Yesil should solely be in the reserves and youth teams though. Borini is still a youth player really, featuring in under 21s mainly. We only have Suarez as a senior striker, we need at least 1 more. I personally would like Walcott, who I think is useful and can change a game; infinitely better than Downing. He can also play as a striker and we need more pace imo. We also need a main out and out striker, Llorente, Huntelaar and others. Both realistic I believe and on offer to buy as contracts are nearly finished. Hopefully the chavs and city will be focused on Falcao....who knows we could buy him too.....
Lets forget about three for a moment. Supposing it was two, maybe we could sign a striker and a forward i.e. Theo Walcott. Therefore that would in fact give Raheem Sterling a rest.
We need to have a striker who can score and that is his number 1 attribute. The other stuff we can get another player who might be able to chip in with the goals but can provide width options or playing in the hole ( Walcott out wide/Navas, Sigurdsson type in the hole).
Agreed. Under Rafa Benitez, we sometimes lacked a creative spark by times in midfield, this was when Alonso didn't perform or when Benayoun had a off day. We've got a far creative midfield now than we did under Rafa. However, what we lack now is what Rafa had and that is a goal-scorer. There is nothing wrong with our level of creativity, its our conversion thats the problem. I'm convinced should we put a natural goal-scorer into that side, we would see a more effective side. I would sign Walcott to add depth to the forward area too.
It was mentioned at the start about Fletcher for £12mil and I said at the time that I'd take him for back up but definately not as first choice, however looking at him, this season I think he's had 7 shots on target and scored 5 goals. Imagine what he could have done in our team. I think we need someone like that, not a massive name, just someone prove in the Prem who can stick the ball in the net. I'm going to stick my neck out there, as a short 2 -3 year option, Darren Bent seems the perfect fit to me. Clearly out of favour at Villa, anything udner £10mil would be a steal for someone that will take every other chance he's presented with. Suarez/Sterling/Suso/Gerrard can create the chances for him, and he'll stick em away.
I think I've found out our problem.. So we're not converting our chances right? Well, we need some one who will convert our chances. What's the role for some one who converts chances? A striker! Genius, I know! I can't believe we didn't work this out before . Fletcher is a good shout, although I don't see him coming cheap now, and for a similar price we could get a younger striker of similar quality. I don't think we'll sign who we expect in January, we will have to be shrewd. Their's bargains out there, we need our scouting team to step up to the mark and take some responsibility, I know Brendan will have his targets in his mind but we can't end up in the same position we ended up in the Summer (Deadline day with no signings made). As much as I'd love Hunterlaar, or Llorente or any striker of that calibre, I don't see us being able to attract/afford them. I think we'll see 2 strikers, one being Walcott, and one that we wont see coming, from another league.
I'd take Bent for anything under 10mill (hopefully give them Downing also). He's not technical, he's not elegent or tricky, but he scores goals with a natural instinct which is what we've badly lacked for several years. Rodgers must surely realise that we don't have the goals coming from all over the front 6, but we do create a **** tonne of chances. Get Bent and play Suarez wide on one side, Suso/Sterling/Assaidi on the other and we'll get goals.
There is a stat out there ( opta or infostrada, can't remember) that shows that yes we create chances but not nearly as many as we think. We are way behind United was one of the examples and Opta/Infostada are normally pretty unbiased.
United's attack are superior to ours, that's no surprise that they create more chances. We do, however, create a fair amount but without anyone to finish the move off, it's irrelevant. I'd also argue that we'd create more if there was someone in the box to aim for or to pass through balls to rather than tie toe around the box as we do now and hope for something special to happen.
Also United have a set way and standard of playing that everyone knows which helps in that creativity.
Brilliant assessment. We've been saying all along we've been creating plenty but converting very little. Its the opposite to what we've had previously, when we were scoring goals, but our creativity wasn't the best. We seriously need at least two goal-scorers, and we'll look a far better side thats for sure. I would take someone like Klass Jan Huntelaar and Gary Hooper.
I'd say Huntelaar and Hooper are pretty good shouts. We've been linked, also (amongst the hoards of other potential LFC additions), with Thomas Muller. I'm not sure we'd get him, but he'd be a superb signing, I think. Exactly what we're after: strong, fast and finishes very well. Also, he's still very young. And German. Let's not forget the German part.
Dutch sources claim that Schalke and Liverpool have agreed on the transfer of Huntelaar.Wages are still in negotiation. Liverpool are preparing a bid of 9M euros for Huntelaar. It will be accepted if Schalke can't reach an agreement over a new contract JayR_LFC ‏@Jay_78_ Twitter Rumours flying around at the MOBO Awards last night, by a few wealthy people in V.I.P, was that Walcott & Huntelaar are both done deals
http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/transfer-news/liverpool-ready-to-launch-cut-price-6m-1415162 http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/transfer-news/liverpool-plan-raid-for-7m-wigan-1415933 Couple of interesting ones from the mirror, Huntelaar for £6mil?! and Al Habsi.
I say we need at least 1 out and out central striker who could score goals galore (Sturridge, Soldado, Huntelaar, Llorente, Hooper, etc), and at least 1 player who can play, and score regularly from any front three position (Walcott, Tello, Muller). Rafa liked Huntelaar. If he signs, Rafa will be jealous.
We may average around 20 shots a game, and Gerrard may have created the most chances but these facts are misleading. The truth is, we are not creating enough clear cut chances, and on top of that, we fail to convert most of them. There is a stat that Enrique has created the same number of clear cut chances as Gerrard this season - difference is, Enrique averages a clear cut chance every 100 mins whereas Gerrard's is 400 mins.
