I'm talking about the signings of Coutinho and Sturridge. Are they good enough to replace Luis Suarez in terms of goals, assists and all round general play?
In my mind we definitely don't need to blow all the £45M on one 'world-class' striker/replacement, because the ability of Sturridge and Coutinho is more than enough to compensate providing Coutinho is at No 10 and Sturridge a No 9, and Rodgers has proven, to an extent, that he can find quality players on a budget. There are doubts about Sturridge's fitness, as well as Borini's ability, but Aspas has made a reassuring start and I can see him producing a decent goal-return from numerous positions this season and providing sufficient competition to Sturridge.
If you're agreeing with me up until this point, where should the money be spent?
On the basis that we've got £45M from Luis and £20M left from our transfer budget, totalling £65M. Bear in mind we might not be left with a lot of time to invest this money to wholesale squad changes cannot be expected.
------------------Sturridge/Borini/Aspas------------------
--Ibe/Aspas--------Coutinho/Alberto-------Downing/Sterling---
--------------Lucas/Henderson/Allen/Gerrard--------------------
---Enrique------Skrtel/Toure/Wisdom/Agger----Johnson/Kelly
--------------------------------Mignolet------------------------------------
Time for a bit of wishful thinking: Lucas has looked decent in pre-season and showing encouraging signs that he's fully over his injury so I wouldn't invest in the CM area unless we were able to shift one of Henderson or Allen for decent money (which seems very unlikely) because otherwise we're too crowded in that department. More wishful thinking: Tactical tweaks and adjusting our team shape should help us iron out the defensive flaws from last season. We've had all summer to work on the shape, on when to go forward, when to press, when to return to position. I expect to see an improvement and rightly so. I also think Allen will step up and surprise people this year. He's already being written off and talked about as an average footballer, but he isn't, and I expect him to show it.
I agree with Rodgers in that the attacking areas, particularly the wider areas need strengthening. We need one player ideally capable of playing No 10, as well as the wider positions with experience and quality. Pace isn't a factor, we have Ibe and Sterling for that, but they'll need someone who is going to make the right decisions in tight areas, a strong shot, and capable of playing one-touch football to interchange effectively with Coutinho and Sturridge. I've no idea who this is, but I'd sanction £20M on him.
LB - Definite investment needed £6-8M. Enrique needs to be constantly challenged for a place. Any replacement should be very defensively minded, because then we would have the option of moving Enrique further up the pitch where he has shown he can be very effective.
Now I'm left with £38M. I'd blow it on a CB, a RW, and the best striker we could get for £15/16M.
In summary that's suggesting we need 5 signings in the space of three weeks, which I admit seems unrealistic, but that's what we need. Hopefully by the end of January 2014, all of this will be in place.
What would you do?
In my mind we definitely don't need to blow all the £45M on one 'world-class' striker/replacement, because the ability of Sturridge and Coutinho is more than enough to compensate providing Coutinho is at No 10 and Sturridge a No 9, and Rodgers has proven, to an extent, that he can find quality players on a budget. There are doubts about Sturridge's fitness, as well as Borini's ability, but Aspas has made a reassuring start and I can see him producing a decent goal-return from numerous positions this season and providing sufficient competition to Sturridge.
If you're agreeing with me up until this point, where should the money be spent?
On the basis that we've got £45M from Luis and £20M left from our transfer budget, totalling £65M. Bear in mind we might not be left with a lot of time to invest this money to wholesale squad changes cannot be expected.
------------------Sturridge/Borini/Aspas------------------
--Ibe/Aspas--------Coutinho/Alberto-------Downing/Sterling---
--------------Lucas/Henderson/Allen/Gerrard--------------------
---Enrique------Skrtel/Toure/Wisdom/Agger----Johnson/Kelly
--------------------------------Mignolet------------------------------------
Time for a bit of wishful thinking: Lucas has looked decent in pre-season and showing encouraging signs that he's fully over his injury so I wouldn't invest in the CM area unless we were able to shift one of Henderson or Allen for decent money (which seems very unlikely) because otherwise we're too crowded in that department. More wishful thinking: Tactical tweaks and adjusting our team shape should help us iron out the defensive flaws from last season. We've had all summer to work on the shape, on when to go forward, when to press, when to return to position. I expect to see an improvement and rightly so. I also think Allen will step up and surprise people this year. He's already being written off and talked about as an average footballer, but he isn't, and I expect him to show it.
I agree with Rodgers in that the attacking areas, particularly the wider areas need strengthening. We need one player ideally capable of playing No 10, as well as the wider positions with experience and quality. Pace isn't a factor, we have Ibe and Sterling for that, but they'll need someone who is going to make the right decisions in tight areas, a strong shot, and capable of playing one-touch football to interchange effectively with Coutinho and Sturridge. I've no idea who this is, but I'd sanction £20M on him.
LB - Definite investment needed £6-8M. Enrique needs to be constantly challenged for a place. Any replacement should be very defensively minded, because then we would have the option of moving Enrique further up the pitch where he has shown he can be very effective.
Now I'm left with £38M. I'd blow it on a CB, a RW, and the best striker we could get for £15/16M.
In summary that's suggesting we need 5 signings in the space of three weeks, which I admit seems unrealistic, but that's what we need. Hopefully by the end of January 2014, all of this will be in place.
What would you do?
