Liverpool Transfers: 7 Best Strikers Linked to Liverpool This January

It's no secret: Liverpool need a forward in the January transfer market to aid Luis Suarez in winning Premier League points for the Reds.

As ever, the global media have scoured for talent both near and far from Anfield in the hope of coming up with the name of the player—or players—Brendan Rodgers chooses to join his ranks and help his side up the league table.

Rumours of whom Liverpool were going to sign hit a new record this year as "targets" popped up within hours of the summer window closing, with out-of-contract players such as Michael Owen and Eidur Gudjohnsen named.

Needless to say none of that came to pass, but it is fairly evident the Reds need an injection of quality in the final third.

Here are the top seven strikers Liverpool have been linked with a move for so far—ranked purely in terms of their own ability, not in any order of how well they would fit or do, at Liverpool.

Tomer Hemed

A strong and hard-working forward, Tomer Hemed is a very different kind of forward to the other kinds that have appeared next to Liverpool in the media but still retains a potent goal threat.

The powerful Israeli has scored six times in 11 games for Mallorca this season, but is very much a centre-forward; he's not one to work down the flanks, exploit deeper pockets of space and the like.

Hemed is a good forward but not likely to be Rodgers' choice of striker, despite being linked with Liverpool recently.

Lacina Traore and Gary Hooper

At the lower-mid end of the scale, though certainly good professional strikers in their own right, are Celtic forward Gary Hooper and Anzhi Makhachkala striker Lacina Traore.

Liverpool have fleetingly been linked with both, though Traore is the more recent name to have cropped up after his match-winning goal against the Reds in the Europa League.

In truth, he does not seem as though he would fit particularly well at Liverpool, but he is a technical forward with good individual skills and, despite not being the best finisher around, has an impressive strike rate.

Traore only signed for Anzhi this summer, making a move seem unlikely.

Hooper has been a goal machine for Celtic and the rumours could merely be as a result of his agent looking for a new challenge for the striker, but his movement and finishing ability cannot be questioned.

Theo Walcott and Daniel Sturridge

These two English would-be central strikers have shown fleeting glimpses of talent yet feel frustrated at not being given the chance to show their true potential.

Liverpool have long been linked with transfer moves for both Arsenal's Theo Walcott and Chelsea's Daniel Sturridge.

Walcott has still not resolved his contract dispute with the Gunners and is out of contract at the end of this season, with Sturridge in a similar situation.

Both should be available for reasonable prices and share similar traits: pace, an eye for goal and ability to cut in off the flank—as well as both wanting increased game time in the centre of the pitch, where they feel their abilities are best served.

Either one could arguably go on to become a top No. 9 for club and country—time will tell if they get the chance to do that at Anfield.

Demba Ba

One of the Premier League's most free-scoring strikers is Newcastle United's Demba Ba, who is supposedly on the watch list of Brendan Rodgers.

Manager Alan Pardew has admitted that the forward's release clause of £7.5 million is active in January, making the possibility of the African striker moving on to pastures new a fairly big one.

Ba has pace, good technique, is strong in the air and above all scores goals—30 in 57 matches, in fact, since he joined the Premier League in January 2011.

Klaas-Jan Huntelaar

For longevity, reliability, reputation and making it at the highest level, Klaas-Jan Huntelaar is clearly the best forward that Liverpool have been linked with for the forthcoming transfer window.

Despite never quite being relied upon as a regular first choice, Huntelaar has banged in 34 goals for his native Holland—just half a dozen off the all-time record scorer, Patrick Kluivert—despite only making his debut for the Dutch national team six years ago.

Huntelaar has scored at a rate of 0.64 goals per game throughout his entire career, with Schalke being the latest recipient of his penalty-box prowess.

Underutilised at Real Madrid and AC Milan, that spell in his career still yielded 15 goals in 45 games; at Schalke in the Bundesliga he now has 40 in only 67.

Predatory, instinctive, two-footed and composed, Huntelaar is without doubt the highest quality out-and-out striker that Liverpool have been linked with a move for in January.

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