Completing the jig-saw!

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Players continue to be linked to the Reds left right and centre, but there are a couple of names that are becoming more consistent than others. We all know that the Reds are still in search of a left-back, a holding midfielder and an out and out striker to complete the jig-saw puzzle for the coming season. Okay, so let’s try to tackle each of the three vacant positions separately and see what we can come up with!

Left-Back : The candidature of Luke Young for this role seems to have fallen by the wayside, and perhaps at 31 year of age this would have been more of a stop-gap rather than a long-term solution. That said, the lad is an ex-England International (suitable for the new home grown quota rule) and does have bags of experience. The two most favoured tabloid and webnews candidates are now Paul Konchesky and Maynor Figueroa. Both lively attacking full-backs but Konchesky (29 years old) here takes a winning edge in my book for being another England International .
With the above said, Fabio Aurelio is back with the Reds after signing a fresh two-year deal. The Reds will probably still go for a left-back to make sure the turnover process covers all positions and also not to depend to much on the injury prone Brazilian!

Holding Midfield: Beppe Marotta, General Manager of Serie A giants Juventus, confirmed that the Reds are in fact interested in the Stg 6/7 million rated Danish midfielder Christian Poulsen. No doubt this is a solid player. He is excellent at sitting in front of defense but is not a nimble as Mascherano. What they do share in common is their ability to collect yellow…and the odd red cards! Solid Investment but not very ‘long-term’. Then there is Steven Defour. Those of us that recall a Champions League pre-Group qualifier against Standard Liege will remember how this 20 year old Belgian (at the time) directed his side in giving the Reds a real run for their money (and he was already captain of the Belgian national side). Dogged by injury last season, he is now 22 and is skilful at all three possible options a player can play in his role, i.e. defensive, central or attacking. At a rumoured Stg 10 million price tag, this would be a solid investment for the future (go for it Roy!).

Centre-forward: With our beloved El Nino destined to stay and David N’Gog giving the Reds a 2-0 away victory in the Europa League, the latter’s credit rating has been given a massive boost and there is no doubt the young Frenchman will have the time to improve and flourish into a wonderful striker. The Reds have been linked to various strikers and possible come-backs, but one player that stands out in my mind at present is the striker and player that impressed me most in the last World Cup: Keisuke Honda! Power, technique and work ethic are all part of this 24-year olds abilities (this one falls within the wish-list category). The problem here is that half of Europe’s football elite want him in their ranks and in this case perhaps we might fall behind in his order of preferences. Personally, I’d go for either Carlton Cole or Peter Crouch (that is if Old ‘Arry will sell him back to us). Both excellent forwards and both England Internationals!

On the way out: It is believed Inter Milan are putting together a Euro 25 million offer which will obviously be turned down by the Reds. If these people are demanding Euro 35 million for Balotelli and close to Euro 50 million for Maicon why should we sell him to then ‘on the cheap’? Rafa always claimed Masch was worth Euro 50 million, so why offer should we accept a half-price offer? The lad wants to leave, so be it, but the Reds should and will not make this too easy. Philippe Degen too is also on the way out. I suppose some players will leave on loan for the coming season. Pacheco seems to want to play first team football and Kriztian Nemeth will probably spend another season out on loan. It may be too early to cash in on these two wonderful talents even though I personally would not even think of selling them (not yet at least).

A good luck to the Reds for tomorrow’s friendly, and am all excited to see Joe Cole’s debut game!

12 Comments

  1. Doesn’t look like a left back is a target anymore (at least for the moment). Insua stll hasn’t agreed terms with Fiorentina – i’m assuming this deal has probably fallen through now since he’s gone with the team for the Borussia Moenchengladbach game.

    Fabio Aurelio has signed a new 2 year deal with the club – he has also travelled to Germany with the squad.

  2. U are showing adds for the sun on your iPhone website!!!! Poor show. Will not be using you again.

  3. We were on the same wavelength until you mentioned Carlton Cole and Crouch!!! Makes me depressed just thinking about it!!

  4. Why the hell would we want Crouch back? I don’t care English or not, we should be looking for quality and pace. Crouch is slower than a snail and is only useful in a Sam Allydice long ball game. No other top team would be interested and watching him play is visual torture. This home grown quota is NOT a problem for us. We have enough English and home grown players to meet that quota. Even Ayala meets that quota. For heaven’s sake let us get rid of this nationality crap. In any case, English players are excessively inflated. Milner rated at 30m and Silva at 24m, even for ManC. To look forward to Konchesky shows how low we have fallen in expectations!

  5. Hope the Konchesky thing is a smokescreen for other clubs to lower their prices for possible targets (Taiwe, Bridge, etc). Ironically, another Gem from Rafa was to sell one of the best young left Backs in the world Christopher Buchtmann to FULHAM -if RH needs to raid his old club it should be for him!

    Also, Crouch, Cole although good, have me worried, why not go for the most prolific Englishman last season in Darren Bent if we are to go down that route..??

    I agree with Zahir that our quota should be fine now and also think the names being banded about will do nothing to convince Nando to commit longer than this season.

    Maybe there is more going on behind the scenes in terms of transfers as certain promises may have to be kept in order for us to sign Cole and also keep Stevie G and Nando. Cole said himself he was excited about the player we have coming in..so some of the names mentioned arent edge of the seat signings. Also better than the some of the guff Rafa signed..

  6. LB: Maynor Figeroa

    DM: Steven Deffour, Scotty Parker

    CF: Honda

    To land these lot we need to sell Monster first… then hope they actually wanna come to Anfield… Then ensure our first 11 play atleast 90% of the games for us to have a good season…

    ynwa…

  7. The names I included are those currently going around in the rumour mill. I think Nando will also want a change in tactics. A slightly corrected 4-4-2 gameplan giving his a striking partner that may take some of the attention and constants beating off him is what the spaniard would want…but for that we have to wait and see what Roy comes up with.
    Personally I don’t see why Crouch is so…’unwelcome’. As for Carlton Cole…he’s play a zillion games up front on his own with West Ham and I always thought he gave his all. Are there better strikers around…most certainly! Although Wilson and Jovanovic signings were in the pipeline when Rafa was still around, I still think Roy could not have started better than by convincing Joe Cole Liverpool was his best option.

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