Liverpool, and Brendan Rodgers for that matter, have rolled into a make or break season. Rodgers is three full seasons removed from showing up to a managerial interview with a 180 page dossier on how to run a football club. Fenway Sports Group has been around longer.
Both parties had took cover under the cloak of low expectations: trust the process, we’re reloading and rebuilding back to what we were in the ’70s and ’80s. It was always meant to be that they’d re-establish a consistent Champions League presence and wake up from a dormant slumber to return to the upper echelon of football clubs.
In 2012, Rodgers said to judge him in three years.
In his three years, he’s cleared out deadwood from regimes past, implemented his style of play throughout the club, enjoyed a Cinderella run that didn’t get over the line before midnight leaving the Reds just short, followed by a season best described by taking a bite into a gluten-free slice of pizza when you were expecting the real thing. (Apologies to our gluten-deprived readers, but you know it’s true.)
For the first time during his reign, Brendan Rodgers has the financial backing to assemble a squad not just with an impressive first XI, but with a considerably strong squad to back it up.
Thus, in 2015-16 it’s Champions League or bust for Liverpool Football Club. It’s that simple.
Fenway Sports Group, Brendan Rodgers and the transfer committee have collaborated to concoct answers for mistakes of old, aspiring to restore Liverpool’s membership in the Champions League.
This summer, as they’ve presumably done with big arrivals if not arrivals in general, Liverpool have done enough to get into the top four. It’s just about getting out there and getting the results.
Liverpool are losing two members of their starting lineup week in, week out from last season: Steven Gerrard and Raheem Sterling. On top of them, there’s Glen Johnson who played by default last year at times as Rodgers ran out of options. So we’ll call it 2.5 because Johnson has mainly been a regular in the team since he arrived from Portsmouth.
This summer, the Reds have added four players who will be in the team every single week in Christian Benteke, Roberto Firmino, James Milner and Nathaniel Clyne. Behind them, they’ve added to the already adequate squad depth by bringing Danny Ings, Joe Gomez and Adam Bogdan on board, as well as Divock Origi returning from Lille on loan.
Competition for the top four realistically consists of five clubs: Chelsea, Arsenal, Manchester City, Manchester United and Liverpool, in that order.
It’s safe to cast Tottenham and Southampton, as well as Everton for that matter, aside at this juncture as they’ve not done enough in these summer months. There are always surprises in the Premier League, but it’s not daft to disregard those sides until they prove differently.
Barring a Per Mertesaker-sized catastrophe, Chelsea and Arsenal are stone cold locks for top four. Manchester City aren’t far off that at all, either. In all likelihood, fourth and fifth will be United and Liverpool. United have the current upper hand, to be fair.
The problem that’s plagued Liverpool of late has been the inability to win ugly. Rodgers has fully got a squad in that he’s assembled technically adept players that can all attack and competent across multiple positions. But they’ve lacked the ability to grind out results.
Rodgers’ teams have been typically incapable of traveling away from home and snatching three points when everything is going wrong.
They have also been unable to break down defensively sound teams who come to Anfield and sit deep. (See: Liverpool v Chelsea, 2014.)
This summer, players have been brought in who are suited to remedy those two scenarios. Benteke might not be Luis Suarez (who is, though?) but he’ll turn a few games destined for a 0-0 draw into a win. He’ll bully a centre-back, turn nothing into something and win points that looked lost.
Milner, alongside Jordan Henderson, regularly do the dirty work (despite what Henderson’s hair might insinuate) and will make everything through the midfield difficult for the opposition. When Liverpool get into dog fights, Henderson and Milner will be getting stuck in and winning challenges.
There are potential problems, of course.
Will Rodgers feel the need to excessively rotate the team with the number of competent players at his disposal? Maybe Europa League won’t be enough for some.
Also, Jordon Ibe, Origi and Gomez are young players who need to be on the pitch growing through their mistakes if they’re ever going to reach their potential.
Where will the width come from? Will the centre of the pitch get too clogged? This was a huge dilemma last year when Rodgers would put the team in a 4-2-3-1, especially when Ibe wasn’t on the field. Philippe Coutinho and Adam Lallana prefer to play through the middle. Firmino is in a similar mould.
Clyne and Alberto Moreno will get forward and hug the touch line to provide width, but that won’t regulate the likes of Milner, Henderson, Coutinho, Lallana, Firmino and Benteke getting all up in each other’s personal space.
It’s all there for you, Reds. Just get out there and do it. Because – in spite of one or two headaches – you can.
