Liverpool Football Club today announced that the takeover bid by Dubai Investment Capital was very near to being finalised. The timing of this could be very important for the clubs ability to mount a serious league title challenge for next season.
The squad as it stands today is not a million miles away from being able to give Man utd and Chelsea a run for their money.
Why the timing is so important is because we very badly need some players in some key positions and in reality if we are going to be a threat to the other contenders for the league next season it would be a massive advantage to be able to bring these players in now in the January transfer window.
Liverpool have been a transition club from the day Gerard Houlier took over, right up to the present day Benitez era, we have been playing catch up in all these years to Man utd and Chelsea.
Every year we have had to improve our squad with a lot of players coming in each summer and it has cost us dearly. Each season we have had to get a lot of players to settle in all at once. And it shows in our season stats we are a team that starts the first half of the season badly and finish the second half strongly. Ok this is not our only reason for poor starts, inferior players that our budget forced us to buy had a hand in it.
Next season could be very different, the premiership is the hardest league in the world and probably the hardest to get used to, so if we can our new signings get accustomed to life in the prem this season by the start of next season we should have a very strong team that is capable to get of to a running start.
Defence is very good as Carragher and co have got real stingy in giving goals away, but we still have the problem that has haunted us for the last couple of seasons, putting the ball in the oppositions net.
Even though we have the majority of possession in most games including against the bigger teams we lack the creativity and the natural goal finishing instincts of a young Robbie Fowler at his prime.
Up front Dirk Kuyt is the closest we have to a 20 prem goals a season man, but i think he is having to play a little out of position further back trying to create chances for other players. The Bolton came was a perfect example, he set up the 2 first goals from a position between midfield and the forward line. Kuyt can do this but as he showed in that same game when the game loosened up and we could afford him to go further forward he scored the third and he is deadly once he gets a sniff of a goal. But we also need a striker who is more selfish and is only concerned with putting the ball in the back of the net.
But the main positions we need to fill are the wings, we really need world class quality there, at the moment we have Pennant who can send in an amazing amount of crosses in a game, but sadly most of them bad and he seems very unwilling to cut into the centre and run at defences Gonzalez on the other side seems very lightweight for the prem, but he is going through our normal problem, settling in time. Maybe he will settle in but as the months go on it seems more unlikely.
But the main problem with these 2 players is they really dont offer the attacking creativity that we are lacking. A fit Harry Kewell would be a very interesting prospect but Liverpool cannot afford to gamble on his fitness, so we must buy 2 world class wingers and if we can get them now, next season could be a whole new ballgame for Liverpool Football club.
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