Success in football is premised on different factors. While
some clubs sign one or two players to improve an already existing core like Chelsea did by signing
Diego Costa and Cesc Fabregas last summer, others settle for a policy of signing
almost an entire team in the transfer window. These are contrasting policy that
several clubs have adopted in building a competitive squad ahead of a new
season. While some clubs have found success through either approach, yet very
few top clubs settle for signing players that runs into double figures with an
element of regularity.
Liverpool have been one of the busiest clubs in this
summer’s transfer window just like last season when Brendan Rodgers and the club’s
transfer committee brought in a number of players largely with the money
received from the sale of Luis Suarez to Barcelona.
In the summer of 2014, Liverpool
signed the following players:
- Rickie Lambert
- Adam Lallana
- Mario Balotelli
- Alberto Moreno
- Dejan Lovren
- Lazar Markovic
- Javier Manquillo (loan)
- Emre Can
- Divock Origi (signed and loaned back to Lille)
Looking at that list, Liverpool
made nine signings last season. At the end Brendan Rodgers found it difficult
to build on what the team at achieved in the previous season when they nearly
won the Premier League title. There was stability lacking as there was seldom
any existing on field partnership in the team that could have led to a
consistent run of result last season. It meant that last season started poorly
for the Anfield outfit.
Although, they found their feet midway through the season
when they put an unbeaten run together, they still finished the season poorly.
Although the series of injury suffered by Daniel Sturridge and the fact that
the now departed Raheem Sterling struggled for form meant the team was
unrecognisable from the one that nearly won the league the previous season.
On the theme of partnerships and combination on the field of
play, it was the partnership of Suarez, Sturridge and Sterling that almost brought the title to
Anfield. With that partnership gone last season, it affected the team’s
stability that the rash of signings made did little last season to bridge the
gap as few if not all of them failed to find their feet in their first season at Merseyside.
With the departures of Raheem Sterling and Steven Gerard to
Manchester City and Major League Soccer’s Los Angles Galaxy respectively as
well as the fact that Daniel Sturridge will miss the first months of the season
as he continues his recovery of his hip injury, Liverpool will again start the
new season with trying to find new on field partnerships with the raft of
signings they have made. So far the signings made have been close the number
signed last summer. The list reads.
- James Milner
- Danny Ings
- Nathaniel Clyne
- Roberto Firmino
- Christian Benteke
- Adam Bodgan
- Joe Gomez
- Allan Rodrigues
Although, it must the said that the quality of this summer’s
signings could be said to be better than the players brought in last summer,
the idea that Liverpool can continue with a high turnover of signing players
every summer and at the same time get the balance right between stability and
signings would certainly be difficult. The issue now faced by Brendan Rodgers
is to fit the new signings into a system that would suit the team.
With Rickie Lambert having signed for West Brom, and the
future of Mario Balotelli still up in the air, it is already an admittance that
some of the signings made last summer were a mistake with the players now be
shipped out after just one season at the club.
With more players being linked to Liverpool, the possibility
of more signings cannot be ruled out before the transfer window closes,
especially with Barcelona
winger Adama Traore being strongly linked. Yet what must be a headache to
Brendan Rodgers is how to fit these players into an existing system as well as find
a way to keep the players happy as several of them will not get enough
playing time.
With the Northern Irishman entering his fourth season with
the club this summer, he will certainly be under pressure to deliver a
rewarding season this time around especially with the way last season ended
when the team lost 6-1 to Stoke City on the last day of the season. They have
an early opportunity of avenging that defeat when they face Stoke City
on the opening weekend of the new season.
With the Steven Gerard era now confined to the vehicle of
history, new on field partnerships and combinations that would breed a measure
of stability is now expected to be established by Brendan Rodgers, the club has
again backed him in the transfer market, and there have equally been changes to
his backroom staff, yet the buck stops at his table to deliver the goods this
season and find a formula that would enable the signings made to kick on.
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