THE circus surrounding Luis Suarez shows no sign of slowing down and looks set to rage on for a while yet.
However, Liverpool do not want to be in a position where they are not prepared for his departure, especially if it happens with days to go in the transfer window. Targets need to be assembled, and quickly.
One problem persists though for Liverpool. The lack of Champions League football means that whilst they might have the cash to replace Suarez with a player of similar quality, they may be unable to persuade that player to join a club currently achieving seventh in the Premier League, the very reason why Suarez wants to leave in the first place.
Consequently, Brendan Rodgers and his scouting team may well need to look to buy two players instead, where their combined quality makes up for the loss of Suarez, and yet one of them at least has the potential to improve and become the next great Liverpool striker.
Whilst it may seem improbable that Liverpool could find a dream pair to fill Suarez’s boots, quality players are still out there who would be willing to move to a team outside of the Champions League if they had potential; which Liverpool certainly do have. Furthermore, the last two great strikers for Liverpool came from clubs who were in a similar position to us now, not super-clubs like Real Madrid or Bayern Munich.
Atletico Madrid were trying to finish in La Liga’s top four to play in the Champions League when we bought Fernando Torres in 2007. Meanwhile Ajax would be probably a top eight club in the big leagues of England, Spain, Germany and Italy, and Liverpool outside of Europe were still seen as a greater attraction in the eyes of Luis Suarez. It’s top players at those sort of clubs that we would have to target, unless we scout a gem, or find someone unhappy at a big club, like in the case of Daniel Sturridge at Chelsea.
Here are five potential players who could help fill the void of El Pistolero:
1. Roberto Soldado
A different player to Suarez, Soldado does less of the dribbling skills, but more of the ruthless finishing that Liverpool still require, despite an improved attack last season. The 28 year old would cost in the region of £26 million, according to various newspapers such as the Telegraph. He scored 24 goals last season for Valencia in the league and would be a top signing, with competition from Tottenham.
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2. Burak Yilmaz
Similar to Soldado, Yilmaz has hit the back of the net 56 times in the last 60 league games for Galatasaray and has been linked to Liverpool according to the Daily Star. He was the player of the group stages in last season’s Champions League, chosen by UEFA.com, and Jose Mourinho recently stated that Yilmaz could play for any team in the world. The talented player is rated at around £18 million.
3. Luis Muriel
With bags of talent and already being compared to Ronaldo, Muriel is a player far more comparable to Suarez than Soldado and Yilmaz. In addition, he could become a world class star as long as he improves on his finishing, something which plagued Suarez in his first 18 months at Liverpool. Muriel scored 11 goals in 22 Serie A matches last season for Udinese and the 22 year old is rated at roughly £17 million.
4. Erik Lamela
The 21 year old had a fantastic season, scoring 15 goals in 33 appearances for Roma and is seen as one of the most exciting young players in Europe. Linked with Tottenham, he can play on the right or through the middle, usually in a 4-3-3 formation. Roma value him at around £25 million, so it would be a lot of money, but Lamela has frightening pace as well as dribbling skills and could easily fill Suarez’s shoes on his own.
5. Fernando Torres
How about a fanciful move for El Nino? The 29 year old has struggled since his £50 million move from Liverpool to Chelsea in January 2011, despite scoring 22 times last season. He has had a very successful period since his move in terms of trophies, winning the Champions League, Europa League and FA Cup as well as triumphs with Spain. However his performances have been inconsistent and most of his goals have come against lower ranked opposition. Nevertheless, a return to the arena where he was adored may seem him capture his best form again, although I would be against it, especially with the value of £15-20 million.
There are a myriad of other strikers out there that Liverpool could look at, while honourable mentions must go to the likes of Jackson Martinez and Karim Benzema. However, their status and the position of their clubs make them far more difficult targets than the ones mentioned above. A double signing of Soldado and Muriel would probably be my preferred choice, although Lamela would be fantastic too.
However, despite his problems, I would love it if Suarez stayed.
But I’m not counting on it.
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lamela and muriel and good riddance to dracula
Like the “Dracula” bit spot on
TORRES!!!! We sold him because he had an injury that would hamper the rest of his playing days, have you not noticed lack of pace?? No different from M Owen really as look how his career took off after he left “oh I forgot hamstring loss of pace” that was his game. In my honest opinion Sturridge will get us the goals and couthinio will add the flair. So bye bye luis ‘who”
I suggest Br should quickly go for muriel and lamela , then Eriksen and toby as soon as suarez leaves which is very likely.
