Written by David Tully from Live4Liverpool
This time last week if you had said to me that Fernando Torres had left for Chelsea for £50m and that we had replaced him with Andy Carroll and Luis Suarez for £35m and £23m respectively, I would have laughed my head off. The Suarez deal looked a possibility but the other two transfers would have looked incredulous. The old cliché that a week is a long time in football certainly rings true. The last two days have been very trying certainly on the editor of this website who has extremely red eyes after spending the best part of 18 hours yesterday and the day before looking at computer or TV screens. I need to get out more really.
After the dust has settled, rather than a feeling of devastation or despair among Reds fans which would have characterised most supporters if the club had just sold Torres for £50m without bringing in the replacement, there is sense of great optimism and excitement about what the future holds. Great credit must go to FSG and Damien Comolli for getting the deals done for Andy Carroll and Luis Suarez in the shortest period of time imaginable. Although the net spend for the window is approximately £1.8m (£50m received for Torres and £6m for Babel, £35m paid for Carroll and £22.8m for Suarez), it shows that the American owners are willing to use money to go and buy top players, rather than keeping the money for interest payments or anything else. It is great that the owners are also backing Kenny and Comolli in the transfer market too as £35million for Carroll is going way out on a limb, and puts reputations on the line. There is great optimism for the first time in a long time and there is a feeling that Liverpool are finally back up with the big boys competing financially in the transfer market. Kenny Dalglish mentioned in his interview about Andy Carroll today that FSG will back the club in the summer too:
“The owners have been fantastically supportive during this window. In fact they may be slightly disappointed they didn’t get someone else. Anyone who had any doubts about hunger or anybody taking this club forward, they’re gone now. In the summer we’ll be looking forward to trying to enhance what we’ve got.”
With all this great sense of anticipation for the future though, how does it all fit together? What tactics will Liverpool begin to employ with the departure of our main man Torres and the arrival of his replacements? You can disagree with me on this fundamental premise if you like, but I cannot see the Reds sticking with the 4-2-3-1 which was a mainstay under Rafa Benitez and now under Dalglish. It was a formation that Torres flourished in when on the top of his form but with the arrival of Carroll and Suarez, the formation seems to be less conducive for them both to fit into the starting eleven.
When Carroll and Suarez are both fit, the 4-2-3-1 formation would mean Carroll filling the lone striker position while Luis Suarez gets a spot in one of the two wide positions. I would be very uncomfortable with such a scenario as a player who is bought for £23million and is primarily a goalscorer should not be pushed out of position. He needs to play in his favoured role behind the striker. In that case some would say the 4-2-3-1 could be kept with Suarez taking up the Gerrard role behind the striker but this again has a fundamental problem. Do you play both Meireles and Gerrard in the holding midfield roles negating their attacking attributes or do you play one of them out of position to play a holding midfielder such as Lucas?
If you take the second option, the problem of width and service to Andy Carroll becomes a problem. For Carroll to excel in his role as target man, he needs quality delivery from wide areas, and wingers are essential for good service for the 22 year old. In the long term, quality, pacey wingers will be required and to get the best out of Carroll and Suarez, a 4-4-2 formation will probably be required. How this affects the positions of Steven Gerrard, Raul Meireles and Lucas Leiva, it will be interesting to find out and it will be intriguing to see how Kenny Dalglish lays out team tactically in upcoming matches. Against Stoke on Wednesday I can see them sticking with one up front as Andy Carroll is still sidelined for a few weeks with a thigh injury, but in the long term, Liverpool’s tactics will change.
You can read more from David Tully at Live4Liverpool