Stewart Downing, Charlie Adam and Jordan Henderson created 239 goal scoring chances between them last season â 56% of what the entire Liverpool team did in 2010/11.
For the last 2 seasons the delivery to the strikers has been poor. With these 3, Gerrard, Suarez, Meireles, Kuyt and possible Aquilani, things are looking up. Carroll will suit Downings style of delivery well.
What Kenny has added with these three signings is energy....something that we've lacked.We've only really had Kuyt,Gerrard and only recently Suarez that have it.
Balance to. Adam and Downing are both lefties (as is Carroll). The majortity of the Liverpool midield and attack are right footed, and favour the right side, though some are good with both. For a while Liverpool have used a lot of players on the left who prefer to roam in, onto their right side. Meireles, Babel, Benayoun, Cole, even as far back as Luis Garcia. Riera was the only major acception (unless full backs played midfield).
Excellent spot.Its also the reason why Rafa played Fabio Aurelio in midfield on occasions.He had on occasions no natural left sided width,and seeing as Gerrard and Torres were natural right siders we had no real power down the left side until we signed Riera.However Benayoun occasionally was as effective on the left as on the right,he was two footed even if he was erratic.
Compare it to the back 4 where Johnson and Carragher are right footed and Agger and Aurelio/ Insua are left footed, it all fits together much more comfortably. You could also use Englands midfield as an example. It was much more balanced once Barry, who is left footed, came in. England have always lacked left sided players, but having a player with a strong left foot as a dominant midfielder made up for it a fair amount.When all your players just want to pass right footed, the ball often tends to only move one way.
Now the only way having players on the un-natural side works is when you have exceptional full-backs.Ones that are as good at defending as they are at going forward.Or you have players that are unselfish enough to cover when the full-back goes forward. The Ronnie Whelan/Alan Kennedy combo on Liverpools left hand side worked to perfection even though Ronnie was naturally right footed was because he allowed Alan Kennedy to over-lap him.Now when Ronnie ventured forward,Barney never moved. With regards to players defending as well as they attack..Phil Neal.He was successful for two reasons,the first one being he was a converted winger,he was a winger as a kid at Northampton.He was also successful because he trusted Jimmy Case and later on Terry McDermott to slot in at right back when he went on one of his bounding runs into the opposition penalty area. However having a balance between right and left is also important.
