Roberto Firmino – Raheem Sterling
Raheem Sterling – it’s hard to so much as utter his name after the atrocities he committed this summer. He will be given a fearsome reception at Anfield next season and deserves every inch of the backlash that awaits him. However – and we say this with a heavy heart – there is little arguing with his quality. He was the best young player in the world last year. There are faults in his game – notably his finishing – and he might not actually get any better. But the way in which we lost him was still a regrettable finale to a horrid situation.
Firmino is a quality player. He’s not a direct replacement – they play in different positions and have different roles within the team – but he does play in the same area of the pitch and is subsequently likely to be continuously compared with the man that preceded him. His price tag was large, for someone whose career is still in its infancy, and we’ve been burned before with such deals – see Lazar Markovic for a recent example. Thankfully, his all round game feels far more developed, so let’s hope that he can come good.
We’ve said this a lot this summer – but we did the best we could under the restrictions we’re working under – both financially and in terms of our lack of Champions League football. Unfortunately, Firmino remains something of an unknown quantity and this is a risk, regardless of how good he could be.
Transfer Approval Rating – 6/10
Danny Ings – Rickie Lambert
Rickie Lambert’s move to Liverpool was arguably damned from the very beginning. He simply doesn’t fit our style of play – he’s a traditional target man, who will hold the ball up, and look to poach chances inside the area. We couldn’t get enough around him, on the rare occasions that he did get on the pitch, to bring the best out of him. He often found himself isolated and he doesn’t have the speed or skill to get himself more involved with the game.
Ings is a hungry young player who could be just what we need in terms of a back-up striker. He might have only managed 11 Premier League goals with Burnley last season, but this is someone who has everything to prove and a steely determination to succeed that can only be admired. His finishing needs work but all the other elements of his game – the work-rate and the movement – are there. He’ll need to make the most of his chances but there’s plenty of reasons to be encouraged.
This is a simple one – Ings is far more suited to being a Liverpool player than Lambert and he’ll score more goals than the big man did last year. The deal to get Ings should be a relatively cheap one and he’s well worth a gamble.
Transfer Approval Rating – 8/10
