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| photo by steve |
- by Cole O'Brien, writing from Coeur d'Alene, Idaho
We can't let ourselves get carried away with this new Liverpool squad that has only been strengthened over the summer transfer window. Is a berth in the Champion's League enough? After all, it is the official goal of the club. Then again, there are those that believe The Reds are genuine title contenders for the new season, and then there are the naysayers who believe Suarez and co. can only clench fifth place this season. Perspective is something that seems to have truly been cast aside when we all dream of the things Liverpool can accomplish this season. To the surprise of none, it is the media who have made it appear as if Liverpool will coast through the season without much problem. Let's face it, while Arsenal, Tottenham and Chelsea may be on their downfall, they still posses a team of quality that is just as good or better than Liverpool. The Reds don't yet posses the star power of Arsenal or Chelsea, and Tottenham has had nearly the same team for ages now giving them great teamwork. It won't be easy for Liverpool to once again find a place in the top four, although I'm not saying it isn't possible.
All Liverpool fans have that one little worry nagging at the back of their minds, what if Suarez gets injured? While last season Liverpool did bring back wins the few times they didn't have Suarez, It was all too obvious against Arsenal saturday that Suarez is the life of the team. I'm not saying Liverpool don't posses quality without him, after all they sure aren't loosing without him, but when he does poorly the play of The Reds is clearly missing that little spark.
Of course Liverpool's only problem isn't their dependance on their number seven, it's also their midfield. No, I don't believe it has too much depth, in fact I don't see any problem is having a ready amount of talented players battling it out for a position in the starting eleven. The problem lies in the fact of who are starting. The last couple games we have seen the newcomer trio of Jordan Henderson, Stuart Downing, and Charlie Adam start only to not give more evidence to critics that they have not meshed sufficiently quite yet, meanwhile we have not seen some of the faces that finally showed what they can do this season. Maxi Rodriquez is a prime example, scoring four hat tricks in a row last season only to find himself on the bench this season, not seeing a minute of play vs Sunderland. Maxi was the one man we counted on last year to score when it seemed Andy Carrol or Luis Suarez were not on target. Another face dearly missed missed is that of everyones favorite tattooed mid/forward Raul Meireles, yes, the very same man who flipped off Lucas after assisting Suarez score this weekend. If we could start just these two this weekend we would see a dramatic difference in Liverpool's play. Of course you can understand that Daglish is just trying to mesh his $80 million trio of midfielders. After all, why buy them if you aren't going to play them?
Of course I believe we can easily see Liverpool break into the top four this season. There's a reason their players are some of the most popular on fantasy football games across the web. It will help that they have no distraction from Europe. Even Arsenal thanks to a 3-1 victory over Udinese will be in the Champion's League this year. It seems that the a top four finish for Liverpool is for the first time in three years a very realistic goal.
What do you think of Liverpool's European ambitions for this season? Will they find themselves in the top four or be beat by the likes of Arsenal and Tottenham?
