Liverpool FC Forum

by **tubby** » Wed May 06, 2009 9:45 am

Well at least Rafa has come out and said he needs another striker now.

Liverpool boss Benitez: We need to sign another striker and we'll win the title next season

by JOHN EDWARDS

Rafa Benitez has conceded Liverpool need more firepower and has added a striker to a list of summer transfer targets that also includes a winger, full-back and central defender.

The Liverpool manager believes the partnership between Fernando Torres and Steven Gerrard is as good as any in the Barclays Premier League but is mindful of how injury has taken its toll on both players this season.

Linked with Almeria frontrunner Alvaro Negredo, after being priced out of a move for Valencia's David Villa, he dismissed any fears that Robbie Keane's recent frustrations at Anfield may deter others from trying their luck.

'Torres and Gerrard play very well together, but we have 60 or so games a season, and there will be plenty of chances for other players,' he said. 'I can't see there being a problem, and we are continuing to work hard at identifying the players who can improve us. It is important we sign the right ones, but I am confident we will.'

by **bunglemark2** » Wed May 06, 2009 10:01 am

Good for Rafa.....preferably a very hungry, savage in front of goal....someone with pace, power, an eye for goal......like an Owen of old....

by **Ace Ventura** » Wed May 06, 2009 11:17 am

bunglemark2 wrote:Good for Rafa.....preferably a very hungry, savage in front of goal....someone with pace, power, an eye for goal......like an Owen of old....

Hope you dont mean the tranmere player Baz

by **stmichael** » Wed May 06, 2009 11:47 am

Hopefully Babel will be shown the door. I've said it before, but I really think a swap deal back to Ajax for Luis Suarez would be a brilliant deal. Suarez is still only 22, but has a lot of experience for his age. He can play on either flank, or as the second striker, or even upfront alongside Torres. He has all the attributes to be a world class player; great touch, pace, skill, can score goals, good set piece. He has a great goalscoring record aswell, he's got 27 goals (22 in the league, 5 in the UEFA Cup) this season for Ajax, and 14 assists.

Someone else, like Arda Turan, would be worth a go. I haven't seen much of him, but my Turkish mate has been raving about him for a few seasons. He played well when we played them in Europe a few years back, and he had a great Euro 2008.

by **Bad Bob** » Wed May 06, 2009 11:48 am

Is there any case to be made for calling Voronin back from loan, having a private word to convince him he's still in the picture and that reproducing his Hertha Berlin form would be lovely, and having him around in case Torres breaks down? I know he wasn't the most amazing player ever but he showed glimpses of quality and he has the added benefit of already being on the books.

by **bunglemark2** » Wed May 06, 2009 11:59 am

Bad Bob wrote:Is there any case to be made for calling Voronin back from loan, having a private word to convince him he's still in the picture and that reproducing his Hertha Berlin form would be lovely, and having him around in case Torres breaks down? I know he wasn't the most amazing player ever but he showed glimpses of quality and he has the added benefit of already being on the books.

Nah mate....he's made some pretty disparaging remarks about the club since, he doesn't want to come back, and even if he was forced to, he'd be unproductive. Best to make the most of a bad situation and sell him. Though if Hertha don't make the Champions League next season, I don't think they can afford to buy him...

by **tubby** » Wed May 06, 2009 12:00 pm

He only produced form at Hertha becasue the German league is poor compared to the Premiership. Voronin isn't good enough here. Suppose he came back and we were back to squad one with him fluffing so many chances. Why take that risk? Id rather take those chances to blood in someone like NGog.

by **Bad Bob** » Wed May 06, 2009 12:06 pm

I agree we need better but if money truly is a big stumbling block I think it's worth considering. Let's put it this way, I'd have more faith in Voronin coming on and scoring than Ngog at the moment. Bungle's probably right though--the fella clearly wants out and has lit enough fires under the bridge back to Liverpool that we're probably better offloading him.

by **tubby** » Wed May 06, 2009 12:17 pm

I think at a time when we are so close to catching Utd in the league we simply cannot to choose 2nd best for a new striker, otherwise we risk going backwards come next season. With more pressure on Rafa now after Parrys departure he will also feel this more than anyone so im sure Rafa will bring in someone of more quality. Even if Hertha can't afford him some other Bundesliga team should be able to fork out a few mil for him.

