In 55 days time, the first set of Premier League fixtures in the 2015-16 campaign will have already been completed – can you believe it? With the season starting early as a result of a busy summer of sport, which includes Euro 2016, a new year of domestic football is already within touching distance.
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The Reds have done an excellent job in the off-season thus far, sealing deals for three new signings, including James Milner, Danny Ings and Adam Bogdan. However, there is still plenty more to get though in a scarily short space of time. In the list below, we’ve picked out ten things we’d like to see before the start of next season.
Three more signings
We’ve done well in the transfer window already but I think it’s fair to say that everyone is still expecting more. There’s barely been a penny spent thus far, with Danny Ings’ compensation fee the only expenditure in terms of transfer fees. We’re still short a right-back following Glen Johnson’s departure – Jon Flanagan is injured while Rodgers won’t want to rely solely on Javier Manquillo and Andre Wisdom. We could also do with a midfielder to help feel the void left by Steven Gerrard’s departure and, of course, a striker to bring us some goals.
Get rid of the deadwood
We’re not going to be able to buy until we sell and there’s a lot of players that we could easily see the back of. For strikers Mario Balotelli, Fabio Borini and Rickie Lambert, time is almost certainly running out. If we can get a decent prize – maybe £25m for the three – then we can start reinvesting that money in other players.
Sort out loan deals for the youngsters
Liverpool’s academy is full of talented young footballers who need to be playing regularly at senior level. It worked brilliantly with Jordon Ibe – who had spells at Birmingham and Derby before breaking into our first-team – and that process now needs to be repeated. The likes of Jerome Sinclair and Sheyi Ojo could have wonderful futures ahead of them but they need the chance to prove what they can do.
New coaching staff appointed
Colin Pascoe and Mike Marsh have both gone and there is no word yet on who is going to replace them. Ideally, the new duo will be in place as quickly as possible so that they have time to make their plans ahead of the new season and the players returning from holiday. There are plenty of rumours out there but we need a decisive statement on this from our owners.
New contracts agreed for key players
There’s been plenty written about the future of Martin Skrtel. We simply must make sure that he signs a new contract and stays put at Liverpool for the foreseeable future. The situation with Raheem Sterling is a little less clear. He certainly seems intent on pushing his way out and perhaps we’d be better for allowing such a destructive influence to leave. However, we can’t help think that doing so would be another step in the wrong direction. We’re NOT a selling club and we can’t afford to become one.
Positive pre-season campaign
We’ve only got a handful of games lined up thus far – with tour matches in Thailand, Australia and Malaysia to come. We already know that we won’t be playing any fixtures at Anfield due to the redevelopments taking place on the Main Stand so it’s more important than ever that the team keep their togetherness and challenge themselves to make a clean-sweep of their early games.
Anfield redevelopment works to progress well
That brings us on nicely to our next point. Everything appears to be going very much to plan thus far so let’s hope that our development work continues as planned and is all beginning to take shape nicely by the time the season starts for real.
Encouraging fixture list
The fixture lists are released on Wednesday and everyone will be watching on with interest to see who we’re up against in the opening weeks of the season. Ideally, we’ll be given a nice run of fixtures to start our campaign and hopefully get it off to a good start. If we can build up some early momentum then that will ease a lot of the pressure on Brendan Rodgers and co.
Brendan Rodgers to come out fighting
We’ve not heard a word from our manager since the season ended – nothing on the new signings, nothing on the end of the season review. So much of football is about the communication between a club and its supporters and that feels like something that’s slipped down the priority list over the last couple of months. Hopefully, we’ll see a refreshed and determined Rodgers coming out all guns blazing after the break.
The squad to stay injury free
We’ve already seen Philippe Coutinho struck down during Copa America training with Brazil and we’ll be anxious not to see any further concerns ahead of the new season. Thankfully, our Brazilian magician looks likely to be okay, but with more international games and a pre-season campaign to come, we need to be careful!
