Did Liverpool make the most of deadline day?

Christian Poulsen and David N’Gog have also left the club. Poulsen was signed by Roy Hodgson last year as a replacement for Javier MAscherano, who joined Barcelona. The Danish international has played for big European teams such as Juventus, Sevilla and Schalke and it was thought his experience would stabilize Liverpool ’s midfield. But as a result of the consistently high performances of Lucas and good form of Raul Meireles , Poulsen hardly featured in the squad. Liverpool were right to let him go as he was surplus to requirements at Anfield.

David N’Gog was signed by Rafael Benitez for £2.5m in 2008. He played 94 games for the Reds in total, mostly coming off the bench, and scored 19 goals. The Frenchman started very few games for Liverpool because Fernando Torres was used as a lone striker before he was sold and replaced by Andy Carroll and Luis Suarez. N’Gog would have had very limited opportunities in Liverpool’s first-team this season and for £4m the Reds had to let him go.

Craig Bellamy  was signed as the replacement for David N’Gog. The Welshman played for the Reds in the 2006-07 season and scored 9 times in 27 games- a record of 1 in 3. However, Bellamy’s time at Liverpool was marked by an incident with team-mate John Arne Riise where he attacked the Norweigan with a golf club and was sold to West Ham United in the summer. Since then he has played for West Ham, Manchester City and Cardiff, joining the Welsh club on loan last year, before returning to Eastlands. He was behind Sergio Aguero, Edin Dzeko, Mario Balotelli and Carlos Tevez for a place in the Manchester City side and manager Roberto Mancini made him available for transfer.

Bellamy’s career statistics are impressive, 152 goals in 435 games, so for Liverpool to sign him on a free transfer- especially after selling N’Gog to Bolton for £4m- is a real coup. However, Bellamy is now 32 and approaching the end of his career, but as back-up striker to Carroll and Suarez he should have a few seasons left and will hope to play an important part at Anfield.

Uruguayan international defender Sebastian Coates  is the second major signing Liverpool have made from outside the Premier League after Alexander Doni joined from Roma. The central defender was signed from Nacional, who play in the Uruguayan Primera Division. He impressed at this summer’s Copa America alongside team-mate and Reds star striker Luis Suarez and was awarded best young player in the tournament. He is a tall, strong and imposing central defender who is good in the air and on the floor and rarely mistimes a tackle. Despite having no Premier League experience, Coates looks to be a shrewd piece of business by Dalglish especially as Liverpool were desperate for a new central defender having allowed Sotirios Kyrgiakos to join Wolfsburg on a free transfer last week. He will probably not feature too heavily in the first-team this season but should be an Anfield regular in years to come.7

So was it good deadline day business for Liverpool?

Yes. The Reds offloaded fringe players such as Christian Poulsen and Joe Cole and signed a talented young central defender in Sebastian Coates. They even managed to make a £4m profit by selling David N’Gog to Bolton and recruiting a better, albeit older, striker to replace him in Craig Bellamy. Although there may be question marks over Liverpool’s decision to let Raul Meireles join Chelsea, he did not want to play for the club anymore and as far as Liverpool are concerned was only a squad player so to get £12m for a squad player is great business! It should be an exciting season ahead at Anfield.

This article was written by Will Piper, and is courtesy of our partner website ourkop.com. Read the latest news and blogs about Liverpool FC at Our Kop. – ed

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