Kuyt is fine. He's not a major problem. He suits the system very well as the wide players don't play as wingers and have to find themselves in the penalty area when the ball is on the opposite side, which he does very well and appropriately. He knows how to play the position tactically. He has 8 goals and 4 assists in the league, which is no bad return at all – the only players with more goals from midfield being, i believe, Ronaldo, Gerrard and Lampard, while he has the same number of assists as ‘world class’ players such as Rooney, Robinho and so on. I said at the beginning of the season that the main thing he needs to contribute is goals, and he has done that to a reasonable degree. He will make double-figures by the end of the season for sure, which is difficult to complain about. And he has a knack for scoring very, very important goals too. I also wouldn't mistake his work rate as being a defensive thing; it's very positive. It helps us to win the ball back as soon as possible and restart our attack - but more importantly, it allows us to pressurise the opposition further up the field and put defenders under pressure, which is invaluable for any side. While he isn't going to play the ball through the eye of a needle, it's amazing how many times he can put an opposing player under pressure and create a chance simply from forcing them into a mistake.
What is important to remember is that everything the manager does channels itself into one thing: creating a team. My opinion over the last couple of weeks is that, perhaps, we have now a fine balance which is proving very effective, a balance we shouldn't upset too hastily. We have at the moment a team with the right chemistry. Over the last three results i think we have shown we can beat anyone on a given day. Where most people for a long time have called us too reliant on two players, no prizes for guessing which two, and be of the opinion that we should hopefully be in the position where we can add a single 'marquee' type player like Manchester United do each summer – i shared that opinion too, so it's a slightly ironic change of thinking that, once we are in that position, i believe quantity should be the focus. By that i don't mean quantity over quality. I mean consistent squad depth over the individual. Quality should apply in any transfer. We don’t need another ‘superstar’.
Guillem Balague was speaking on Sky Sports News the other day about Benitez's time in Valencia, and how he had a squad of players whom could each be relied upon to come in and give "7/10" performances – rotation being deployed very effectively. He later went on to say that Rafa has recognised the strength in depth at Liverpool isn't of the same standard, hence less rotating has taken place this season. Contrastingly, United have rotated fully all season and to no criticism. They have the depth to do so, whereas we do not. What is more, our substitutes bench at times this season has been pitiful. In recent weeks we have had sometimes two centre-back's on the bench, two left-backs, N'Gog as the only striker, players like Lucas and El Zhar as our main mode of impact during the match. Simply, it isn't nearly good enough. This is more of a problem than adding another 'star' who could risk upsetting the balance: a player who may become part of the furniture, in the vein of Torres and Gerrard. I believe our money would be better served buying 2 or 3 quality, consistent players than 1 exceptional player, in other words. We should be looking to bolster the excellent foundations we have already built upon through players such as Torres, Gerrard and Alonso. Those three are the only players i believe should remain constant mainstays of our offensive selection – the wide players should always rotate depending on match situation, in an ideal scenario, and the defensive midfielder and a second striker should alternate depending on opponent (thus modifying the formation from a 4-2-3-1 to something that encompasses two strikers).
I would ideally like us to sign three players. One central midfielder, one wide player, one forward; therein bolstering our options and depth in terms of players who are actually going to be highly influential in winning matches (i.e. avoiding those damn draws).
Firstly, with Gerrard operating more and more as a second-striker than a central midfielder, and indeed rightly so as he is at his best deployed further up field without the responsibility a central midfielder may have, we are left really with only two quality central midfielders: Alonso and Mascherano. I like Lucas, personally, i believe he has talent – but is he good enough to run the team from deep? If Alonso is injured, this is his role, and i think we have struggled in these circumstances at times. He has had some good games, Newcastle, PSV, even Manchester United were matches where he faired well. It is more so when both Gerrard and Alonso are injured, i'll admit. Mascherano will never control the midfield as he simply isn’t that sort of player, so great responsibility has lied on Lucas' shoulders this season as our next player in line almost. The main problem is that bringing in another player may stunt his growth and progression as a player – if we bring in someone capable of controlling the team, driving the team and negating the absence of Gerrard and/or Alonso, we effectively reduce Lucas to a replacement for Mascherano only. And, let's say, tackling is not his forte. The crunch question lies with whether we believe Lucas will step up next season and be good enough, or whether he will always struggle to make it in the robust English league? I'm not sure of the answer right now. A name in mind were we to buy in this area would be Gareth Barry, i suppose. (Although my actual main concern is more reports that Real Madrid may attempt to buy Xabi Alonso for £20m in the summer, rather than bringing someone else in.) This is a subjective judgment call. In terms of immediate success, i think Barry would be a wise acquisition - albeit only if we can acquire his services for a price in the region of £10m-£12m. Another possibility could be, as we are heavily linked, Raul Albiol. A possible replacement for Agger who can apparently play also in midfield, bolstering us in that position without having someone completely overshadow Lucas (as naturally he would be a centre-back).
