Liverpool Need to Be Bold, Swift and Decisive in the Summer Transfer Window
After Steven Gerrard scored another point-salvaging goal for Liverpool in Sunday's 1-1 draw with Chelsea at Stamford Bridge, the Reds captain offered some words of warning to the club's owners—that they must spend significantly over the summer to progress.
"[The Champions League] has been the aim all season, but we have come up a bit short. It’s important owners try and dig deep and help Brendan and the lads out and try and make some additions and try and improve," he said post-match, as reported by Ian Doyle of the Liverpool Echo.
TOP NEWS
Madrid Fines Players $590K 😲
'Mbappé Out' Petition Gaining Steam 😳
Star-Studded World Cup Ad 🤩
"There is a great core of players here with terrific potential and the future is looking all right.
"But it is important that you try and compete with the giants clubs in the league because they are all going to spend big and this league is getting more and more difficult every year."
Gerrard's key statement: "The future is looking all right. But..."
With the 34-year-old midfielder leaving the club this summer to join MLS franchise L.A. Galaxy after a 17-year spell on Merseyside, Gerrard's words represent a forewarning to the club he holds so dear—this summer is a crucial one for the Reds.
The Need to Strengthen
Gerrard's departure is one of many expected at Anfield this summer, in what seems a now-customary post-season clear-out.
Joining the captain on the contract-expiry list are goalkeeper Brad Jones, centre-back Kolo Toure and right-back Glen Johnson—all experienced players set to leave Liverpool.
Elsewhere, the sales of Jose Enrique, Rickie Lambert, Mario Balotelli and Fabio Borini are to be expected, as well as those of current loanees Iago Aspas, Sebastian Coates and Luis Alberto, with a host of others also on the periphery and likely available.
These departures, while mostly representing a necessary culling of unsuitable squad players, will deplete an already weak squad.
Jones, Toure, Johnson, Enrique, Gerrard and the Lambert-Balotelli-Borini trio point to areas in Rodgers' squad that need bolstering this summer—goalkeeper, centre-back, right-back, left-back, central midfield and centre-forward should be made priorities in the transfer window.
Gerrard's salient "but," after praising the squad's potential, should suggest one thing to the club: He is leaving.
Rodgers needs to be bold and strengthen his dilapidated squad with experienced, first-team options in each of these areas to help the relatively inexperienced core of Simon Mignolet (27), Mamadou Sakho (25), Alberto Moreno (22), Javier Manquillo (21), Emre Can (21), Jordan Henderson (24), Joe Allen (25), Raheem Sterling (20), Jordon Ibe (19), Lazar Markovic (21) and Daniel Sturridge (25) next season.
And with this warning shot coming before the season's end, it's clear he must do so quickly.
Acting Early
Last summer, the majority of Liverpool's signings came after lengthy negotiations, with many not provided the pre-season bedding-in process that is arguably necessary to truly assimilate into a squad and the systems of the manager.
Only Lambert, Can, Markovic and Adam Lallana joined before Liverpool's first pre-season friendly—an away clash with Danish side Brondby IF on July 16—with Markovic arriving just a day prior to that date.
Moreno and Manquillo, two signings that were ostensibly made to bolster Rodgers' first team in areas (left-back and right-back) that were in dire need of strengthening, both joined the club in August, along with Balotelli.
In September, Rodgers praised the young Spaniards, via the club's official website:
""Both were brought in because they can defend. Young Javi at right-back is only 20 years of age, but he's like a rash. He's all over attackers and he's hard to beat. He gets forward well and he wants to create.
"
"Young Alberto Moreno is the same. He's 22 years of age. He can defend. He's quick on the recovery and I think everyone has seen his pace and his quality going forward.
"They'll adapt more to this level and the league itself and the physicality of the league, they are only going to get better. But in the meantime, they are two real terrific young guys, who have settled well into the club.
"They are loving their life in Liverpool and they are really enjoying their football. As time goes by, they will improve with that."
Jump forward eight months, to Stamford Bridge, and neither are in Rodgers' starting lineup, with Moreno on the substitutes' bench and Manquillo failing to make the matchday squad. The impression is that the manager still doesn't trust the pair, with out-of-position Johnson and Can preferred.
This summer, for Rodgers to implement his ideas and for his new charges to settle into the club, signings must be made early—preferably before their pre-season tour begins in mid-July.
Encouragingly, the club are seemingly attempting to do so, as the ultimately damned pursuit of Manchester United-bound PSV Eindhoven winger Memphis Depay, as reported by Lyall Thomas of Sky Sports, underlines.
Liverpool must continue this forthright approach and get things done early.
Focus on the Future
Gerrard's words aren't entirely foreboding, of course. His assertion that Rodgers possesses a "great core of players [with] terrific potential" points to a bright future for the Reds.
After the draw with Chelsea, the Liverpool manager should be planning for a bold, swift and decisive summer in the transfer market, but he also must map the futures of the high-potential core he already has in his squad.
With Liverpool having now consolidated a fifth-placed league finish, and with very little hope of finishing fourth, the upcoming clashes with Stoke City and Crystal Palace represent an opportunity for Rodgers.
In these ties, he must embed the youthful core to which he will add over the summer.
The Premier League debut of 18-year-old striker Jerome Sinclair on Sunday points toward this, with the Academy product a more suitable, long-term option for the Reds than Balotelli, Lambert or Borini.
Moreno, Manquillo and Markovic must all come back in, with Can moving into his natural role in midfield; Sterling, Ibe and Coutinho must continue focal roles, too.
Gerrard's words include a nod to the high-potential skeleton within Rodgers' Liverpool squad, but the manager and the club's owners must listen to their departing stalwart and flesh this out swiftly with high-quality additions in the transfer market.
.jpg?w=600 "Colts Release Kenny Moore")