by **bunglemark2** » Wed May 06, 2009 12:22 pm

There ain't a whole lot of money in the Bundesliga, outside one or two clubs. Bayern are really the only club that can afford silly wages; most of the other clubs operate on relatively tight budgets. I remember a few years back attending Kaiserslautern games pretty regularly, and my mate who brought me along used to talk about how season and weekly ticket prices just couldn't go up 'cos people couldn't pay them. There also isn't anything like the kind of sponsorship money in that league that there is in Serie A or the Premiership....
Which I think is a good thing as well. At least the players are a tad more grounded....
Back to the topic though, you would think that if Hertha don't buy him, that at least SOMEBODY would. Maybe even one of the newly promoted teams from the Championship...

by **stmichael** » Wed May 06, 2009 12:30 pm

It's also much pretty much common knowledge that Robben, Vand De Vaart and Sneijder will all be leaving Madrid in the summer. All three of them could play in one of the three positions behins Torres.

by **bigmick** » Wed May 06, 2009 12:32 pm

bavlondon wrote:I think at a time when we are so close to catching Utd in the league we simply cannot to choose 2nd best for a new striker, otherwise we risk going backwards come next season. With more pressure on Rafa now after Parrys departure he will also feel this more than anyone so im sure Rafa will bring in someone of more quality. Even if Hertha can't afford him some other Bundesliga team should be able to fork out a few mil for him.

Surely though while everyone is talking of new signings, getting rid of this bloke and that bloke, moving X to Y's position and asking Y to cover, someone has got to ask this:

We are going to finish very close, and we've had Torres injured for much of the season. Had Torres been fit all season long, it's fair to assume we would have got more points. If he stays fit all season next term, it's fair to assume we'll go pretty well again. Why then is there an urge to change, why not just add to the squad?

If we sign Barry for instance it would make us stronger. Sign him and tell him he's got to try and get past Alonso/Masherano/Riera. At the very least he can play the last half hour each week when Riera gets tired.

It seems to me that despite many people denying till they're blue in the face that we had favourable circumstances this term, they are concerned that next season we won't and we'll need big improvements to even get close.

For my part, I've said all season that circumstances were extremely favourable to us this time, and on reflection we really ought to have won the thing. I think we'll need to improve next season as our rivals (particularly Arsenal and Chelsea) certainly will. My guess is though, if we don't change too much we'll improve anyway.

If ever there was a time for stability, it's now IMHO.

by **Owzat** » Wed May 06, 2009 12:36 pm

Bad Bob wrote:I agree we need better but if money truly is a big stumbling block I think it's worth considering. Let's put it this way, I'd have more faith in Voronin coming on and scoring than Ngog at the moment. Bungle's probably right though--the fella clearly wants out and has lit enough fires under the bridge back to Liverpool that we're probably better offloading him.

Too many are way too quick to dismiss Voronin, noone is suggesting he is a perfect solution and can score like Torres or even close, but he could do a job off the bench.

As for his record with us, 4 goals in his first 10 games and 2 in his last 5 games with an injury in the middle isn't as bad as some of the dismissers on here would like to think and suggest. If they have a striker we can buy for what we'd get for Voronin, and who'd do a better job then let's see some names. It isn't impossible to find a bargain, but let's at least find one before shoving him out the door

by **tubby** » Wed May 06, 2009 1:06 pm

bigmick wrote:
bavlondon wrote:I think at a time when we are so close to catching Utd in the league we simply cannot to choose 2nd best for a new striker, otherwise we risk going backwards come next season. With more pressure on Rafa now after Parrys departure he will also feel this more than anyone so im sure Rafa will bring in someone of more quality. Even if Hertha can't afford him some other Bundesliga team should be able to fork out a few mil for him.

Surely though while everyone is talking of new signings, getting rid of this bloke and that bloke, moving X to Y's position and asking Y to cover, someone has got to ask this:

We are going to finish very close, and we've had Torres injured for much of the season. Had Torres been fit all season long, it's fair to assume we would have got more points. If he stays fit all season next term, it's fair to assume we'll go pretty well again. Why then is there an urge to change, why not just add to the squad?

