10 Key Factors to Take Liverpool Back to the Premier League Top Four in 2015/16
Liverpool's failure to secure a top-four finish in 2014/15 saw their campaign consigned to misery, and they must work to ensure a swift return back to the Premier League's upper echelons in 2015/16.
Manager Brendan Rodgers has much to do this summer, but how can he look to take Liverpool back to the top four in the upcoming campaign?
Here are 10 key factors, rounding off with the clear need to sign a top-class centre-forward.
Prepare for a Productive Pre-Season
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Rodgers has been given the backing of Liverpool's owners, Fenway Sports Group, after calls for his sacking at the end of 2014/15, but there is a lingering feeling he is one failure away from receiving his P45.
This is a position not made any more comfortable due to a significant unrest in the Anfield workings this summer.
Andy Hunter of the Guardian confirmed this month that both assistant manager Colin Pascoe and first-team coach Mike Marsh have been relieved of their duties, leaving Rodgers with a thin backroom at present.
With the Reds set to reconvene in the coming weeks for pre-season, Liverpool must ensure they can be fully prepared for a productive build-up by having everything in place before this time.
The signings of James Milner, Danny Ings and Adam Bogdan, all set to join on July 1, have gone one step in the right direction—this is a stark contrast to the mess of last summer's transfer activity, with many signings joining late into pre-season—but Liverpool need to continue this good work.
Replacing Pascoe and Marsh before pre-season, as well as continuing to strengthen the squad early, is key to Liverpool being able to prepare for a top-four charge in 2015/16.
Sign Nathaniel Clyne
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With the club announcing the summer departure of Glen Johnson via their official website, and the long-term futures of Javier Manquillo, Jon Flanagan and Andre Wisdom up in the air following various troubles with form and fitness, signing a right-back is a priority for Liverpool this summer.
Nathaniel Clyne should be the key target.
Neil Jones of the Liverpool Echo recapped this week how Liverpool had seen their initial £10 million bid for the Southampton man rejected, and suggested Manchester United were "expected to renew their interest" in his signing.
With United representing a major top-four rival next season, Liverpool cannot afford to lose out in the race to sign Clyne.
During his time with the Saints, Clyne has proven his top-level credentials and is now a regular England international; he is a ready-made solution to Rodgers' right-back woes.
With Southampton looking for a fee closer to £15 million, Liverpool must pay up to solidify their right defensive flank with the addition of Clyne this summer.
Steady the Defensive Ship
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"It’s not a case of needing to bring in another coach, a defensive coach or anything like that," Rodgers told James Pearce of the Liverpool Echo in October.
"I wouldn’t go down that route. The bottom line is our team is based on balance and at times it’s been poor. There is a collective responsibility to defend better and that’s what we have to do."
The manager was reacting to widespread calls to appoint a specialist defensive coach to arrest Liverpool's miserable defensive record—at that point having conceded 12 goals in eight Premier League games, keeping just one clean sheet in the process—but he decided it was a "lack of coaching time" that was the issue.
"Over the last 18 months we have seen the developments of this team given coaching time," he continued. "It’s really not rocket science."
Happily Liverpool did eventually improve, conceding eight goals and keeping eight clean sheets in a 13-match unbeaten run from mid-December to mid-March, but lapsed back into the slipshod shortly after.
With Liverpool's coaching time increasing on their departure from Europe in 2014/15, the problems with their defensive setup—Dejan Lovren charging forward while Martin Skrtel held the line, for one—endured.
Perhaps now is the time to appoint a defensive coach?
Sign a New Centre-Back
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The additions of Clyne and a defensive coach would go a long way to solving Liverpool's problems at the back.
But if they are to truly become a top-four challenging force, a new centre-back should also be signed this summer.
Complications in talks between the club and current central defensive mainstay Martin Skrtel this summer, after he told Slovakian newspaper Aktualne (h/t This is Anfield) their current appearance-based offer was "unacceptable," suggests he may well not be in Rodgers' long-term thinking in defence.
This summer, Liverpool should be ambitious and look to upgrade on the oft-calamitous and perilously limited Skrtel.
Atletico Madrid's former Southampton loanee Toby Alderweireld would be the ideal option, while Marseille's Nicolas N'Koulou would also be a welcome upgrade on the 30-year-old.
Sign a Defensive Midfielder
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In order to be successful, the modern Premier League side needs a defensive midfielder, a player who can break up play with an intelligent use of aggression and strength, and build from their station just in front of the back line with simple passes.
This is one of the main reasons why, as Graham Ruthven explained for Bleacher Report this month, Arsenal will be title challengers next season.
The decision to promote Francis Coquelin to the first team was an inspired one by Arsene Wenger, and the Frenchman has shored up a previously leaky Gunners side with his perceptive, tenacious play.
Liverpool must follow suit before they're eclipsed by Arsenal, as well as Michael Carrick's United, Nemanja Matic's Chelsea, Nabil Bentaleb's Tottenham Hotspur, Victor Wanyama's Southampton and the likely blossoming Fernando's Manchester City.
