--- title: "Transfer Window Review #3" canonical: "https://readliverpoolfc.com/articles/transfer-window-review-3/" type: "post" language: "en-GB" author: "James Martin" section: "Articles" published: "2014-09-03T13:44:12Z" modified: "2014-09-03T13:45:42Z" --- # Transfer Window Review #3 After it was announced that we were selling Suarez to Barcelona, there was general hysteria amongst fans. Despite creating an extremely sizeable transfer kitty through the sale of our star man, we were still being persistently linked with players of somewhat underwhelming calibre (think Bertrand). As the window progressed, however, a steady trickle of new faces made their way into Anfield, and nearly all of our new signings look like astute acquisitions. **Divock Origi:** Probably the easiest of our new signings to overlook, as we immediately loaned him back out to Lille, Origi is nonetheless still a sensible purchase. He is only 19 years old, but has already featured for Belgium at the World Cup. This is undoubtedly quite an achievement, and is an indication of his abilities. His talent is currently still quite raw, but ten million pounds seems a very reasonable fee considering the potential he has. With a bit of luck he will continue his impressive progression during his season at Lille, and will come back ready to fight for a first team spot. **Rickie Lambert:** This is another signing that is unlikely to inspire the fans, and in truth we probably won’t be seeing Lambert feature much this season. Still, for just 4 million pounds, it is hard to find any real grounds for criticising the signing; Lambert notched 13 goals and 11 assists for Southampton last season, so he’s clearly a decent player. He doesn’t fit into our team style at all well- we play with a high press, and Lambert has neither the pace nor mobility to fit in with this. However, Rodgers signed him as a ‘Plan B’, and to that end he could prove invaluable to us. The game last season against Chelsea is a prime example- we simply couldn’t penetrate the defence with our quick, intricate play, but didn’t have any alternative to turn to. Lambert’s height and skill in the air makes him an excellent target man, so he could prove useful off the bench at times this season. **Mario Balotelli:** The third and most exciting striker Liverpool purchased in this window is ex-City and AC Milan player Mario Balotelli. Predictably, the press have made a lot of the controversy Balotelli brings with him, and how his temperament and attitude makes him ‘a gamble’. However, in my books, we can’t really go wrong with this signing. £16 million isn’t very expensive in the modern market- in a world where Shane Long is fetching 12 million pounds, there is simply no reason to complain about the fee we paid for Balotelli. Should he prove unable to replicate his best form with us, then we won’t have lost out too much. Should the club manage to bring out the best in him (which, with the excellent man-manager Brendan Rodgers at the helm, we surely will do), we’ve got ourselves one of the world’s top strikers for an amazingly cheap price. **Emre Can:** Bought from Bayer Leverkusen, Emre Can is a versatile player who can do a job as a defensive midfielder or a central midfielder. He is a big, powerful player who likes to maraud forward from a deep position- his style of play has prompted people to draw comparisons with Yaya Toure. At only 20 years of age he is bound to develop his game further, and if he is given decent game time he has the potential to mature into a formidable player. As with Lambert the fee makes the deal relatively low risk; Leverkusen accepted 8 million pounds for him. **Adam Lallana:** One of three players we raided Southampton for this summer, Adam Lallana is our most expensive signing from this transfer window (costing £25m). This is a signing that I think could go either way. Although we paid over the odds for him, that doesn’t mean he won’t succeed at the club. He is a clever player, and is no stranger to quick, intricate passing sequences. As such, he should fit relatively seamlessly into the Liverpool midfield setup. At 26 years of age he isn’t the ‘amazing young talent’ some are making him out to be, but the vast majority of our squad are youngsters anyway so a little experience might not be a bad thing. **Lazar Markovic:** Not many Liverpool fans regularly watched Benfica in action last season, and Markovic’s native Serbia did not feature at the World Cup, so Markovic is an unknown quantity to a large extent. The fact that he picked up a minor injury in pre-season didn’t help; we only saw him play one match during our tour of America. Still, the little we’ve seen of Markovic has certainly been encouraging. You don’t need to watch him for very long at all to realise that he is lightning fast, and when she came on against Manchester City he impressed with his quick feet. Others, who have seen a lot more of Markovic than I have, have questioned his finishing. If this really is an issue in his