Can Lallana deliver for LFC & England?

It’s been a very mixed 12-18 months for Adam Lallana since making his competitive England debut in June 2014.

The former Southampton midfielder had risen high by the end of the 2014-15 season, being named in the PFA team of the year, along with winning both Southampton Player of the Year awards, shortly before earning a £25 million move to Anfield.

To say Lallana’s career has hit a plateau since then would probably be a little cruel but it certainly hasn’t gone as he’d have hoped at either club or international level.

With England, there was another set of ‘5’ ratings across the board following the defeat to Spain on Friday night. As Alex McMahon stated in his article for 888sport, Adam Lallana struggled to get into the game, much as he has done for Liverpool this season.

His form has certainly improved markedly since the arrival of Jurgen Klopp but he’s still struggling to make a telling impact, in terms of what matters for a player in his position: goals and assists.

Since making his England debut, Lallana has struggled to reach the levels he showed regularly at Southampton. Likewise at Liverpool, the 27 year old has managed just 8 goals in almost 60 games. Compared to his 9 Premier League goals alone in his final season at Southampton, that is a pretty telling figure.

But there is no doubting that those figures also point to a player that clearly has genuine quality. For several years at the South coast club, Lallana was one of the main driving forces behind the club’s promotion and highly impressive form in the Premier League.

He has shown brief flashes for Liverpool and England too, that point to a player that just needs those sorts of performances coaxing out of him.

And while Roy Hodgson has seemed to struggle as much as Brendan Rodgers to bring the best out of Lallana, Jurgen Klopp (if early indications are anything to go by) seems like he might just be the man to let Lallana show why Liverpool paid so much for the midfielder.