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Not Torres, I only think Benitez can get the most from him, Muriel! One for the future aswell as being a great talent ATM, him and Sturridge would work great! And Muriel is rated 92 on FIFA in 2016 haha
Just a little thought. Ba??? Cheap, always gets goals and I think he’d be another bargain buy with a good return.
Dont make me vomit,Torres is useless now
yilmaz or soldado
pls.sell suarez and buy yelmaz great finisher
Even if we have the money , do you think these players would come to Liverpool ? Don’t forget we are not in the Champions League and we have a manager who is not well known on the international stage. Soldado might be going to Spurs. Torress might be going to Napoli. If Liverpool were really serious they should have concluded the transfers of Eriken and Toby long ago.
soldado,muriel nd lamela should be sign quickly so dat dere will competition in d striking force,cos suarez is out of it.
Torres no way get yilmaz and Muriel and then try for erikson
Pls sing erisken and solado with luis muriel
As far i am concerned, we have not made any signing this summer outside mignolet. All the other signings- toure, aspas are nothing but rubbish. We seriously need a strong defensive midfielder in the mould of lassana diara ; Dejong(former city player) or mascerano as Lucas has falling beyond recovery- adding to his lack of goals. Again, we need a mature class attacking midfielder as coutinho is still too tender to shoulder that responsibility . Nothing serious has been done about these things. All we hear is suarez. Lfc should not be a one man team. Even if suarez stays with lfc without filling these two positions, even norwich(with the signing of Ricky) will be above us next season. The management and the owners are not serious at all. Honestly, i will gladly welcome the sale of lfc to an oil rich arab as that is the only thing that can save us now.
Has to be Torres all day long for me the only proven prem player there will always get you an easy 20+ goal a season and a bargain at 15-20 million plz do it! Forget what’s happened this is about football and what’s best for the club.
Must have proven not maybes
i would say Yilmaz …. dont wait
I personally think that part of our dependance in Suarez is the fact that he is a striker that makes his own plays/goals, in other words he is not a natural finisher (of course he is amazing at finishing) like Raul, Inzaghi to bring some examples of opposite types of player.
Suarez needs to have the ball, he doesn’t like to make the finishing touch but he likes to dribble, enter and shoot the ball. What we need to understand is that a player like Luis (strikers that need the ball like Ibrahimovic) makes his team more dependant on him, because with his style of play, he is at least 50% of the attack weight.
In order to be less dependant in one player, the structure of the team needs to rely in several players that can work their position and contribute to the work of the others.
I’m definitely not saying that we need to sell Suarez, I just want to bring out the positive points on losing him. Yilmaz or Soldado are that kind of striker that dont absorb tasks of other players which is good for the team.
An excellent player that will not come to Anfield but would be the perfect replacement is Jackson Martinez.
Hope that this circus ends in the next few days and we can know the final decision from parts.
YNWA
mignolet johnson toure agger enrique gerrad lucas aspas sturridge coutinho yilmaz
Yilmaz with enough left over for eriksen and DM or LB back up. The other one we should be looking at is Lukaku. Not that it’s likely but would compliment the bunch of midgets we’ve got running around nicely.
If he stays, Suarez won’t be up and running again until about November anyway and the season could be gone by then. Take the money and reinvest.
Attacking options of Sturridge, Coutinho, Aspas, Yilmaz or Lukaku, Sterling, Gerard, Eriksen with Back up from Henderson, Borini, Allen, Alberto, Ibe, Downing… Looks as strong as it’s been in many years.
We want eriksen for soldado or murial. Because eriksen is the only player can change steven gerrard so we need eriksen to bring anfilied.
Lfc need a quality not quatity players,player that can score goals not player like Vorolin,Carrol moreso, the lfc owners have to invest heavily on the club other club are spent so much on transfer look at spur chelsea city n united even so call arsenal ve become a force,lfc are in the same market with all these club.the owner has not been supportive,is that,if player like Carrol n Jojo has not been sold that mean we can buy Aspa also the owner have to forget their austerity policy n invest or Lfc ve been sold,lfc is Boton wanders or hull city
How many players does Liverpool have that will be able to take us to the next level and challenge for 3rd or 4th place,not that many i’m afraid.BR has gone on to say that we have squad players now we need to get the players who can come in and help us challenge for the CL spots, something which i highly doubt will happen .Its probably one of the reasons why Suarez wants to leave because we are still 2-3 class players short of challenging for these spots.
If we sell Suarez and bring in 3 quality players then we r effectively 2 quality players up on last year plus aspas who will contribute over the course of the year.