Liverpool, once again, are heading for the summer transfer window with a long shopping list. After pursuits of players like Mahmoud Dahoud seemed to have come to an inconvenient ending, a new shortlist must be drawn up. Liverpool’s transfer policy has been hesitant at times, too often leaving the club short of players in certain positions or making do for players not up to the standard they really need.
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Amongst Liverpool’s jaunts into the market there have been some shockers in recent years. Deals that made no sense, didn’t fit the team’s style or were simply misguided. One such deal was the signing of Christian Benteke. You can decide for yourselves how many of those categories he fitted into.
Benteke was signed for over £30 million and discarded only a year later for a similar fee. No financial loss and a player moved on when he was not in the plans of the first team boss, it sounds like a good deal. The Belgian has had an indifferent season for Crystal Palace, too, further suggesting this was a smart piece of face-saving transfer work from Liverpool.
Benteke has always been a patchy player. Bemoaned for a lack of work ethic one week and nigh-on unplayable the next, comparisons to Didier Drogba are not far off the mark at times. He never adapted to Liverpool and, in truth, the signing was an odd one. The Reds were not – and are not – set up to play towards a target man like he is. He was only ever feasibly an option either from the bench or a plan B for the manager, but his transfer fee meant he required a role in the squad far greater than what he was best suited to.
This season, however, Liverpool have been all too frequently one dimensional. Roberto Firmino has taken the role of centre forward and played it very well, but another option has been lacking. Divock Origi and Daniel Sturridge can play as more conventional number nines, yet they are not offering anything quite as remarkably different as a player like Benteke would have done.
Sturridge is likely to finally be on his way out of the club this summer, while Origi is still a raw talent who could become a key player in the future, but his decision making and finishing need to improve quickly.
Liverpool are left, amongst other positions, needing to add a natural centre forward when the window opens. Sadio Mane and Firmino have been fantastic for swathes of the campaign, though, and a striker will realistically only be a second or third option for Jurgen Klopp. As much as the squad can change, he will need to be willing to change his team’s build-up if they are to add a player like Benteke.
Holding an unpleasant record against bottom half teams who sit deep and counter attack, Liverpool are blunted when forced wide. As was evident away at Leicester and on other occasions this season, teams will defend the width of the penalty area under the knowledge Liverpool present no threat aerially. Georginio Wijnaldum has popped up with a few important goals from midfield, but the fact they have needed his third man runs to provide extra goals so often is only a minor compensation for the lack of a natural striker.
The beauty of Liverpool’s play is the fluidity of it, but sometimes a central attacking focal point is required. He needn’t be a target like Benteke, but someone who can physically occupy the central defenders and give an option to play more direct balls into the opposition’s final third would aid Liverpool significantly.
He was the wrong man at the wrong time, but the sale of a striker who would’ve been the ideal alternative in the final third adds to the frustration as Liverpool prepare to delve into the centre forward market once again.
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