Arsenal have been offered the chance to sign Lyon midfielder Yoann Gourcuff on loan and are also mulling over an approach for Celtic enforcer Victor Wanyama, according to the Daily Mail.
The French playmaker has struggled for fitness and form during his two-and-a-half year spell at the Stade Gerland and hasn’t featured for Remi Garde’s side this season.
And the cash strapped Ligue 1 club are now keen to shift his £80,000-per-week wages in order to ease their dire financial situation.
Despite seeing his career blighted by injuries, the 26-year-old is still highly thought of in his native land and Arsene Wenger is reportedly preparing to take Les Gones up on their proposal to bring him to the Premier League on a temporary deal this month.
The Gunners boss is also pondering whether to reignite his interest in Wanyama this month with Chelsea and Manchester United thought to be monitoring the 21-year-old.
Since moving to Parkhead from Antwerp-based outfit Beerschott in July 2011 the Kenyan anchor man has come to the attention of the Premier League’s leading clubs after his dynamic performances in this season’s Champions League.
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Wenger has been linked with a number of midfielders in January, namely Marouane Fellaini, Yann M’Vila and Mohamed Diame, but reportedly sees Wanyama as the natural replacement for Alex Song.
It might seem bizarre, but perhaps the bulk of the pain that stemmed from Arsenal’s 3-1 Champions League defeat to Bayern Munich on Tuesday night, wasn’t necessarily from the the result itself.
Because on the face of it, as brutal as it may seem, seeing Jupp Heynckes’ side dismantle the Gunners shouldn’t and didn’t come as any real surprise. The nature of the performance and the way Arsenal went down naturally hurt supporters, but the fact was we simply saw a far superior team beating an inferior opponent. Had the game been replayed, nine times out of ten, the result would have been the same.
It’s in what the game stood for and to a greater extent, their entire season so far, that has really invoked the dejection. Arsenal are a club that should be challenging for Premier League titles and at the very least, giving the likes of Bayern Munich and the cream of Europe’s elite a genuine, competitive examination over the course of two ties.
Today, the club still harbors those sort of champagne dreams. The problem is, they’re backing it up with lemonade ambition. And until they change the psyche of settling for second best, no matter who is at the managerial helm, be it Arsene Wenger, Jose Mourinho or Martin Allen, the outcome is going to be the same.
The thorn in the narrative here is that Wenger has possessed a defining influence over the degradation of a mindset that has seen the club go from winning to Premier League titles to hoping to scrape a fourth placed finish. Has the competition been bloated by those on a vastly inflated financial footing? Yes. Has Wenger had to work behind a veiled set of financial constraints? Most probably, yes.
But have either of those factors made the Gunners’ slide from the top inexorable? Most certainly not.
Much has been made of the correlation between wage expenditure and on-field success, but while it isn’t quite a direct marker of where a club should be heading, the servicing of a £154million wage bill at the Emirates Stadium, hardly marks the resources of a pauper. It might not be quite that of a Manchester City, but they should be doing a hell of a lot better for the sort of money they’re dishing out.
And it’s where that money is being dished out that lies some of the greatest faults in the current mindset of the club. On the wider scale of the Premier League, it seems somewhat difficult to justify the £100,000-a-week wages that Theo Walcott’s new contract has now afforded him. Within the club’s flawed wage ideology however, there’s no way they couldn’t justifiably not offer him the terms he demanded.
Until the deadwood has been shifted from the ranks, that wage bill is going to continue to saddle the club on its current direction. But it’s where you draw the line of the cull that needs to take place at Arsenal, that you realise quite the job the club have on their hands to start challenging for titles again.
Because if that’s where they truly feel they belong, then some radical changes are going to have to be made this summer. Let’s be under no illusions here, the core group of players that Arsenal have at their disposal are as good as any in this country. The likes of Jack Wilshere, Santi Cazorla and Lukas Podolski are a set of extremely fine footballers indeed and in Carl Jenkinson and Alex Oxlade Chamberlain amongst others, the club boast some exquisite young talent, too.
It’s hardly as if this is headline news here, but the fact is there simply isn’t enough of the aforementioned talent around at the club needed to reach the levels of expectations the fans rightly demand. And to get back to the top, both Wenger and the board need to rediscover the mindset of a winner, most notable, the cold streak of ruthlessness.
