Liverpool Need a Striker in Summer, but Radamel Falcao Is Not the Answer

It's an international break, which means the sports pages need content, hence rumours such as Radamel Falcao on loan to Liverpool next season appearing on the back pages on Tuesday.

Simon Jones writes for MailOnline how "Liverpool will be offered the chance to sign Manchester United flop Radamel Falcao on loan this summer."

He adds that "Liverpool will not make any decision on a potential move until their Champions League fate is determined."

Meanwhile, following on from their publicity stunt last week linking Zlatan Ibrahimovic to Anfield, bookmaker Ladbrokes have released a press release on how Liverpool are among the favourites to sign the Colombian, as reported by the Express.

This is literally a case of two plus two equalling five. The rumour mill formula of "club needs a striker, striker needs a club, club used to be interested in said striker" is being perfectly followed.

Liverpool, of course, were interested in Falcao last summer before he headed off to join rivals Manchester United on a season-long loan worth a reported £16 million (per the Guardian).

At 29 years old, on a reported £19,000 per week, having failed to impress in the Premier League—exactly why on earth would Liverpool be remotely interested in Falcao?

Liverpool

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It is, however, fair to say that Liverpool will be needing to sign striker(s) this summer. It's more than fair to say that there's a very good chance that the trio of Rickie Lambert, Fabio Borini and Mario Balotelli will head for the Anfield exit, leaving only injury-prone Daniel Sturridge and makeshift Raheem Sterling as Brendan Rodgers' forward options, plus the arrival of loanee Divock Origi.

Origi, Sturridge and Sterling are far from enough quality and depth for Liverpool to enter next season.

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The Reds are already goal-shy this season—only Southampton of the current top seven in the Premier League have scored fewer—and need to be adding to their attacking output.

Of course, there's the potential arrival of Danny Ings, a move which looks "more and more likely" according to the Liverpool Echo's James Pearce (h/t This Is Anfield).

Nonetheless, Ings, Sturridge, Sterling and Origi—none of those you would expect to hit 20-plus goals in a season (Sturridge maybe, but his injury record makes that questionable).

So Liverpool certainly need a goalscorer, ideally a proven one. But given the club's desire to sign young, often unproven players, that seems unlikely. 

Goals

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Much has been made of Liverpool's improved form since mid-December and the change in formation, but the goalscoring output has not really improved with this, only that they've stopped conceding so many sloppy goals due to now employing a back three.

The fact that it's late March and Liverpool don't have a single player with 10 league goals to their name underlines their issue this season. The joint-top Premier League goalscorers are Steven Gerrard and Raheem Sterling with six each. Only Swansea City, Crystal Palace and Sunderland have a top goalscorer for the season on fewer goals.

Hull City's Nikola Jelavic has more (eight), as does Leicester City's Leonardo Ulloa (seven).

After sorting out the defence, it's the attack that needs attention.

That could be aided by either pairing Balotelli alongside Sturridge or returning Sterling to a more central role—either alongside Sturridge up front or behind him alongside Philippe Coutinho.

Liverpool need a goalscorer up front, but they also need goals to start arriving from elsewhere.

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In pre-season, Rodgers set Jordan Henderson the target of 10 goals this season (per The Independent), but despite his recent headline heroics against Manchester City and Burnley, he still only has six for the campaign (five in the league).

Joe Allen and Lucas Leiva have none. Wing-backs Jordon Ibe, Lazar Markovic and Alberto Moreno have five between them. Coutinho only has five, the same as Adam Lallana.

These players need to be contributing more goals between them. Liverpool need two midfielders getting 10-plus goals each campaign, plus centre-backs who contribute from set pieces—Skrtel's seven last season has dropped to just one so far this campaign.

Perhaps Liverpool have stopped the problem of their fragile defence but created another issue with a blunt attack?

That needs addressing this summer, but one thing is for sure—Radamel Falcao isn't any part of the answer.