Right or wrong? Joe Allen claimed we’ve learned to cope without Luis Suarez…
Speaking earlier this week, Joe Allen claimed that Liverpool have moved on from the departure of Luis Suarez, and are now better off without the talents of the incredible Uruguayan, who blasted 31 goals last season.
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Allen, who was quoted by the Daily Mirror, told reporters: “At the start of the season we talked about how losing Suarez was going to have an affect but now we have overcome that.
“It took us a little bit of time because the injury problems we had were not ideal. We are certainly back up to that level now and, if anything with the different system we play this season, we might even have taken a step forward.
“We have a more clinical edge now than we did at the start of the season. That’s grown with our momentum and picking up points – it tends to happen that way.”
His comments have been met with a certain amount of derision from a large percentage of Liverpool fans, who would clearly jump at the chance to take take back our former star striker.
However, we think the Welshman wasn’t totally deluded in his thinking. In the list below, we’ve come up with five reasons why Suarez’s exit has benefited us, or helped us develop in some way…
5) It allowed us to develop a new formation, with added width and extra defensive steel…
Suarez and co. scored goals for fun last season, but what eventually cost us the title was our lack of defensive stability, and arguably a lack of striking options since his exit has allowed Brendan Rodgers to solve that issue.
A more secure back-line is just one of the benefits being felt from our 3-4-3 formation (which was eventually deployed when we couldn’t win for love nor money without the Uruguayan…) Our team now plays with real, genuine width, with Jordon Ibe and Alberto Moreno giving us a much greater presence on the flanks.
Philippe Coutinho has been allowed a freer role behind a central striker, and has become even more of an integral player. The Brazilian has been sensational in recent months, and only needs to add goals to his game to become a world class star.
4) Suarez’s controversial reputation will no longer hurt us
There’s no arguing that Suarez is a world class player, and one that was rightly worshipped by Liverpool fans – but how many times did he let us down? He missed 18 games through two lengthy suspensions and regularly brought unwanted press attention on the club.
His actions at the World Cup – where he produced the third bite of his career – must have been the final straw for the Reds. If he’d have returned to the Premier League, after having served another ban, he would have been hounded by every single set of opposition supporters.
Ironically, we replaced Suarez with Mario Balotelli, another player who has an unfortunate habit of landing himself in hot water, but now at least we cannot be continually criticised for our backing of such a player.
3) His sale enabled some of the world’s best young players to join…
It’s worth remembering that we sold Suarez, who recently turned 28, for a humongous fee of £75m. Regardless of how we spent that money, it was a sale that allowed Brendan Rodgers to completely overhaul his squad and prepare it for a return to European football.
Slowly but surely we are beginning to reap the benefits of those additions. Emre Can has been excellent in recent months, while you could also argue a strong case for the transfers of Alberto Moreno and Lazar Markovic. Divock Origi was signed too, and will arrive in time for next term.
Adam Lallana and Dejan Lovren have shown flashes of what they can do in recent games, while even Mario Balotelli has finally started to find the back of the net.
2) Raheem Sterling has taken on new responsibilities
The departure of Suarez, which unfortunately coincided with a lengthy injury to Daniel Sturridge, saw Brendan Rodgers turn to Raheem Sterling, who was given the opportunity to fill in as a central striker.
The 20-year-old responded in perfect fashion, scoring ten goals to keep the Reds ticking over. While he still has plenty to work on in terms of his finishing, it should act as an encouraging sign of things to come.
While the debate rages on over his contract situation, there is little doubting that Sterling is going to become one of the world’s finest players, and the departure of Suarez has only served to highlight that fact.
1) We can no longer be accused of being a ‘one man team’
Sterling is not the only player to have benefited. We are no longer reliant on the excellence of Suarez to haul us out of trouble, we are a team rather than a squad built around one stand-out individual.
We have a host of young players – Markovic, Ibe, Moreno, Coutinho, Sturridge – to name just a few, who are ready to take on fresh responsibility and impress on a larger stage.
While we clearly miss a player of Suarez’s class, it’s refreshing to see the success and the plaudits of our recent run of great results to be shared around the team – rather than be directed at just a single player.