Who in this Arsenal squad isn’t good enough to even consider the thought of a Premier League title? Gervinho? Andrey Arshavin? Marouane Chamakh? If so, they’ve all got to go.
New contract or not, are the likes of Aaron Ramsey and Wojciech Szczesny realistically good enough to propel their side to the top of the Premier League table? If not, then they don’t belong in the first team. Simple as that.
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Throwing money at a problem isn’t necessarily going to solve all their issues, but for as much as investment may or may not be an issue at the Emirates, they’ve wasted enough money for far too long now. If resources are tight, than you have to make sure that every single penny invested or funds raised from transfer sales, is invested wisely back into the club. Now would be a good time to start doing it.
Arsene Wenger isn’t going to haul his club back up to the Premier League’s summit by sticking to the same set of principles that he has done for the last eight years. He has spent enough time harbouring untold levels of patience towards members of this squad, only to be mercilessly let down time and time again.
Call it a new sense of direction, a Eureka moment or simply a last roll of the dice in last chance saloon. Both Wenger and the hierarchy at Arsenal are going to have to learn to be ruthless if they want to get back to where they belong. Should they fail to regain that winning mentality, then maybe a change at the helm wouldn’t be such a bad thing after all.
Arsenal have finally discovered the key to success, according to Steve Bould.
The Gunners defensive home record has been a cause for concern throughout the campaign, with the North London side conceding a whopping 20 goals at the Emirates in the Premier League. Although their overall total number of goals conceded is just one less than table-toppers Manchester United (32).
To Arsenal’s credit their defensive record has started to improve having conceded just the one goal since their disappointing 2-1 defeat against rivals Tottenham last month.
And Arsenal No2 Steve Bould has had a big part to play in the shoring up of the defence.
“Everybody has realised that clean sheets win games a lot of the time.” Bould told the Sun.
“I’m hoping that the Tottenham defeat is the big turning point. We played really well on the day and I think we absolutely deserved more than we got.”
“Two defensive errors and we got punished by good players and that’s what happens.” he added.
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Arsenal’s improved form however may just be too little too late as they face a major challenge to qualify for the Champions League, and have also made it an 8th year without winning any silverware.
Arsenal goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny this week was forced into both an awkward and deeply embarrassing position of having to choose his club over his own father after he attributed his son’s slump in form to manager Arsene Wenger’s handling of him. With this in mind, is the Polish international simply proving more hard work than should be necessary and will they now consider alternatives to him in the summer as a result?
The 22-year-old was prematurely hailed as the long-term solution to the club’s recent goalkeeping problem after cementing his place in the starting eleven last term and keeping 18 clean sheets in 48 games across all competitions, with 13 of those coming in the Premier League. Seen as a confident, somewhat flamboyant shot-stopper, the odd mistake and game-changing clanger has always been present in his locker and his father’s recent rebuttal of Wenger’s treatment of him has merely acted as the touch paper to a bigger, more underlying issue about his quality and whether he’s actually good enough to play regularly for a club like Arsenal.
Of course, Wenger has always had something of a blind spot when it comes to judging goalkeepers, having been fortunate to inherit David Seaman, the likes of Jens Lehmann, Manuel Almunia and Lukasz Fabianski have all caused just as many headaches as problems they have solved and even when the club was challenging for honours on a consistent basis five years ago, they represented an error-prone house of cards, liable to self-destruct at any given moment.
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The decline in goalkeeping standards across Europe the past couple of years has given credence to the thought that there is a real dearth in talent out there, so choosing to nurture your own academy product from scratch is a cheap way of combating a paucity of options. When you consider that the likes of Michel Vorm, Tim Krul, Tim Howard, Ali Al-Habsi, Pepe Reina and Joe Hart have all contributed to at least three errors directly leading to goals this term, it’s clear that even the stand-out performers by and large from last season have let their standards slip this year. Szczesny is not alone in that regard, and he must be judged against his peers as much as anything else.
Szczesny was recently left out of the Gunners squad for their UEFA Champions League trip to Bayern Munich and remained on the sidelines for a 2-0 Premier League victory over Swansea City last weekend, so his future is clearly under serious consideration at the club and he sounded somewhat desperate when questioned on his future this week.
“Physically, I can imagine myself at a different club, yes, but mentally, absolutely no,” admitted the Polish stopper.
