Now that we’ve tied Rodgers down to a new deal keeping him with us until 2018, the next step has to be reinforcing our squad for next season.

The first thing we have to remember is that we will be playing a high number of games now that we’re in the champions league, and I have my doubts as to whether or not the likes of Steven Gerrard will be able to slog out around 60 games at his age. This makes quality reinforcements critical, and our success next season will depend greatly on how well we expand our squad to meet the challenges next season will bring.

In the next 3 articles, I will run an analysis over our current squad and suggest improvements for the areas of midfield, attack and defence. Today, I shall start with the midfield.

Just for clarification, I want to point out that this is written under the impression that we may be using the 4-4-2 diamond regularly next season. Obviously our needs may change if we decide to play a different formation.

This is going to be one of the most critical parts of our transfer window if we’re to play the diamond next season. Our current crop of players that fit this formation are Gerrard, Henderson, Allen, Lucas with Sterling appearing at the tip of the diamond and Coutinho appearing at the tip whilst also being played deeper at times.

Rodgers has expressed his desire to bring in multifunctional players that can play a variety of positions this summer. I believe this is a cost-effective way of improving our squad, meaning that when injuries inevitably hit us, we’ll have players ready to fill into the positions that are vacant.

The Dream Signing





Javi Martinez has expressed his disappointment about his season under Pep Guardiola at Bayern Munich, and has since been linked to Liverpool – along with a host of other clubs – for a price of around 30m. I know this is a long shot, but if he is at all interested in leaving then there is no harm in at least trying for his signature. A dominant midfielder that could play in Gerrard’s deep-lying playmaker role, a defensive midfielder as well as either box-to-box positions on each side of the diamond. He’d even offer flexibility through his ability to play in centre back, which would make him an ultra-versatile signing for us. Martinez would add some steel to our midfield and would be a genuine world-class addition to our squad.

Watch:

The Prodigies

Whilst the likes of Javi Martinez may be a distant pipe-dream, it’s far more reasonable to expect that we will go for young, versatile midfielders.

Emre Can is a midfielder we have already been linked heavily to. Can is only 20 years old and is currently situated at Leverkusen, after leaving Bayern Munich (but not before they inserted a buy-back clause!). Versatility is definitely one of this player’s strengths, having shown the ability to play at both fullback positions, DM, CM and CAM. Fans across Germany have already likened his style of play to none other than Bastian Schweinsteiger, having exhibited his strength on the ball whilst also showing off how skilled he is with the ball at his feet. This is another player that could basically play at any part of the diamond if required, but mainly in the deepest position or to either side. He’d also fit in very well in any type of 3-man midfield formation we may play at any point too. Whilst we’ve been linked to him for the last few weeks, the tricky part seems to be two conflicting clauses within his contract – a buy-back option for Bayern Munich and a buy-out clause for any international club. Whilst the outcome of this transfer remains to be seen, Tony Barrett of The Times claimed only a few days ago that a major breakthrough had been made in Liverpool’s pursuit for this player.

For only £12m, I believe this would be a fantastic signing and a player Brendan Rodgers could definitely turn into quite a gem for us.

Matteo Kovacic is an extremely talented midfielder currently plying his trade at Inter Milan, and one of my favourite young midfielders out there. Kovacic is a phenomenal passer of the ball, often displaying his ability to execute passes in a metronomic fashion whilst also showing off some absolutely killer passes at the top end of the pitch. Aside from his passing and vision, Kovacic also possesses the ability to glide past opposing players, sometimes with relative ease. Various reports indicate that Inter would sell for a fee ranging between £12m and £15m, which I think represents fantastic value. He’s arguably Gerrard’s long term replacement at deep-lying playmaker, but could also be crafted into a world class no.10 – that’d be a good kind of headache for Rodgers and definitely one he should consider.

The “DM Problem”

Anyone who followed the transfer speculation in January would agree that the type of player known as the “defensive midfielder” quickly became the theme of the month, where a variety of players in that mould were linked to the club – Yann M’Vila was even pictured at Goodison park watching the derby with the away fans. As we all know, that window lead to absolutely nothing and no defensive midfielder of any sort was purchased. We’ve definitely lacked a tough tackler since the days of Mascherano, Lucas was never quite that type of player and I still feel that one is necessary.