If we sign Barry for instance it would make us stronger. Sign him and tell him he's got to try and get past Alonso/Masherano/Riera. At the very least he can play the last half hour each week when Riera gets tired.

It seems to me that despite many people denying till they're blue in the face that we had favourable circumstances this term, they are concerned that next season we won't and we'll need big improvements to even get close.

For my part, I've said all season that circumstances were extremely favourable to us this time, and on reflection we really ought to have won the thing. I think we'll need to improve next season as our rivals (particularly Arsenal and Chelsea) certainly will. My guess is though, if we don't change too much we'll improve anyway.

If ever there was a time for stability, it's now IMHO.

I think everyone will agree if Torres stays fit we will always pick up more points. But Torres isn't going to play 60 games next season. And it doesn't hurt to have other striking options either. For all his class he does have bad games too.

Even Rafa admits we need another striker:
[url=[url=http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-1177589/We-need-sign-striker-win-title-term-insists-Benitez.html?ITO=1490]Liverpool]http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport....verpool[/url] boss Benitez: We need to sign another striker and we'll win the title next season[/URL]

We should probably sign Barry as well. At the end of the day the difference between us and utd first 11 v first 11 is nothing. But it's when some of those 11 can't play where we begin to slip behind. Strength in depth was our undoing this season. Not that Rafa didn't try of course. We bought Keane but he was not even replaced so it was like going back to last season again.

by **aCe'** » Wed May 06, 2009 1:24 pm

bigmick wrote:
bavlondon wrote:I think at a time when we are so close to catching Utd in the league we simply cannot to choose 2nd best for a new striker, otherwise we risk going backwards come next season. With more pressure on Rafa now after Parrys departure he will also feel this more than anyone so im sure Rafa will bring in someone of more quality. Even if Hertha can't afford him some other Bundesliga team should be able to fork out a few mil for him.

Surely though while everyone is talking of new signings, getting rid of this bloke and that bloke, moving X to Y's position and asking Y to cover, someone has got to ask this:

We are going to finish very close, and we've had Torres injured for much of the season. Had Torres been fit all season long, it's fair to assume we would have got more points. If he stays fit all season next term, it's fair to assume we'll go pretty well again. Why then is there an urge to change, why not just add to the squad?

If we sign Barry for instance it would make us stronger. Sign him and tell him he's got to try and get past Alonso/Masherano/Riera. At the very least he can play the last half hour each week when Riera gets tired.

It seems to me that despite many people denying till they're blue in the face that we had favourable circumstances this term, they are concerned that next season we won't and we'll need big improvements to even get close.

For my part, I've said all season that circumstances were extremely favourable to us this time, and on reflection we really ought to have won the thing. I think we'll need to improve next season as our rivals (particularly Arsenal and Chelsea) certainly will. My guess is though, if we don't change too much we'll improve anyway.

If ever there was a time for stability, it's now IMHO.

while i agree that we'll probably still improve even if we dont change much around , i have to disagree with this being the time for stability...

We need to improve now and bring on better quality or we'll quite simply lag behind... Chelsea and Arsenal as you said are bound to improve on this season in terms of personnel and performances at the very least... manutd will always be a threat regardless but i still expect them to have a say in the transfer market..

While we have a very good squad that can beat any team if and when they get going, im not sure they are able to that consistently enough to go out and win the league yet.. I think our recent form and the fact that we've been scoring many goals in recent weeks has got many thinking that perhaps we'll carry this form into next season, and there will be no stopping us.. While this might be a valid opinion id much rather opt for the more realistic approach of 'we'r close and maybe with a few improvements on the current squad we could get there'...

We need a backup striker ... someone with considerable quality who wouldnt cost an arm and a leg... someone like Owen would be ideal imo.. and so what if he has a bad injury record... if hes backup then he wouldnt have as many 90mins to play and im pretty sure Rafa would try to use him wisely to prevent him getting injured often.... he'd probably top my list of backup strikers... but cant see it happening...

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