“I’m too happy here. What guarantee do I have that I will win trophies somewhere else? Arsenal will win things again, I trust the club’s philosophy, I have a debt here.
“I don’t want to be anywhere else. My contract runs out in 2015. I have played my 100th game for Arsenal and I hope to play hundreds more.”
There’s always been something of the Emperor’s New Clothes about Szczesny, just as there has been to a lesser extent with Joe Hart’s England career – seemingly thankful that they are not Almunia or Scott Carson, we have rated them above their ability, applauded them for mediocrity and lauded them to be long-term solutions to troublesome problems, but how we’ve evaluated their performances has been flawed, leading to expectations simply not being met once the honeymoon period faded.
When it comes to his own individual form, Szczesny has largely been the same – he’s parried 22% of the shots he’s faced this year compared to 19% last year. He has punched away just 10% compared to 15% last term and caught 57% as opposed to 61% last campaign. The perception of a player struggling with his form has filtered through, while he won’t have been helped by the near constant injury troubles and the even more fragile nature of the back four in front of him.
Arsenal have developed a worrying trend in the past five years of conceding more goals in the league than the year before. In 2007-8 it was 31 goals, in 2008-9 it was 37 goals, 2009-10 it was 41 goals, in 2010-11 it was 43 goals and last term it was 49. They sit on 32 goals with nine games left to play and they could be about to finally buck that bad habit.
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This season represented a huge year in terms of his development, but suffice to say he’s missed his opening to make his mark through a combination of misfortune and poor performances. He can be a match-winner on his day – agile, commanding and authoritative, but will that be enough to save him at the end of the season? As with plenty of Arsenal players, the ability to occasionally perform to the maximum of their ability is what is symptomatic of the club’s decline.
When all is said and done, whether his father doesn’t like his manager all that much won’t factor into Wenger’s decision to sell him or not, but the pursuit of a new goalkeeper, as a means of serious competition just as much as a replacement, should be right at the top of the Frenchman’s transfer agenda come the summer.
Mikel Arteta is a ‘major doubt’ for Sunday’s final game of the season at Newcastle, Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger has revealed.
The Gunners are firmly in the driving seat as they look to qualify for the Champions League after they beat Wigan 4-1 last night, but the victory came at a cost.
Arteta picked up a calf injury late on in the game at the Emirates Stadium and Wenger admitted afterwards he is unlikely to make the crucial showdown at St James’ Park.
“Arteta is not right,” said Wenger. “Arteta pulled his calf, so that could be a problem for Sunday. We don’t know, we have to wait 24 hours. He will be a massive doubt for Sunday.”
Arsenal go into the game with their destiny in their own hands as they bid to secure a place in the top four but it looks as though they will have to do it without Arteta.
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Arsenal are clearly looking to make the most of their trip to Vietnam through a positive PR campaign. After allowing a fan to step on board their team bus (albeit after he chased after them for a good few miles) they have become the people’s choice of team from the Premier League. The bus incident just couldn’t be topped as a way of winning Vietnamese hearts and minds – that is until one Gunners defender decided to go one better (or worse depending on your view.)
Step forward Per Mertesacker – probably not a favourite among Arsenal fans in the UK after more than a few calamitous performances from the big German at the heart of Arsenal’s defence. But apparently the things Per will do to win back the support of the fans knows no end – Per, we salute you.
While Mertesacker may have found the last two years tough in his day job, he seems to have found a talent that will keep him well within the spotlight of the entertainment business for years to come. Or has he? You be the judge. The effort was there Per, just don’t put us through that agony and embarrassment again, please…
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During the summer, amid the uncertainty over the futures of Gareth Bale, Luis Suarez and Wayne Rooney, and wholesale management changes at all of the Premier League’s top three clubs, many a-pundit insisted that the English top flight would be a six horse race this year, with Spurs, Liverpool and Arsenal joining the title hunt.
And if you looked at the Premier League table today, you’d assume the collective hypothesis is on the verge of becoming a reality as Arsenal, Tottenham and Liverpool fill up the top three positions in respective order, all with nine points and separated on goal difference alone. The Reds even have the chance of claiming pole position tonight if they can clinch a single point or more when they take on Swansea at the Liberty Stadium.