Lucas Leiva is Liverpool's only defensive-midfield option at present and, at 28 years old, with depreciating mobility and regular injury issues, he must be upgraded this summer.
Lighten the Load on Philippe Coutinho
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Philippe Coutinho became Liverpool's very best player during the 2014/15 campaign.
The 23-year-old Brazilian was Rodgers' chief playmaker, their attacking metronome and arguably their only game-changing player; Liverpool heavily on Coutinho, along with the departing Steven Gerrard.
Of course, very few players can maintain genuine, exceptional consistency throughout an entire season, and at times in 2014/15 Coutinho faded into the periphery—the load was too heavy for the No. 10 to carry alone.
As he is currently shining in Dunga's new-look Brazil squad, largely thanks to the support of the hardworking Willian, it is clear Coutinho is at his best in a collective.
Prompted by Gerrard's move to LA Galaxy, Liverpool must sign players that can lessen the burden on Coutinho's shoulders, in terms of winning matches and providing a vital creative flourish, if they are to challenge in 2015/16.
This can be aided by the acquisition of one widely rumoured target...
Sign Mateo Kovacic
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"Liverpool? I've signed new contract some months ago and I want to stay here," Inter Milan midfielder Mateo Kovacic is quoted this month, by Sky Sports' Fabrizio Romano. "100%? Right now, yes. But [you can] never say never."
A response to the reported interest of Liverpool this summer, such as Gazzetta dello Sport's (h/t the Express) tenuous suggestion that a £16.6 million deal has been agreed, Kovacic's words of transient commitment were suffixed with the kind of caveat that can spur the debate of a fandom for an entire summer.
By acknowledging that, in football, you can never say never, Kovacic will likely have fuelled speculation over his future for the long term.
If he truly is a target for the Reds, this would be the kind of signing that can propel Liverpool towards the top four in 2015/16; he is a majestic dribbler, a tough tackler, a blossoming creative talent and a midfielder with the potential to score 10 goals a season.
Kovacic is the kind of player who can help support the inspirational Coutinho in 2015/16.
Adequately Replace Raheem Sterling...If He Leaves
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Just as Kovacic may have signalled a summer-long saga following links with Liverpool, Raheem Sterling's desire to depart Merseyside ahead of 2015/16 looks set to be a long and drawn-out process of agonising discussion.
Most recently, Liverpool are said to have turned down an initial £25 million bid from Manchester City for the 20-year-old European Golden Boy, with Simon Stone of BBC Sport suggesting the Reds value him at double that.
Rarely is a player kept at a club against his wishes, with the potentially poisonous results of another season or two of Sterling under Rodgers too much of a risk for Liverpool, and the likelihood is that he will leave.
Liverpool's £50 million valuation is a testament to Sterling's current quality, and his immense potential—he could well become one of the best players in world football, under the right tutelage.
As such, if Sterling is to leave, he must be replaced—Liverpool cannot risk another deflating season like their post-Luis Suarez slump in 2014/15.
Any of Bayer Leverkusen's Heung-Min Son, Borussia Dortmund's Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Dynamo Kyiv's Andriy Yarmolenko could compensate for the loss of Sterling and help Liverpool to the top four.
Negotiate the Waning Fitness of Daniel Sturridge
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"[Daniel Sturridge is] not fit and once he can show that consistency and fitness, you can see in his performance level that it’s a high one. But obviously he has missed a lot of the season so we need to assess it," Rodgers told Andy Hunter of the Guardian in April.
"We have to hope with Daniel that this year was just an unlucky season and he can come back super-fit and super-strong because he has an immense talent. You can’t argue with that. He can be as good as any striker in the world with his talent," he later continued.
Rodgers' words highlight a desperate hope on Merseyside that Sturridge, Liverpool's star striker and primary goalscorer, will arrest his prolonged injury issues in 2015/16.
But, having made just 12 league appearances in 2014/15, and set to miss pre-season while he recovers from hip surgery this summer, this could be a struggle.
Sturridge is not a player who can be fully relied upon as a first-choice centre-forward—Liverpool need to negotiate his waning fitness with a carefully structured fitness and training regime next season.
He can return to glory, but he needs help.
Sign a Top-Class Centre-Forward
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As Rodgers continued his assessment of Sturridge's fitness, he included a thinly veiled criticism of his availability: "I need [a striker] that is going to be playing and at a top level every week."
Liverpool cannot rely on Sturridge to be a week-in, week-out goalscorer due to his fitness issues, so a top-class centre-forward signing should be a top priority this summer.
Roundly reported target Christian Benteke is not the answer, however.
Instead, Rodgers must turn his attention to a more experienced, suitable option than the languid Belgian, and if a target man is his preferred specification this summer, a move for Manchester City's Edin Dzeko would be advised.
Dzeko has been mooted as a potential makeweight in City's attempts to bring Sterling to the Etihad Stadium this summer, by Paul Joyce of the Express, and the Bosnian would represent a great alternative to Sturridge at Anfield.
A proven goalscorer, capable of performing in a pace-based system despite his tall frame, Dzeko could help Liverpool back to the Premier League's top four in 2015/16.
Statistics via WhoScored.com and Squawka.com.
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