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Liverpool’s Season Must Be Considered a Failure

By @NickBurgess92

Liverpool

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Losing Luis Suarez was never going to be easy. It is almost impossible to replace someone who accounted for 43 goals last season, with an astounding 31 of those in the Premier League. He almost single-handedly dragged Liverpool up to second in the table last season behind the champions Manchester City, so trying to replace a talent like Suarez was not something Liverpool were going to be able to do. They did, however, find a young deputy last season in Daniel Sturridge.

The England international was prolific last season, scoring 24 goals in the Premier League and placing himself second on the top-scorer’s chart behind his Uruguayan teammate. Sturridge seemed to be the cure to all of Liverpool’s ills this season. He is quick, strong, smart and a good finisher of the ball, but he had never proven his ability to lead the line on his own. So far this season, he hasn’t really had the chance. After three games, Sturridge picked up an injury which has kept him out until the time of writing, and just this week he picked up another knock that will keep him out six more weeks.

So look at his backups. The Merseyside club have “Super” Mario Balotelli who has yet to find any sort of form, an aging Rickie Lambert, purchased from Southampton for what appeared to be sentimental reasons and Fabio Borini, who is largely untested at the club but has failed to impress so far.

This list is indicative of the failing of Brendan Rodgers, Ian Ayre and Liverpool. They lost a world class player for a world class fee and reinvested that money into depth rather than quality. This is necessary when you suddenly pick up more games this season after being thrust into the Champions League, but as a manager, it is your job to find where those 31 goals are going to come from, so let’s look at the squad.

Lambert scored 13 goals in the league last season as the primary striker for Southampton, but at Liverpool he is a backup to Balotelli and in a system that does not suit his playing style, as he is not a very technical player. Expect that number to be cut easily into the single digits this season unless something tactically dramatic happens.

Balotelli is a fine player when he can find his form. He scored 14 goals in Serie A for AC Milan last season, but over half of those came from free kicks and penalties. Balotelli has had to pass those duties off to Steven Gerrard, so also expect his number to be quite low.

Borini is the wild card. He is technical and thrives in his national squad, so expect to see a better output from the young Italian this season as he begins to fit the system.

The most important pickup in the offseason for Liverpool is Dejan Lovren, again from Southampton. A shoring up of an often porous defense will account for a significant loss of goals from last season, and their defense also cost them in the crucial final stages of the season.

Nick Burgess is a soccer columnist for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter @NickBurgess92, “Like” him on Facebook and connect with him on Google.

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