I’d like to clarify something that I often hear fans say, and that is the notion that Gerrard has become a defensive midfielder. This is just incorrect – it is actually Henderson that is the de facto defensive midfielder in our set up, usually doing the bulk of all defensive duties himself with his incredible work ethic. What I’m saying is: just because Gerrard is the deepest midfielder, it doesn’t make him a defensive midfielder. In our set up he is the deep-lying playmaker, or the “Pirlo role”, with runners either side of him.

Having said all that, I feel that having someone who’s good at shielding the back line would greatly help the defensive side of the team. I think there’ll be many games next season where defensive solidarity from the midfield, particularly in Europe, will be key. I think signing Emre Can would go some way to fixing that problem, for what it’s worth.

What names could we look at?

Yann M’Vila

Lars Bender

Fernando Reges

…. and obviously Javi Martinez

The Attackers

These are the players that are just in the team for one purpose, and that’s to sit at the tip of the diamond scoring goals or creating them.

Roberto Firmino was a revelation for Hoffenheim last season. 22 goals and 15 assists in all competitions whilst pulling off a variety of man of the match performances against top teams. Firmino’s ability to tackle is also overlooked, and he’s a unique player in this sense – there aren’t many advanced midfielders who have decent defensive attributes, and I believe this would go well in the Premier League. Despite signing a new contract last season, he has a reported £18m buyout clause, which represents great value as he’s only 22 years of age and will only get better with each passing season.

Ivan Rakitic is another player I feel we should look at. The Croatian excelled last season at Sevilla, scoring 15 goals and assisting another 14 in all competitions. A very skilled attacker who scored some great goals for Sevilla last season. Reports indicate that Sevilla are holding out for €25m for one of their most prized possessions, however their failure to make the Champions League this season casts doubts over whether they will be able to command such a fee .

Why No Lallana?

Reading this article, you may be wondering why I haven’t mentioned Adam Lallana once. This is because I feel that signing him for anything more than £15m would be a huge mistake. I could probably dedicate another article to this, but I’ll keep it brief.

Firstly, he’s 26 and isn’t going to get a lot better than he currently is. In terms of output, he had very similar stats to that of Sterling (who is 7 years younger!) having played the same positions throughout the season, both scored 9 goals with Lallana only creating 1 more goal than the youngster. While someone may be quick to say “he played in a lesser team, put him at Liverpool and he’ll do better”, I’m not entirely sure this will be the case. At Southampton, he gets to play in front of two holding midfielders (Wanyama and Schneiderlin) who do the entirety of the defensive dogwork in what is one of the best double-pivots in the league. This is not a luxury he’d be afforded at Liverpool, we don’t play a formation that involves two holding midfielders, nor do we have the personnel that would allow us to do so. To put it into perspective, I feel that Coutinho would have done a better job (in terms of goals/assists) at Southampton than Lallana did. Ironically, Pochettino wanted to sign Coutinho last January to play the exact role Lallana did this season.

I also feel that we should “err on the side of caution” when it comes to signing one-season-wonders. It just reminds me so much of the Downing transfer. Not saying he’d be as bad as Downing, but last season he struggled to make the first team consistently before making an impact this season.

To clarify, I think Lallana is a good player and was excellent last season. I just think there are better players we can spend £20-£30m on than him.

Who To Sell?

Sadly, I think that the time has come for fan favourite Lucas Leiva to leave the club. The decline in his abilities exhibited over the last few years is clear for all to see, and I just don’t think he’ll be making the top level anymore – which means it’s time to either bring in another starter or a young player with potential. I could write another article on why I believe to be the case, if you would all like.

Other than that, I think we could accommodate about 3 new midfielders, provided they have the ability to play a variety of positions.

As a side note:

I think given that we have Coutinho, Sterling and Suso coming back who can all play that no.10 role, I think it’s important that we sign players who have the ability to play the deeper sides to the midfield as well as advanced. We should at least prioritise those players in my view anyway.

Well, there we go! What do you guys think? Have I overlooked anyone? Let me know in the comments below.

In case you ask, I will be including the likes of Shaqiri (and other wingers) in the next summer transfer window article (attackers), followed by the all-important defenders article to end the series.

Don’t forget to follow me on Twitter! I’d love to get some discussions going with Liverpool fans across the world.