The hysteria regarding the six-horse race at the summit of the English top flight has also begun to reach epic proportions in the media. Andre Villas-Boas was quizzed over whether he thought the Lilywhites could claim the Premier League title last week, Arsenal’s Theo Walcott tipped the Gunners as prevailing dark horses in the title race earlier in the summer, and from the moment Brendan Rodgers took the Anfield helm, he’s insisted that re-asserting Liverpool’s position from the 1980s as English champions is the ultimate aim of his tenure.
But let’s not get carried away here – the Premier League title racket is a three club affair, and come the end of the season, none of the Premier League’s current top three will be involved in it.
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Everyone’s very excited about the potential blow-back from Chelsea, Manchester City and Manchester United changing managers in significant ways – Jose Mourinho, Manuel Pellegrini and David Moyes can hardly be considered stop-gap solutions by any means – whilst Arsenal, Liverpool and Spurs have all been incredibly proactive in the transfer market; the former splashing out £42million on Mesut Ozil, and the latter importing a new cast of exotic, young talents to compensate for Gareth Bale’s record-breaking departure to Real Madrid. Liverpool too have made astute additions over the summer, whilst perhaps most importantly they’ve somehow kept a hold of the wantaway Luis Suarez.
Indeed, we are in a very different world from last season, but not one so strange that anything ranging from Howard Webb becoming Southampton’s new goalkeeper to West Ham qualifying for the Champions League has become a possibility. It takes more than a single summer to bring down bona fide Premier League institutions like United and Chelsea, and a £100million summer investment on new players is hardly going to hinder Manchester City to the extent that the title is out of their grasp, despite a lukewarm start to their campaign that’s been riddled with minor teething pains.
To win the Premier League title you need to be the whole package – world class players, experience, a talented manager and great strength in depth – which is exactly what the Gunners, Tottenham and Liverpool are not.
Tottenham sold their single world-class entity in Gareth Bale in the summer, and although they have certainly re-built well by acquiring some of Europe’s (and one of South America’s) hottest properties in Paulinho, Christian Eriksen, Erik Lamela and Roberto Soldado, they’ll have a hard enough time compensating for the Welshman’s former influence at White Hart Lane, let alone overcoming the 17 point and 20 goal gap between Spurs and Manchester United at the end of last season.
Similarly, Andre Villas-Boas silenced many of his Chelsea critics last term by getting the Lilywhites to claim significant wins off Chelsea, United and City, but to suggest he’s now ready to lead Spurs to their first Premier League title, which would also be his first piece of silverware at White Hart Lane, is a tad absurd.
And if record-breaking signing Soldado suffers a serious injury bout, the entirety of Tottenham’s hopes up front will depend on Jermain Defoe and youngster Harry Kane – it’s a strong deviation from the squads at Chelsea or the two Manchester clubs, all of whom possess three or more strikers capable of starting on a regular basis.
Liverpool are in a similar situation. Unlike the Lilywhites, they managed to stop Real Madrid poaching their only world-class talent in Luis Suarez over the summer, and the Uruguayan certainly possesses the calibre of quality to be part of a title-winning team. Steven Gerrard too can claim to belong to such an elite category, and Daniel Sturridge could also in the near future, but that is where the list of top level stars ends for the Reds.
At the same time, Brendan Rodgers is yet to lift any silverware in his management career from spells at Reading and Swansea, and although David Moyes can be accused of the same problem when challenging his title credentials, the Scot is at a club where the roster, the backroom and every mechanism in between have been geared towards claiming the Premier League title for the last twenty years. The likes of Rio Ferdinand, Nemanja Vidic, Wayne Rooney, Ryan Giggs and Michael Carrick have all won the English top flight five times or more, whereas none of Liverpool’s current cast excluding veteran signing Kolo Toure can argue to have played a significant hand in securing the domestic accolade before.
Arsenal on the other hand have Arsene Wenger’s rare experience in their favour, being the one of two Premier League managers currently serving today that have won the Premier League title before along with Jose Mourinho, whilst he’s also the division’s longest serving gaffer. The acquisition of Mesut Ozil has also put them in a stronger position than last term, but even so, they are still a long way shy in terms of squad depth in comparison to last season’s top three.
