Arguably the biggest deadline day saga of January 2014 was Liverpool’s pursuit of Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk winger Yevhen Konoplyanka. News outlets across the world were turning Konoplyanka into the biggest (and most difficult to pronounce) name of the day, and Liverpool fans everywhere were eagerly talking about “that one goal against England” that the Ukrainian scored at Wembley. When the window cruelly slammed shut, and it slowly filtered through that no deal had been completed, it hurt. A fifth big signing in six months had been missed. Konoplyanka joined Diego Costa, Henrik Mkhitaryan, Willian and Mohamed Salah on the list of ‘what could have beens’.
Since deadline day, Liverpool have played three games. A disappointing 1-1 draw at West Brom was quickly forgotten about when Arsenal visited Anfield, and were disassembled inside 10 minutes as LFC went two up through Martin Skrtel. Two became four in another 10 minutes, and by half time it could’ve realistically been five or six nil. When the game finished and the Reds had sent the Premier League leaders home on the sour end of a 5-1 result, Liverpool looked like true contenders. Not just for a top four finish, but possibly even for the title. Then in midweek, a visit to Fulham that ended 3-2 to Liverpool, which makes the Reds look worse than they actually were on the night. Kolo Toure’s early own goal had more than a little bad luck to it, and Liverpool were very unlucky at the other end, where it seemed like nothing would go in. It may have taken a penalty right at the end of the game to bring home the three points, but points are points, and Liverpool have seven out of nine since deadline day. And they got those points without signing a single player in January.
In recent games, Liverpool’s attack has featured Luis Suarez and Daniel Sturridge, of course, and also Raheem Sterling. Sterling is having the run of his life, including two goals against Arsenal, and the SAS partnership of Suarez and Sturridge have, at least for now, cemented themselves as the best strike partnership in the league.
So where would Konoplyanka fit? The Ukrainian is predominantly a winger, and to fit him into the current team would mean splitting up the SAS, dropping Sterling, or playing four attackers. It would be very difficult to justify dropping either Suarez or Sturridge, and cutting out Sterling would not only be harsh on the youngster, but would hardly help his development into the future star he could very easily become.
To fit Konoplyanka in, then, would require a formation featuring two strikers and two attacking wingers. A standard 4-4-2 or a 4-2-2-2 would be the most likely possibilities, with 3-5-2 being unlikely due to the lack of full-backs included. It would take something huge to leave Steven Gerrard out of any team, and Jordan Henderson has become the perfect partner for Gerrard in the centre of the park. By process of elimination then, the man to be benched would probably be Philippe Coutinho.
Coutinho’s performances since his return from injury have been nothing like what we saw when he first signed, but since Konoplyanka stayed put at Dnipro, Coutinho seems like a new man. Against Arsenal and Fulham, and to a degree West Brom, he played like it was a year ago. Beautifully weighted passes, threatening runs, and generally causing a nuisance to defenders, these are just some of the qualities Coutinho displays when he’s on form. Last season he bagged three goals and five assists in 13 appearances. This season he has been rather lacklustre, with just two goals and one assist in 11 games before January. In 2014, he is starting to play more like his former self, with three assists in eight games, including an assist in both the 4-0 thrashing of Everton, and the 5-1 over Arsenal, where he was absolutely on fire. He topped his resurgence off with a vital goal against Fulham, and has really proved to his critics that he is worthy of a spot in the starting XI.
Failure to get Konoplyanka may be disappointing, but with Liverpool scoring 13 goals in their last four games and gaining 10 points out of 12, plus Coutinho getting his groove back, it looks like it may actually not be as huge a miss as initially thought. All we can do now is watch and wait, and hope that maybe, just maybe, Liverpool could do the unthinkable and snatch the League from under the noses of the “three horse race” that Wenger, Pellegrini and Mourinho all seem to think they are involved in.