game, at only 20 years of age he has plenty of time to correct it! **Alberto Moreno:** A saga of sorts took place around Moreno, but eventually we managed to lure him from Sevilla for a reported fee of 12 million pounds. He had a shaky start to Premier League life with Liverpool, when his hesitation over a clearance allowed Jovetic to sneak in and score, but he more than made up for it in his second game. The goal he scored against Spurs essentially summed up all of his key qualities, qualities that our full-backs have been lacking for quite some time. He showed a good ability to regain the ball initially, tackling Andros Townsend to get possession. He then showed excellent pace, leaving Spurs players trailing helplessly in his wake as he ran through towards goal. He then showed he had a clinical finish, firing it into the corner excellently. Of all our signings, I think Moreno could prove to be one of the best. **Javier Manquillo:** As with Moreno, Manquillo is a definite upgrade on our previous full back options. The many faults of Glen Johnson have been extremely well-documented, and Jose Enrique, even when he isn’t sidelined with an injury, is average at best. Manquillo is still very young (20 years of age), so he may not be first-choice right back in all the games – Rodgers may opt to go with experience for some matches. However, when he does play, Manquillo is a solid full back. He defends well, and offers a good attacking threat going forwards. **Dejan Lovren:** If there was one thing that was abundantly clear in the wake of our unsuccessful title challenge last campaign, it was that we needed a new centre back. Disastrous errors and misjudgements led to many a pointless goal being conceded, and ultimately that was the difference between us and Manchester City come the end of the season. The new man Rodgers has brought in to try and sure up the defence is Dejan Lovren. Personally, I have big reservations over this signing. For 20 million pounds you would expect to be getting, at worst, a solid, reliable centre back, and I’m not sure Lovren falls into that category. Though he’s good in the air, and is able to cover well and make some important challenges, his positioning at times is extremely questionable. In his first few games for Liverpool, he has left gaping holes in the defence at times by aimlessly wandering out of the otherwise rigid defensive line. Hopefully he improves his positional play and proves me totally wrong, but I’m not convinced that a Lovren-Skrtel partnership is any better than a Sakho-Skrtel partnership. **Outgoings – Summary** A lot of our promising youngsters have been loaned out during this window – a good way of getting them regular game time and helping them to develop their game. Teixeira has moved to Sami Hyppia’s Brighton, where he is already proving a hit. Andre Wisdom has been loaned out to West Brom – having spent last year at Derby, it’s good for him to now be gaining experience with a Premier League side. Tiago Ilori has gone out to Bordeaux, where he may well be up against fellow loanee Divock Origi at some point during the Ligue 1 season. One loan I’m unhappy with is that of Jordan Ibe. I think he’s at the stage where he could even have featured occasionally for Liverpool this season, so once they’d decided to loan him out I was hoping the club would secure him a move to a Premier League side. I’m dubious at to how much Derby County will be able to advance his game. Two of last season’s bit players, Luis Alberto and Iago Aspas, have also both been shipped out on loan. I personally think Alberto could still have a future at the club; he is technically able, and from the little we got to see of him he appears to have a good work ethic. Hopefully he develops well at Malaga. As for Aspas, I’m surprised we didn’t sell. Although he’s actually a lot better than most give him credit for, he simply doesn’t have the physicality to cope in the Premier League. Out of our permanent sales, the only notable ones are that of Pepe Reina and, of course, Luis Suarez. It would have been nice to have a capable keeper like Reina as competition for Mignolet, but it’s a luxury we don’t require and his wages were high, so selling him to Bayern wasn’t a bad move. As for Suarez, selling him was a sensible course of action. Using the money we got for him we’ve definitely managed to improve our squad as a whole, and the fact is that Suarez is now 27 years old. He is right at the peak of his game, and from here can surely only decline. The time was right to move him on; though his genius will be missed, the whole host of new players we were able to sign using the money from his sale makes it well worth it. To sum up, I’m extremely happy with our business this summer. We have increased our squad depth no end, meaning that unlike last season we have lots of options, particularly in attack. Although Chelsea and City still have to be the favourites, I think our new talented crop gives us a fighting chance of winning the title.