This January

AFTER yet again failing to win three games in a row in the Premier League for the first time since 2010, the general feel of optimism that had suddenly began to emanate from Anfield has disappeared just as rapidly.

Whilst there is plenty of time to recover from the surprising and disappointing defeat to Aston Villa, we cannot afford another slip-up like that before the new year. Having hauled ourselves back into relative contention for the top 4, we suddenly find ourselves seven points off the pace again as one of those horrible weekends happened where we lose, and all our nearest rivals for that place win or draw.

With the transfer window now less than two weeks away from coming into play, it’s important that the club break from tradition and actually appear organised and ready to go as we enter a crucial period of the season.

If we win our four remaining games this year, I firmly believe that we will be in sight of that 4th place. But we likely won’t; we haven’t won three games in a row for 2 years, so four is a massive ask.

The Aston Villa game is a perfect example as to why we need our chequebook open and ready to go. For the first 20 minutes of the match we were superb, dominating the midfield battle and looking like creating a chance with every attack and missing two glorious opportunities before being punished for an individual error. That may be the story of our season but we were more wasteful than ever in the first half on Saturday.

Put simply, we need another striker on the pitch who will put the ball in the net. Suarez is a top class footballer but when he doesn’t play well, as was the case in the Villa game, then we are beyond toothless. We have nothing. The first thing we need to do is sign another player who can play in that front three that we rigidly stick to, who can put the ball in the net. I have no faith in the owners to get it done and I have no faith in the people who run the club day-to-day to get it done quickly, but this has been a handicap for us since the day Torres left.

Had we had someone who puts the ball in the net we’d have been 3-0 up after 20 minutes and out of sight on Saturday – and in countless other games over the last 12 months. Our lack of a goalscorer hurts us massively and every point we lose is a reason to be angry for the way the last week of the summer transfer window was handled.
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For whatever reason, our business is normally conducted late in the window in January. We cannot afford to fuel the Sky Sports deadline day drama this year, because we need to have ours signings in our team and scoring goals by then.

If you believe the rumours, which are now all but confirmed I believe, Daniel Sturridge is a massive target. He’s greedy and I don’t like him particularly, and the annoying dancing absolutely must stop, but his statistics speak for themselves – he scores goals. Scruffy goals, tap-ins from inside the 6 yard box.

We also need to bring some guile in, because for all our good football we all too often hit a brick wall when we get into the final third. We need someone with a bit of creativity and flair. That won’t be an easy fit but it’s something we must address as we just don’t score enough goals.

There are a number of additions we need to make. I also believe we need to look at bringing in another top class goalkeeper to increase competition (such as Jack Butland, he’d be ideal) but not only do we need to get the right players, we need to get it done at the right time. Feasibly we can still be in the hunt for Champions League places, or at the very worst, European football come the middle of January. We just need to act quickly with our signings.

Improving the squad is an absolute must if we want to be in contention for anything. We might be mid-table at the moment, but the league is condensing into the usual groups and we need to make sure that we’re in the pack hunting European football.

Either way, this is a pivotal window for FSG – I don’t like them and I don’t trust them to deliver, but if they don’t then they are going to face a deluge of criticism – and no amount of open letters to fans will save them from a very uncomfortable ride.
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