As I have already stated, it has been a popular theme, since the departure of Owen to Madrid, as to who should fill his boots and bring in the twenty goals that he would have supplied. Big names have been thrown into the hat including those of Shearer, Saviola, Rooney and Mista.
I welcome this kind of talk and hope that some of these options do come to fruition. Today, Barcalona have called a holt to the proposed loan deal that would have seen Saviola go to Celtic, due to their impending CL clashes. Also today Wayne Rooney handed in his request for a transfer request and I know that all of the big five clubs will have been waying up their purchasing options. We have little or nothing of Mista in the english or spanish press which makes him more doubtful, but not as doubtful as shearer who's move away from newcastle is about as likely as a freak tornado blowing away my underwear and nothing else as I collect the morning Newspaper, which I don't even get.
As mentioned above, I believe that before the departure of Michael owen we had the best strike force in the prem, but now I would rate us behind Arsenal, Chelsea, Man Utd and even Newcastle. Even keeping Heskey would have offered uss some better options. We have 1 and 1/2 proven strikers in Djibril Cisse and Milan Baros, one young striker with fantastic potential in Pongolle, and two attacking midfielders who have been known to play up front in Garcia and Kewell. If you look at the other top teams you'll see what I mean:
Arsenal: Henry, Reyes, Bergkamp, Aliadiere and Ljundberg
Man Utd: Horse, Smith, Scholes, solkjaer, Saha and Giggs
Chelsea: Mutu, Gudjohnsson, Drogba, Kezman and Duff
Newcastle: Shearer, Kluivert, Ameobi, Bellamy and Chopra
Each of these teams have at least one "twenty a season" player with the possible exception of Chelsea who, like us, have new players and a need to find a working partnership.We still do not know if Cisse and Baros will gel or how Benitez is going to play with his new boys, but if this happens to chelsea, they have options that we do not.
Defence is still a problem as we are going to rely heavily on Hyypia and Carragher this season and if one of them gets injured we will be left with an open wound that only a world class centre half can fill, despite our affluent subs bench. Henchoz, Josemi, Traore (if he stays), Biscan and even Diao can be used but they, in my eyes, have not acomplished enough to be playing for Liverpool F. C. But I still think, this problem does not match that of our weakened attack.
I do however take solice in our midfield which has goals writen all over it. Gerrard, Alonso, kewell, Garcia, Hamann and alonso should help bolster the tally, but with this added pressure they tire themselves out before christmas.
So it is my opinion, that we must attain the services of another striker NOW (or at least in January) even if it just gives us options. When these men are tired they need to be able to look over at the bench and see that they have back up. Not attacking midfielders, not kids but experienced goalscores who can be subbed on and get goals. We need a solskjaer, or a Morientes. Some one will wait for his opertunity and snatch it whenever gets a chance. Options are the key for me. However, this is just the opinion of a fan and not of a manager. I look forward to your replys and I hope you understand that this is just my opinion and that is all.
