For a team that once proudly boasted it was the most successful club side in England, the fact that Liverpool have not won the league title in just over two decades is an embarrassment. The bad news for Liverpool fans, that run looks very unlikely to be over this year.
This is just not a reactionary statement to the weekend result a 1-0 loss at home to Aston Villa, but if you check my previous article about QPR you will see that the prediction there was somewhat similar.
Who doesn’t feel sorry for Steven Gerrard? If there is one player in the Premiership era who deserves a title it may well be him, but that slip against Chelsea last season is probably as close as Gerrard is going to get.
In coming as close as they did last year, Liverpool got as close as any team with an over reliance of one player could get. Luis Suarez is a world class footballer (there is no doubt of that) scoring 30 league goals in a season where he was suspended for 10 games was remarkable, but his actions in the World Cup pretty much guaranteed his Liverpool days were over.
Of course £75million from Barcelona helps, but questions have to be asked in regards to the players that they have signed. Ricky Lambert is no more than a Championship striker, or at best, leading the line for a lower half Premiership side. Nobody will be very surprised if he scores more than ten goals in the League. Neither, did the decision to try and recruit half the Southampton team. Adam Lallana may well prove to be the best of the bunch, but I don’t see that title winning spark coming from him.
Then there was the signing of Mario Balotelli; it is suffice to say this signing smelt a little of a panic buy, before deadline day madness kicked in. There were some major talents arriving in the Premiership this summer like Diego Costa at Chelsea and Radamel Falcao at Manchester United. Why not try to use the £75 million from Suraez to try and get these guys? Hell, you might even have got both for that amount.
Instead, Liverpool now appear to be reliant on Daniel Sturridge and Raheem Sterling, both of whom didn’t start against Villa due to injury or being rested, but any cutting edge Liverpool may of had was obviously absent without them. This is a lot of pressure to handle for these two talented players. Sturridge, may be the best English centre forward in the league, but is unlikely to play as an out and out centre forward very often, under the current team structure. Sterling, could be a real star on the World stage, but he is still a teenager, and he is not built like a Wayne Rooney or even a Ross Barkley when they were teenagers, and as such Sterling will need more rest and protection from the manager.
Liverpool, with the extra Champions League commitment as well, may actually do better in European competition than other English teams, but over a 38 game season, there is not enough talent or consistency for Liverpool to lift the title.
The Premier League title may well have red ribbons attached in May 2015, just that the presentation will definitely not be at Anfield. Chelsea, Manchester City, Arsenal, Manchester United figure to be the top four this time round, and Tottenham could be in the mix with their new manager. A more interesting battle from a Merseyside perspective, is will it be Blue or Red that are on top of the local battle. Sorry Liverpool fans, but this is a blue year in Liverpool in more ways than one.
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