Wide areas are simpler because it is unquestionable that we need to strengthen here in the summer. Note that i make the assumption, correctly or incorrectly, that Babel will be sold this summer – on the pretence that A) he has been woeful this season, our worst wide player, not nearly building on the hype of his first year, and B) he spoke publicly about wanting to return to Ajax on loan, rather than fight for his place, which is unlikely to ever go down well. Now, you get a lot of joy from the wide areas of the pitch; they are so influential. For me you have to treat them as a band of players who offer different things individually, but as a group cover everything you could want from a wide player. The key is that each player offers something different, which invokes variation in the team and a greater ability to influence the match with changes. (I believe this view is shared by Benitez due to the fact mostly our substitutes each game will include two wide players entering the pitch.)
- Dirk Kuyt: High tempo, hard-working player with natural centre-forward instincts who will offer a more obvious goal threat from wide.
- Yossi Benayoun: Dribbling his main asset, with excellent close control and ability to move forward with the ball at his feet. He can skillfully beat players comfortably.
- Albert Riera: Team-player. His superb first touch, control and ball retention, along with tactical awareness, benefits our possession-orientated strategy greatly.
- Nabil El Zhar: Natural wide player who will happily keep to the touchline and put crosses in to the penalty area, using skill and pace to reach the byline. Versatile though.
What we lack is someone with a high level of end product - somebody technically very good who can pass the ball through the eye of a needle. With our wide players cutting inside so frequently, this is an important attribute and amongst our other wide players something we don't exactly possess. I remember after the 2-1 defeat to Spurs it was discussed that we lack this sort of player, with the only man really capable of scything through a defence with a single ball being Alonso. And he plays a deep-lying playmaker role so seldom is in the position to do so. The other thing we arguably lack is pace, but i don't think this is that important – a player like Benayoun with close control is more important when beating a player than sheer pace, unless you are playing as an out-and-out winger, which we do not use. Our full-backs run the flanks so pace is not necessary where the inside attacking midfield type positions are concerned – we have a sufficient amount through Torres and Gerrard, both quick and powerful runners. I think from a perspective of gaining utmost creativity, Benayoun on the right who can dribble through defences and beat an opponent easily with skill, whilst having on the left someone with great vision, creativity, technique and passing ability would give us a great balance and variety to our attacks.
On the issue of our four wide players, in an ideal world we would have four players who could be rotated equally and each give very good performances, each offering something unique to the side. I'll add that although i will always support Kuyt vehemently, i don't think he should play every game – and, particularly, his effectiveness is dampened slightly by doing so. Against Portsmouth he showed how explosive he can be with the incredible tempo he plays at and the harassing of defenders. He battered and hurried the Pompey defenders into mistakes and was as influential as Torres was in that come-back. I believe using him less constantly would help keep his fitness levels to an optimum and hence make this highly effective aspect of his game, more consistent. All in all, the four players should belong on a par – in an ideal world.
Like our wide attacking midfield positions, we obviously need to strengthen the attack too. Our strike-force currently consists of: Torres, Kuyt, Babel and N'Gog. The former is obviously fine, Kuyt is a converted wide forward who isn't overly effective on his own, despite being comfortable enough as a two or behind someone like Torres, while i expect Babel to be sold and N'Gog is young. Buying Keane was heading in the right direction because we need extra firepower clearly. The person cannot be too good, or read too high profile, because essentially we have an already highly effective partnership in Gerrard and Torres, so bringing someone high profile like Villa or Benzema would not make sense because you would completely limit the opportunities for our current main men to play together. You would essentially be creating a new partnership, which isn't what we want to do. Clearly, however, Gerrard and Torres are better in certain game situations – matches in which teams actually attempt to play. They can be devastating together, but mainly because they are individually so powerful and quick, which combined together can prove overwhelming, and when teams come to play there is space to exploit behind their defence. I'd say 1/5 of teams come to play for something more than a draw at Anfield, 4/5’s play for something more than a draw when we come to them (because they have to, due to the pressure of their fans to attack). It works out about half-and-half. For that reason we should be looking for someone adept at partnering Torres, like Keane was (he was, and began to show it before Torres’ large injury spell from October ‘till January), but what is of even greater importance is that we have someone who can ‘hold the fort’ when Torres may be injured. That much stands to reason i think. This is the vital aspect Keane lacked.
