Liverpool Strike Force Goes From SAS To SOS

The intention was to go one for one in the blogs and cover all the sports listed, however following the inevitability of a deal for Danny Ings to move to Liverpool I couldn’t resist writing a piece on the topic. You have to credit him similarly to the way you do Charlie Austin, these are two guys in teams that are struggling and were ultimately destined to spend next season battling in the Championship, yet still managed to score goals. Without them the clubs would have been relegated months ago. There is no doubt Danny boy has bags of potential, he’s 23 and English too which is a deal sealer with an urgency for clubs to develop young English talent.

The problem however…

Well I don’t need to spell it out, he’s essentially being brought in to replace this guy:

Yep Luis Suarez. The problem is that the two players are in a different league! That’s a huge responsibility to put on the youngster, who let us not forget has a limited amount of Premier League experience. Granted Liverpool only managed 10 goals from strikers this season which Ings managed to exceed in a relegation team, however Liverpool dropped 49 goals on the season before! Are they expecting the 23 year old to be their answer?! The Burnley man may be good but he’s no Lionel Messi, and let’s not forget that the highest ever premier league tally is 34 (Andy Cole, NUFC 93-94, Alan Shearer, BRFC 94-95). Surely with the sale of a £75million man you look to bring in someone more established who can make up for ¾ of Suarez’s 31 goals.

This is of course no disrespect to Danny Ings as he is a terrific young talent, but Ballotelli clearly hasn’t done the trick, Sturridge has been struggling since injury and Suarez is most likely sat on a beach in Barcelona sipping Pina Coladas watching replays of his Champions league goal. The fact of the matter is that a strike force once named SAS is now in more of an SOS situation. Infact when you look at the signings alongside the current players the initials spell out MISS (Milner, Ings, Sturridge and Sterling), a fitting acronym with Liverpool’s 62 point, 6th place season MISSING the heights of their 84 point title push the season before!

To make matters that little bit worse, 20 year old Sterling could well be on his way out the door. He’s an outstanding player, he has flair and confidence, he too is young and English. He’s the perfect player for the top teams in the prem, but, his wage demands… Really?! You had one and a half good seasons, you’re 20 years old, £150,000 - £200,000 is a little bit excessive! What do you even buy with that, you’re barely old enough for a razor. For me Liverpool have no choice but to cash in, you give a player that age a wage that high and your whole wage structure goes to pot! If they cave in to the demands they’re just opening up the opportunity for other players to lay down the law too.

Then of course Gerrard, the legend himself! It doesn’t seem 5 minutes since he sprung on to the scene as a youngster, and now he’s gone. You may be able to bring a player in to fill the hole but as a player, captain and character he is irreplaceable! He is possibly the loyalist most passionate servant to the club the Liverpool faithful will ever live to see. Throw into the mix their 6-1 thrashing by Stoke and Brendan Rodgers comments of “if you want me to go I will” then this summer could be very make or break for Liverpool in terms of; challenging at the highest end of the table or battling to avoid a mid-table finish and secure Europa league.

In my opinion there needs to be changes made and money spent, and by money I mean more than £7million, but then I’m no footballing expert otherwise I’d be in the wrong career. There are areas to strengthen and positions to fill, what are your opinions on where Liverpool should go next?