Currently, the Gunners have only three natural central defenders in Thomas Vermaelen, Per Mertesacker and Laurent Koscielny, one defensive midfielder in Mathieu Flamini – unless you include the injury-stricken Abou Diaby – and one senior striker in Olivier Giroud. If the Frenchman is sidelined at any point in the season, Wenger will have to experiment between giving Theo Walcott and Lukas Podolski a striking role, or offer a first start for over two years to Danish bad-boy Nicklas Bendtner.
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It’s by no means the end of the world; all four, as well as free signing Yaya Sanogo, are capable of scoring goals. But does Arsenal’s strike force, or for that matter Tottenham or Arsenal’s, rival Robin Van Persie, Wayne Rooney, Javier Hernandez and Danny Welbeck at Manchester United, or Stevan Jovetic, Sergio Aguero, Edin Dzeko and Alvaro Negredo at Manchester City, or Samuel Eto’o, Fernando Torres and Demba Ba at Chelsea?
Yes, the Premier League is an exciting place all of a sudden now that Sir Alex Ferguson has retired, Arsene Wenger has finally spent some money and Daniel Sturridge has begun leading the scoring charts. This season promises to be the most unpredictable yet for many reasons, and the top of the Premier League table will most likely finish up with less points separating the top six clubs than ever before. But is it so exciting and unpredictable that the title race is now a six club affair?
I’m afraid not. But despite all the talk of the Premier League title race, it could be Arsenal, Tottenham and Liverpool in their pursuit of Champions League football that goes on to steal the show this season.
Will Arsenal, Tottenham or Liverpool win the title?
Bayern Leverkusen director of sport Rudi Voller has revealed the club are hoping to sign Chelsea’s Kevin De Bruyne in January, according to the Metro.
A host of Bundesliga clubs have been linked with the Chelsea winger, who is set to be allowed to leave Stamford Bridge once the transfer window opens.
The Belgian has struggled to nail down a first team place under Jose Mourinho, and wants to join a club where he will get regular first team football ahead of the summers World Cup.
De Bruyne impressed in the Bundesliga last season whilst on loan at Werder Bremen, and hopes to make a return to Germany in January, and Bayern Leverkusen have made no secret of their desire to sign him.
‘We made no secret of our interest in Kevin De Bruyne right from last summer,’ Voller told Germany’s Sky Sport. ‘There are many clubs interested in him.
‘Regardless of our league position, we’re always looking for new players.
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‘It’s possible that we do sign somebody this winter, but then again, we could go into the second half of the season with the same team and look to do something next summer.
‘If you do anything, then it’s got to be a top alternative to what we’ve already got here.’
Things aren’t going exactly after plan for AVB at Tottenham at the moment, that’s putting it mildly. Despite heavy spending in the summer, Spurs are far from replacing Welsh wizard Gareth Bale. Right now, the north Londoners resemble a fish on land whose aquired brand new diving equipment. Bar a few encouraging performances from Christian Eriksen before he twisted his ankle on international duty and the odd glance of skill from Paulinho, their signings have contributed less than what Villas-Boas would expect when he and Daniel Levy frantically set about investing the Bale-money.
The win at Craven Cottage on Wednesday provides a pocket of breathing space, but only till they travel to the Stadium of Light this weekend. If they don’t perform against the team at very bottom of the league, even more critical questions will come in AVB’s direction. You can disagree with this, but the fact is a manager who is perceived to be under performing will always be put under heavy pressure in the Premier League. The unforgiving nature of the multimillion industry leaves no room for error.
My issue with AVB at the moment is not related to his disagreements with the press or his critique of the fans. I think Villas-Boas is perfectly entitled to voice his opinion on these matters, and besides, both topics are already receiving massive coverage. What I cannot get to grips with is why, when Tottenham are so blatantly lacking penetration, is the manager repeatedly leaving Mousa Dembélé on the bench?
The issue at White Hart Lane this season is to score goals. AVB’s inverted wingers are not getting along with Roberto Soldado, and whosoever deployed in the hole behind the Spaniard is giving him service Nando’s would shame themselves of. From what I’ve seen of Tottenham this season they are screaming for a bit of power in midfield.
I might have picked the wrong time to have a go at Sandro’s attacking contributions – that top corner strike against Man United on Wednesday was something else – but the Brazilian isn’t your average South American. Unlike his midfield partner Paulinho whose touch can be sweeter than Emma Watson, Sandro enjoy’s the rough side of the game. He used to wear a mouthguard, remember? Going forward, however, he lacks tenacity.
