Liverpool Squad Status

Dear all,

Firstly a brief introduction to this blog - my name's Dan Walsh, a professional musician but also an extremely passionate Liverpool fan. I blog regularly on my official website http://www.danwalshbanjo.co.uk/ but have always been a keen football writer as well so I thought a seperate blog just devoted to football would be a good idea so here it is. Obviously it will be about Liverpool a great deal, but by no means exclusively.

Anyway here we go then. To start I'd like to give my assessment on Liverpool's season thus far. I confess to having had very mixed reactions to the close season spending spree. The overriding reaction of everyone seemed to be that Liverpool were now an amazing side and in contention for the title and I thought this was hysterical to say the least. Our squad certainly improved, but at vast expense and I felt that we signed a lot of average players for extortionate fees. But that said, we do have a better squad than we did and some of the signings are looking good while others have struggled.

My view of the squad as it stands:

Goalkeepers - well not much to be done here provided we can keep hold of the main main Pepe Reina who is indisputably the finest goalkeeper we have had since Bruce Grobelaar and arguably since Ray Clemence for he has the agility and attack-minded approach of the former but the consistency and reliability of the latter.

Defence - this for me is where we still need reinforcement. Jose Enrique has been arguably, apart from Suarez, the best signing of the Dalglish era and would appear to have solved the nagging left back problem which had been there since the loss of form of Riise. Martin Kelly is an outstanding defender already with great potential and would be my first choice right back and does an accomplished job at left back. Young John Flanagan is also a bright prospect though a tad erratic at present. Glen Johnson I have never been a great fan of as a full back for the simple reason that he can't defend, but there's no denying he's a weapon going forward and perhaps a good choice in home games against teams who are likely to park the bus.

My big concern is in the middle of defence. Dear old Carra is nothing short of a Liverpool legend and I'm not one of those clamouring for his immediate and permanent axing. But I am aware his best days are over and he is increasingly error prone. He should remain a great squad member, but the reliability on him as our defensive lynchpin in the way Vidic is for United or Terry is for Chelsea cannot remain as it is. Agger, I rate highly but he is injury prone and not quite defensively sound enough to be that reliable world class defender. Skrtel is solid and a good backup but for me not up to this standard either. Coates I assume was signed to be that player but I'm not too impressed so far although of course he deserves a chance to prove himself in a different league. In conclusion, a Hyypia-esque defender is vital to our success!

Midfield - I was bewildered at the start of the season as to how many central midfielders we had at the start of the season! Gerrard, Lucas, Aquilani, Adam, Henderson, Spearing, Joe Cole and Meireles were all in the squad and all, to admittedly varying degrees, with a reasonable right to expect an appearance. However, three have gone so I guess Kenny had it reasonably worked out. Gerrard of course is Gerrard, the greatest player Liverpool have had since Dalglish but his injury problems have given a chance to others this season. Adam has been mixed, the odd impressive performance but I have a nagging doubt as to his ability to really step up to the mark although he would remain a useful squad player. I never thought I'd hear myself say this, but Lucas is pretty much undroppable now and a vital player. Henderson was the summer signing I understood least - he seemed ludicrously expensive for a largely unproven player in a position we already seemed to have but he has performed reasonably well. In my opinion, he works best as a central midfielder in the same sort of vein as Lucas rather than the right wing role he seems to often play where I think his lack of creativity is exposed. Spearing I've always liked and I think is a cracking player with his passion, range of passing and workrate. So in the middle there are a fair few options it's fair to say.

On the wings, I do think we lack something. For me, Kuyt goes back in every time and is a vital vital player. So that's the right sorted but in terms of backup Henderson, as I've said is better in the middle and Maxi, on other side, for me is ineffective despite his surprising flurry of goals towards the end of last season. Downing has been a disappointment so far although again I thought we vastly overspent on him to start with. He is an average Premiership winger, a good crosser and no-one can fault his workrate but really lacks creativity and inspiration in my opinion. I don't want to dismiss the lad, but he's been in the Premiership a long time and plays in England's long standing problem position and still there isn't exactly a clamour for him to have the left wing role there. For all Kuyt's stirring qualities I think a trickier, more inventive winger to counter him would be a good buy.

Strikers - Well Suarez has of course been a massive success. Carroll is an interesting case - I certainly wouldn't have signed him and he was signed for a truly obscene amount of money. I believe he's limited, a reasonable but not clinical finisher although he has the obvious aerial prowess. His work rate sometimes leaves something to be desired though and at present I'm far from convinced. I was shocked at the re-signing of Bellamy but he's a bit of a bargain with his work rate, nuisance factor and solid finishing/passing. Another striker, of the young and pacy variety wouldn't go a miss I think but time will tell.

So that's my view of the squad at the moment. I'll be posting game ratings and reports as each game comes.