Alan Hansen is a Liverpool great and an eloquent TV pundit who often provides the voice of reason.
However, his declaration that the new Reds manager will find himself stuck with a squad inferior to the one Rafa Benitez inherited six years ago just doesn’t stack up.
“The painful truth for Liverpool and their supporters is that the new manager at Anfield, whoever he turns out to be, will find a worse squad at his disposal than that which Benitez inherited from Gerard Houllier in 2004,” Hansen said.
“And you could even argue that Liverpool are in their worst state since Bill Shankly arrived at the club more than 50 years ago.”
For Benitez’s first league game at Tottenham in August 2004 the line up was Dudek; Josemi, Carragher, Hyypia, Riise; Finnan, Hamann, Gerrard, Kewell; Cisse, Baros.
His only new recruit among those names was Josemi and on the bench he had Kirkland, Henchoz, Warnock, Biscan and Sinama Pongolle.
Gerrard was Liverpool’s only genuinely world class player, he had two infuriating inconsistent frontmen in Cisse and Baros and an Aussie winger who spent most of his time on the treatment table.
Fast forward six years and a Liverpool manager would currently be able to field a line up of: Reina; Johnson, Carragher, Agger, Insua; Kuyt, Mascherano, Gerrard, Benayoun, Rodriguez; Torres.
The bench would have the likes of Aquilani, Skrtel, Riera, Babel and Lucas.
Of course Benitez made some terrible buys – Robbie Keane, Jermaine Pennant, Jan Krompkamp and Andrea Dossena to name just a few.
But the Spaniard also brought in some real quality and to suggest the squad is weaker now simply isn’t true.
Yes, the squad lacks depth but that was true during Houllier’s reign. Only investment from rich new owners will solve that.
But whoever takes over will inherit four world class players in Reina, Gerrard, Torres and Mascherano, considerably more than Houllier left behind.
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