A team that was scoring goals for fun last season, probably featuring the best strike partnership England had seen in a while and certainly one of the best when compared to all the European League, Liverpool’s attack this season has depended more on the young shoulders of Raheem Sterling, a 20-year-old winger.
Sterling is also Liverpool’s leading scorer this season and that is a damning stat for the English club. It isn’t that Liverpool have not had striking options, they still retained the services of last season’s second highest goal scorer Daniel Sturridge, they bought the services of Rickie Lambert who had an excellent season for Southampton yet again before moving to his boyhood club and then made the gamble to sign the mercurial, if temperamental and a little mental Mario Balotelli. They also got Fabio Borini back from his loan spell at Sunderland, yet for all these options, things have not clicked for Liverpool.
In search of the golden touch
Liverpool might have thought that their striking options would be enough for this season but sadly that is not the case. Liverpool need to make a few changes to their attacking line-up but would they need to buy another striker come the start of next season?
Fabio Borini, Rickie Lambert and in all probability Mario Balotelli are on the chopping block, while Lambert might still end up featuring at Liverpool next season since he is a good plan B to have, the two Italians are surely going to be off. Borini, who was Rodgers first ever Liverpool signing has not lived up to his billing and well Mario Balotelli should be Liverpool’s social media manager rather than the striker that they wanted him to be.
Liverpool will hope for a fit season from Daniel Sturridge, who has faced another injury hit season, in fact, had Sturridge been fit enough this season, the talk of buying another striker would not be required. They still will have the services of Divock Origi to call upon next season. The young Belgian will join the club when his loan spell for Lille will come to an end, but he also has not shown the fire that was shown frequently the season prior to the World Cup.
Next season Liverpool could have Sturridge, Origi and Lambert as their striking options and to be honest, that would be enough for them to survive the season. Liverpool rely more on their attacking midfielders and wingers, Coutinho, Sterling, Lallana, Ibe and Markovic make up for that, they are all young and could become world class in a few years.
What Liverpool need is for their strikers to be firing and fit, while Sturridge might need an extended break from the team to recover, Origi and Lambert would need to work hard on the off season to help Liverpool get back to the form they showed last season, if they can somehow bring back a certain Luis Suarez back to the club, that would be the greatest thing ever, we can all dream, right?
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