As for Paulinho, the little charmer, he has yet to give Spurs the penetration we expected. For me, Dembélé should be the first name on AVB’s team sheet. There are few players in the premiership who are as naturally strong on the ball as the Belgian. In all seriousness, I can’t remember ever seeing him give it away. He has the sort of presence and brawn you see in Yaya Toure when he’s at his best for Man City.
Even the stats back it up. Mousa Dembélé should be a no-brainer in the Tottenham midfield. Our stat crunching friends at Squawka.com have given him nearly a four times better overall performance score compared to Sandro, and by far the strongest in the Tottenham squad. In fact only Andros Townsend with his rise to stardom this season is anywhere near.
Furthermore, although Paulinho has significantly more minutes to his name, Dembélé outscores his counterpart on chances created – 16 to 14. Anyone who saw the then Fulham player tear Manchester United apart at the start of last season is bound to have fallen in love with the force of his strides when he descends on the opposition’s defence. As i said, I can think of few players in the world who provide the same kind of strength and composure.
In fact, should AVB decide to not go with Dembélé, I see no reason why Man United wouldn’t take him of his hands. A two way player who can apply himself in challenges as well as going forward is exactly what the Red Devils are looking for in January. This is of course only the opinion of a scarcely informed intern at a newly renovated online football site, but I can see no reason why David Moyes shouldn’t consider moving for the Belgian international, given he is available and willing to talk.
The two clubs might not have the best of histories together in terms of transfers, as deals have tendency to draw out into the insufferable, courtesy of businessman Daniel Levy and stubbornness embodied Sir Alex Ferguson, but should Dembélé at any point consider a transfer, I expect United to be monitoring the situation closely.
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Again, I have little other to go by than what I see on the pitch and read in the papers, but that Mousa Dembélé is having to even go close to the benches at White Hart Lane is well and truly beyond me. I realize AVB is trying to build a new team, but I can’t understand why that team should be without one of the most composed players in the premiership.
Who knows, maybe somebody will put some pressure on the Portuguese manager in January by placing a bid, should he choose not to play Dembélé.
The ‘neutral’ would have loved it. A thrilling, end-to-end game with plenty of goals. Brendan Rodgers would have felt completely different about Liverpool’s 4-3 win over Swansea on the weekend. And what will be most troubling to him is that it’s a long-running theme of this season.
Liverpool have been outstanding going forward. Rodgers has found the right mix of pace, industry and finishing, with Luis Suarez, Steven Gerrard and Coutinho able to contribute in the way of creativity.
But it’s at the back where Liverpool have been vulnerable, sometimes being caught out through the lack of a strong defensive presence in the midfield or a lack of quality in reserve when first-choice central-defensive options are unavailable.
This is what Rodgers has to work with until the summer. The club heavily pursued Yevhen Konoplyanka during the January window, going as far as to sending a representative to Ukraine to wrap up the deal. But the Ukrainian international is a wide player, one who would have made Liverpool’s already strong front line even more lethal, but would have offered very little defensively.
The obvious need for Liverpool was a defensive midfielder. Lucas Leiva was out through injury in January, and yet even with the Brazilian, the team were in need of a player who could effectively break up opposition play and protect the back four.
So what Liverpool have now is a game plan in which they will attempt to score more than the opponent, which they have done in many Premier League games, including those against teams currently in the top six.
What is less certain is time, in that this game plan may eventually run its course before the end of the season. It’s a risky strategy that relies on the fitness and availability of Rodgers’ first-choice attackers: Raheem Sterling, Daniel Sturridge and Luis Suarez. It’s also one that assumes, or at least hopes, that Liverpool’s attack will continue to produce goals on a consistent basis over the next few months. Suarez may be doing a lot for the team, but he hasn’t scored in five games. Sturridge, scorer of two of Liverpool’s goals on the weekend, has already seen time off through injury, and backup forwards are simply not good enough.
Rodgers was clearly instructed his side to press the opposition in order to retrieve the ball as quickly as possible. They did so expertly in the win against Arsenal at Anfield. But a better opposition than Arsenal were that day would have been able to expose Liverpool’s clear weakness, that being the gap between defence and midfield through the lack of a defensive midfielder.
It’s a problem that has led to Liverpool’s inability to hold onto winning positions. It’s certainly the area that needs immediate address in the summer window.
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