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2015 has ticked over and the infamous Premier League festive fixtures have punished squads, while the FA Cup third round was completed with hardly a hitch.
Brendan Rodgers’ Liverpool sit eighth on the table, after a title challenge hangover left the team looking like it had downed a few too many in an effort to forget the pain of falling so short of glory. It’s now woken up, and is missing the confidence and bravado from the season passed.
Rodgers has faced his largest professional challenge yet, bigger than managing the often maniacal Luis Suarez, as he was tasked with backing up a season exceeding all expectations and doing so without the Uruguayan enigma.
The past six months have sent post-Suarez Liverpool on a wild journey, splashing over £100 million during the transfer period in an effort to strengthen not only the squad, but also the oft-criticised defence and to replace the league’s top scorer.
The season proper has been a footballing disaster, with the remaining half of the ‘SAS’ duo, Daniel Sturridge, perma-crocked since early September as Liverpool slumped to a league start worse than Roy Hodgson’s much lamented 2010 season. A failed Champions League group stage campaign compounded the heartache as the Reds bombed out of the competition they were so desperate to be a part of.
As it sits, Brendan Rodgers has a mountain to climb if he is to repay the trust of the Anfield administration, after penning a contract extension which would see him stay at the Merseyside club until 2018.
A total spend of nearly £120 million has seen Rodgers’ already poor record in the market amplified as he failed to replace the gargantuan Luis Suarez-shaped hole, opting to invest in risky, unproven rough diamonds like Lazar Markovic and Mario Balotelli instead of world class international talent.
The best opportunity for the club to consolidate gains was lost as it appeared the direction of transfers was confused between rebuilding (Markovic, Divock Origi and Emre Can) and buying established players (Dejan Lovren and Adam Lallana).
Of his summer transfers, only Lallana and young Spanish fullback Alberto Moreno have made serious impacts on the team. It’s no surprise, as they are class act international players in a squad which is sorely missing that type of talent.
Purchases for the future – specifically Markovic and Origi, whose transfer fees total £30 million – would have been perfect for the 2013 summer window when Liverpool were building for the top four. Now, with 20-year-old Raheem Sterling carrying the attacking burden for half a season, it is obvious that an established winger should have been a top priority in the summer.
Allowing Origi to go on loan and relying on insurance players such as Rickie Lambert and Balotelli to cover the injury-prone Sturridge was another risk not worth taking.
Letting club stalwart and vice-captain Daniel Agger go and replacing him with former Saints centre-half Lovren, who was a £20 million sideways move at best, has resulted in the biggest flop of the window. Where Rodgers should have invested in world class attacking talent, he replaced a player who he should have sought to keep with an overpriced, mid-table defender.
January is the time for Rodgers to be aggressive with his transfer committee and force the club to spend on proven talent in an effort to salvage a season that was ultimately doomed after failure to spend like a proper Champions League team – rather than an upper mid-table team.
Liverpool must take advantage of the Champions League money and lucrative sponsorship deals, as well as using Steven Gerrard’s upcoming departure as an excuse to buy proven talent.
Victory in the Europa League could be the only way back to the Champions League for Rodgers’ Reds in 2015, and right now the squad doesn’t look fully up to the challenge.
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