Peter Crouch Out... Who's coming in?

With the imminent departure of Peter Crouch to Portsmouth, Rafa Benitez now needs to add a striker to the Liverpool squad. Crouch has been a good player for Liverpool, sure he started with a dry spell but more often than not he looked a threat to the opposition.

He was frozen out last season due to the amazing success of Fernando Torres, who showed that he is one of a few strikers in the world who can lead the attacking line on his own! The only possible problem I see, lies with the formation that Benitez will choose to play, the 4-5-1 was almost stumbled upon last season and Steven Gerrard played a huge part in making it successful, his intelligence and attacking instincts worked perfectly with Torres, the style suited them both.

I believe Gerrard needs to be moved back into a more central role however to really make his influence and leadership count. This frees up a role as either a supporting striker or a strike partner for Torres.

Already at the club we have Andriy Voronin, he hasn't set the world alight and I can only imagine more bit part appearances for him. Ryan Babel is predominantly a winger but many people feel he can play the striker role, I personally prefer him as a winger though.

Dirk Kuyt hasn't made the impact we expected in goal scoring terms but has managed to get his name on the team sheet by working very very hard, his work rate is astonishing at times but we paid over £10m for a striker, which we haven't quite gotten!

The press has been littered with stories about possible signings, some good and some bad... some just ridiculous. Robbie Keane's name has been mentioned this last week as being interested in a move, another boyhood fan who would no doubt thrive at our club. His price may be a stumbling block and Spurs would be very foolish to let him leave having already sold Defoe and Berbatov non-committal to anything, I doubt the Keane move will happen.

David Villa would be out of our price range unfortunately, he's a player we'd all love to see come in but again I don't see it happening. So where do we look? The best strikers around all seem to be in the Premier League, the best of the La Liga and Serie A may be hard to pry away from their clubs.

Samuel Eto'o looks certain to leave Barca so he will undoubtedly be linked with us, but I don't think he fits the shape of our team very well at all, he plays in a similar style to Torres and his addition would disrupt the balance. Euro 2008 didn't really show me anything I didn't already know with regards to strikers either.

As you can tell by the way this is going, there aren't many options out there! Which makes me think Rafa will try to spend the cash on a right sided winger. This will no doubt leave Dirk Kuyt on the bench as cover for Torres should the worst happen (God help us if it does!).

David Silva has been talked about but I fear he's too slight for the Premier League, he has great talent but I'm not sure he'd be a success over here where the refs aren't as protective. Ricardo Quaresma is another name brought up from time to time, but he is way too inconsistent to spend any large sum of cash on.

So as the start of the season approaches we should consider how the team will take shape, below is how I think it will look, with Gerrard slightly less advanced and the wingers acting as support for Torres. Mascherano and Barry will need to be clever enough to cover the areas left by the wingers as and when it's needed.

------------------------------------Reina----------------------------------------

Carragher-----------Agger--------------------Skrtel--------------------Dossena

-----------------------Mascherano----------Barry-------------------------------

---------------------------------Gerrard----------------------------------------

New Winger---------------------------------------------------------------Babel

----------------------------------Torres-----------------------------------------

I wait with excitement now to see who Rafa will bring in, I really believe it will be a winger, either right or left considering Babel can play on both wings. Gareth Barry will be with us soon and I get the feeling Steve Finnan will be leaving as part of that deal, which is why Carragher will more than likely find himself at right back.

I don't see Degen as anything other than a squad player, Dossena should be straight into the team now Riise has left for Roma.

I'd like to say a huge thanks to Crouchy, he did all he could for us and proved the doubters wrong! YNWA!

Please discuss who you'd like to see Rafa bring in, remember we are working to a budget though!