Football Special Report: What John W. Henry Must Do For Liverpool Football Club
After Liverpool’s recent dramatic takeover by New England Sports Ventures’ John W. Henry, the off the field issues and controversies at Anfield have finally been put to rest. The club’s dismal showing in the Merseyside derby against fierce local rivals Everton,
as well as their general performance in their worst start to a season for quite a long time, suggests that all is not well on the pitch.
True, some of the problems, like having to settle for a spot in the second tier Europa League rather than the glamorous Champions League, might be because of last season, but signs this season too have not been too heartening for the club’s multitudes of
passionate fans.
The biggest problem Liverpool currently faces is that they possess a squad that is utterly devoid of the depth required to keep the club competing on the levels it used to. Take out the talismanic Steven Gerrard and Fernando Torres from the team, and it
is hard to come up with even a single player, who one can confidently say can win the team a match on his own.
To win a football match a team must score goals, and it is common knowledge that strikers are best suited to that job, apparently the past owners of Liverpool were unfamiliar with this concept, or perhaps they thought Fernando Toress was a super-man who
would never get unfit or out of form. Wait, perhaps they even thought David Ngog was really a striker, a really costly mistake for Liverpool, when it is evident that the guy is just capable of showing the ball the back of the net, whatever his other great
virtues must be.
Also painfully evident was the lack of imagination and creativity in Liverpool’s midfield in the match against Everton as well all their other matches this season. If a team manage to effectively mark Steven Gerrard these days, there is not much more left
for them to do such mediocre is the rest of Liverpool’s midfield, with Maxi Rodriguez, Joe Cole and Raul Meireles all looking out of their depth.
Joe Cole it might be argued was a Premier League player even before he joined Liverpool, but truth is Liverpool do not have anything to gain by listening to grand tales of his heroic performances of the past, frankly speaking there are not many of those
even, if he does not perform on the pitch. Doing the holding job for the unfortunate Reds nowadays is Leiva Lucas, who it must be said Brazilians must be ashamed of when anybody finds out he is one of their lot, so pathetic is he.
The defence while not too solid looking at the moment is at least in better shape as compared to the rest of the team, although a right back who actually thinks about defending instead of just going on glamorous marauding runs all day that leave the back-line
much too exposed and vulnerable. All the above debate leads to just one barely startling conclusion, that Liverpool are in dire need of new world class players to help take the club forward. That is where Mr. John W. Henry and his cohorts come in, it might
all be very good that they wiped out the club’s debt while purchasing it, which by all means was a great service to this fantastic club. But, and it is a big but, they must invest substantially to let the manager buy players in the January transfer window,
or if not that at least next season.
Talking of the manager, they would do well to get rid of respectable Uncle Roy, who might be a very good manager for a solid mid-table club, but is just not the man to lead an ambitious club in their quest for glorious triumphs. A manger young and dynamic,
who is not willing to settle meekly for drawn games like Roy Hodgson so often is, must be brought in to stop the rot.
It is evident then that Liverpool’s new owners have much to do if they are serious about the well-being of the club. The club’s supporters are behind the new regime and are waiting expectantly to see a paradigm shift in general policies that is only too
necessary if there is to be a bright future for this great club.
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