Now, what sort of striker should we be looking towards? Personally, i think looking towards the 'target man' type player is pointless. And by how little Torres and Crouch were paired together, i don't believe we will go down this route. The reason i say this is, to be honest, our crossing can be really poor, or at least really inconsistent. Torres and Kuyt are talented aerially, without doubt, but they don't appear so by many people (as has been commented upon). Why? Because the quality of delivery is often substandard. If one of our full-backs or wide players plants the ball in Torres' vicinity, he has shown he can be ruthless in dispatching the ball into the back of the net – he is not weak in this aspect of play but is let down by the delivery. Buying a 6ft+ striker whose aerially superb would be pointless as he would have little to feed upon, even though it may seem the easier solution having watched us loft balls into the box from deep with only Robbie Keane waiting in the box to get onto the end of it. What i would prefer us to do is play to our strengths: keep the ball on the ground and up the tempo. Have our wide players play to the byline, turning deep defences on themselves and cutting back. To compliment this i think a striker with excellent movement is best – to create what i perceive to have been the intention when bringing in Keane, a fluid partnership with Torres in which the front two could roam... pull deep, go forward, drift into the channels. Roaming seamlessly. What we were guilty of against Stoke at Anfield was being too static, which against static defenders and organised defences makes the opposition's life so much easier; you have to work hard, drop deep to where there is space (as their plan is to compress the space behind their defence) and try and draw defenders out, making constant runs in and around the penalty area, from midfield as well. I think a higher quality player in the Keane ilk, someone with great intelligence, movement, finishing and, vitally, technique, to unhinge defences in tight situations – with our most creative players on the pitch, teams who don't have the intention on embarking into our half will not be able to live with that level of fluidity and technique for the whole game. Technique is key, because that’s what we lack in terms of first touch and close control (and why Torres and Gerrard are blistering against teams who play, yet are less effective against deep defences when they have little space to operate and everything becomes very tight). That’s what we have to aspire to. As i say, i think Keane was a right direction but not quite the correct player; notably because of the fact that Torres was out for so long and Keane was unable to accommodate that loss. Whoever we buy must, first and foremost, be comfortable on his own. I would perhaps argue that this rules out diminutive strikers, but perhaps if they have enough pace and intelligence it could work.
I look at it this way:
First names on the team-sheet:
Torres
Gerrard
Alonso
Wide options:
Kuyt, and/or
Benayoun, and/or
Riera, and/or
Playmaker X
Formation choice:
Mascherano (4-2-3-1), or
Striker X (4-2-2-2)
Torres, Gerrard and Alonso are the sole three players (speaking in terms of our midfield and frontline) that should be definite starters if fit. They are essential to the cause in any match. The defensive midfielder and striker should alternate depending on opposition and hence formation, much like happened between Mascherano and Keane. Then you have four individuals as wide options who each offer something different. After which, there are others: Lucas(/Barry), El Zhar, N’Gog, Nemeth. Ultimately a lot of the success hinges on the ability of the wide players to come in and give (at the least) "7/10" performances consistently.
I make a point of not namedropping because, by and large, i only consider myself knowledgeable (to the extent that i would tout a player as a future signing) on Liverpool players. They are after all the only players i watch each week. If you even only watch a player 5-10 times a season you can easily be misled. Not only this, it's kind of pointless – since, like, i have no say whatsoever on who we actually sign in the summer. Picking a name would only serve as a representation as i did in the previous page, to display my thoughts, because highlighting an individual player i would like us to sign would be highly frustrating if nothing else, given the likelihood of us by chance making that signing. I mention Barry only because of our obvious interest last summer.
All i can say is what type of player i think we should sign, what direction we should be veering towards.
