If ever there was a summer when a little fine-tuning was all that was needed at Anfield, this was it. Having seen his Liverpool team finish second, only four points behind Manchester United last season, the closest they have come to winning the league title since their last success in 1990, Rafael Benítez expected a quiet summer, unaware of the knock-on effects of the imminent spending sprees at Real Madrid and, indirectly, Manchester City.
Real’s summer-long pursuit of Xabi Alonso has been a tortuous saga, but, for Liverpool, the more serious issue has been the effect on Benítez’s team. The issue has complicated the Liverpool manager’s plans for the new campaign and forced him to shift his priorities from the forward line to scouring Europe for replacements for Alonso.
The unrest over the Spain midfield player would have been easier for Benítez to stomach had he been able to sign Gareth Barry, the player with whom he tried to replace Alonso 12 months earlier, but instead the England midfield player joined City in June, leaving the Liverpool manager to accuse him of moving “only for the money”.
The question is whether a summer of instability, which has also included Álvaro Arbeloa joining Real and Javier Mascherano floating the unpopular idea of moving to Barcelona, has damaged Liverpool’s hopes of improving on last season. That performance might be hard to repeat, but reasons to be cheerful include the signing of Glen Johnson from Portsmouth and the assumption that Steven Gerrard and Fernando Torres should get a clearer run with injuries, with Torres starting only 20 league games last season.
The concern is that Liverpool achieved the extraordinary feat of beating Chelsea and Manchester United at home and away last season and still came up narrowly short, largely because of their struggle to overcome stubborn opponents such as Stoke City and Hull City at Anfield. The only pressing need this summer was to find a player with the flair to unlock those packed defences, but, as with everything at Liverpool these days, the situation has become complicated. That long-awaited nineteenth title remains a possibility, but it will not be as straightforward as Benítez had hoped.
Real’s summer-long pursuit of Xabi Alonso has been a tortuous saga, but, for Liverpool, the more serious issue has been the effect on Benítez’s team. The issue has complicated the Liverpool manager’s plans for the new campaign and forced him to shift his priorities from the forward line to scouring Europe for replacements for Alonso.
The unrest over the Spain midfield player would have been easier for Benítez to stomach had he been able to sign Gareth Barry, the player with whom he tried to replace Alonso 12 months earlier, but instead the England midfield player joined City in June, leaving the Liverpool manager to accuse him of moving “only for the money”.
The question is whether a summer of instability, which has also included Álvaro Arbeloa joining Real and Javier Mascherano floating the unpopular idea of moving to Barcelona, has damaged Liverpool’s hopes of improving on last season. That performance might be hard to repeat, but reasons to be cheerful include the signing of Glen Johnson from Portsmouth and the assumption that Steven Gerrard and Fernando Torres should get a clearer run with injuries, with Torres starting only 20 league games last season.
The concern is that Liverpool achieved the extraordinary feat of beating Chelsea and Manchester United at home and away last season and still came up narrowly short, largely because of their struggle to overcome stubborn opponents such as Stoke City and Hull City at Anfield. The only pressing need this summer was to find a player with the flair to unlock those packed defences, but, as with everything at Liverpool these days, the situation has become complicated. That long-awaited nineteenth title remains a possibility, but it will not be as straightforward as Benítez had hoped.
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