Is Liverpool the new Tottenham after Suarez exit?

As soon as the news hit the Liverpool fans that Suarez had been banned for biting Italy’s Giorgio Chiellini’s shoulder, most of them knew their star player won’t be a part of the club for the next season. He subsequently was approached by Barcelona, who were ready to pay his £75m transfer clause set by Liverpool. The Uruguan striker in his letter to the Liverpool fans said, “I hope you can all understand why I have made this decision. Thank you again. You’ll Never Walk Alone”. Liverpool fans were clearly heart-broken as this could have been the season when they could have got the title.

Last year, another club had heart-broken fans when their star player, Gareth Bale left the club for Real Madrid. Tottenham subsequently brought in new talented players and the club and fans had built up the excitement of Andre Villas Boas building up a young and talented team. It didn’t go that well for them as the new signings played nowhere near their potential and Tottenham were 9th in the league table in November. After humiliating defeats against Manchester City and Liverpool, AVB was fired and the season for Tottenham ended then and there.

Luis Suarez has had a bigger impact on the club’s success than Gareth Bale had on Tottenham’s success. Luis Suarez scored 30 goals out of the 101 goals that Liverpool scored the previous season. He created the most chances (87), hit the most number of shots (152) and his minutes per goal was a very decent 95. He had these magnificent numbers despite of being banned for the first 10 matches of the season for biting Chelsea’s Branislav Ivanović. The Uruguan then went on to win the Professional Footballers’ Association (PFA) and Football Writers’ Association (FWA) player of the season. The number of times he won matches or turned them around for Liverpool was huge and losing him when the club had gained some momentum will strike them hard.

Liverpool came 2nd in the league and this was mainly because they scored 101 goals with Suarez and Sturridge scoring more than half of them. But what can’t be overlooked is that they had a very leaky defence as they conceded 50 goals, the worst that they have conceded in years and equal to the number of goals that were conceded by the 9th placed team. The midfielders Steven Gerrard and Jordan Henderson did an exceptional job but they along with Sturridge cannot help Liverpool stay in the top 4 let alone win the title.

Brendan Rogers has signed 4 players so far this season with only one of them being a striker. Rickie Lambert, the 32 year old English player was brought in from Southampton to replace Luis Suarez. Lambert alone cannot shoulder the responsibilities that Suarez used to and Liverpool need another big signing at the front to bolster their chances of staying at the top in the league. Eventually Gerrard will slow down and someone from the midfield would need to take his role. The coming season, as of now, is vital for the club.

Liverpool might not do as bad as Tottenham did last season but they surely need to rebuild their squad and strategy.