Let me tell you a story. As you’re reading this article, on a Liverpool fan site, I would guess you’re a Liverpool fan. Either that, or you’re one of these fans of a rival club who spends their time going round laughing at how deluded us Liverpool fans are because we think we’re going to win the league (don’t worry, I don’t). So, if you fall into the former of those two readership demographics, the chances are that you’ll know this story already. The story is of a team in 2014, led by captain Steven Gerrard and heroic striker Luis Suarez. They finished 2nd, leaving their fans both immensely proud and crushed with disappointment. There are a myriad of reasons why Liverpool were robbed of our one remaining dream that season, but one of the primary downfalls was our lack of options, particularly in the attacking positions. The first eleven was great (largely because of Suarez), but the substitutes weren’t of the same ilk. The replacements were always, without fail, any three from Aly Cissokho, Joe Allen, Victor Moses and Iago Aspas. None of those were good enough for a side trying to win the league, they weren’t able to provide competition for our better players. End of story.
So what’s the relevance of this story? Well, let me explain. This year, for the first time in a long time, we have genuine options. There are going to be players who will spend most of the season on the bench who would’ve made the first team back in the 2013/14 season. People have levelled the criticism at us that we’ve bought too many similar players, but squad depth is important and whilst I don’t think we will win the league this year, it certainly won’t be because of a lack of choices. That’s the main area we’ve improved upon this summer.
So, I hear you ask, who should be the focal point of Liverpool’s attack this season? Let’s find out…
Daniel Sturridge
Up first is Liverpool’s number fifteen, the prolific and popular Daniel Sturridge. On his day, our most talented player and a striker whose top form performances have our fans’ appetite whet. If you wanted me to name our best players and players most likely to win us a game of football, he’d be right up there with Philippe Coutinho. He has a simply breathtaking goal return in a red shirt, making the net bulge on average once every 1.7 games, a record which puts him right up there with the world’s elite. And yet there are question marks against his name. Why?
Because he’s not reliable, that’s why. Sturridge is the sort of player who thrives off being the most important player in the team. He loves the adulation and the responsibility. That’s the selfish and competitive streak in his personality. So in order to get the very best out of him, we have to build the team around him. But how can you do that when his body is so fragile? When you never know when his next three month lay-off is coming?
His game isn’t exactly suited to Jurgen Klopp’s ideas either. I don’t think Sturridge in a 4-2-3-1 formation works so well. He can end up isolated when up top alone, and when he tries to get himself into the game more, he has a habit of dropping deep and playing in the central midfield area, which just ends up with him even further out of the game. The injuries he has sustained over the last few years have resulted in a decline in the blistering pace he once had, and I don’t think his link up play with Coutinho is as good as it used to be.
I love Daniel Sturridge and there is absolutely a place for him in this side. Like with all of our attacking options, Sturridge is more suited to certain games than others. In a game which we would be expected to dominate possession, Sturridge is the man. If he plays in a game against one of the bottom twelve or so sides in the league, more often than not, he will score. This is simply because the defenders aren’t as good as higher level opposition, and we will naturally create more chances for Sturridge, meaning he won’t get isolated and feel the need to come deep. He’s also such a good finisher that in a game like this, if he gets a chance, he’ll probably take it.
If, however, you’ve got a tough game where you might need to soak up pressure and play on the counter, who you gonna call?
Divock Origi
Source: liverpoolfc.com
Nope, not ghostbusters. It is in fact Divock Origi, one of the real success stories of Jurgen Klopp’s reign so far. He has progressed immeasurably from the shy, out of place boy who we saw under Brendan Rodgers. We now have a man. A man who has grown in both physicality and ability, and a man capable of leading the line for Liverpool this season. Perhaps the biggest thing in his favour is that the manager likes him so much. Klopp picked him over Sturridge to start games against Man City, Borussia Dortmund and Everton. If Jurgen Klopp was building a line up of eleven dream players with all the attributes he would want to play the football he wants, Divock Origi is about as close as you’re going to get to the hybrid player up front in Klopp’s fantasy side.
Origi is flexible, strong, young, athletic, hard working, versatile and quick. He was picked over Sturridge in big games last season because he could be trusted to put into practice Klopp’s plan. He presses hard and is pretty much the archetypal Klopp player. Even when playing up top alone in a 4-2-3-1, he is always in the game and has excellent link up with the attacking midfielders. He’s built up a good relationship with both Coutinho and Firmino, and having Mane in the team will do Origi the world of good, they are very similar players in terms of their natural inclination to be direct and run after everything.
The fact that Origi is quicker than Sturridge means that in a game against a side who will dominate possession (maybe Pep Guardiola’s Man City or this weekend’s opponents Arsenal), Origi is the man. He is a perfect counter attacking player, and he’s shown that on numerous occasions. It has to be said that these games are probably away from home, because I expect us to be the team who controls possession at Anfield in almost every home game (apart from maybe Man City or Tottenham).
That’s not to say that Origi doesn’t have a part to play in games against lesser opponents. We’re talking as if the options are always going to be the same, but remember that the chances of Daniel Sturridge being available for all 38 games in a season are on a similar probability level to Jeremy Corbyn starting at left back for us on Sunday. Actually, might be onto something there. He’d stay in position more often than Moreno I bet. Anyway, back to Origi. Sturridge, like Origi, has a type of match which suits him best – but that’s not to say that he’ll be available for selection in all of them. So Origi will be called upon when needed.
One final point on Origi is that he is such an adaptable player with a willingness to be involved in the game. He could definitely play in a front two if that was ever to be a possibility – we have seen on a handful of occasions that he can play up front alongside Sturridge.
Roberto Firmino
And now onto Firmino, who I still don’t consider to be a striker. He played a number of times as a false nine last season between October and January, with varying degrees of success. He did well against City, Norwich, Chelsea and Arsenal but a lot of people neglect to remember his anonymous performances against Watford and Leicester in the false nine role.
He’s certainly an option that Jurgen Klopp rates, he has started as a false nine in nearly every pre-season friendly, and he’s looked very good. The fact that he has an established relationship with Lallana and Coutinho helps, having played so closely alongside them last season, because if he is to be our main striking option, he will need to be involved a lot more with them. Mane will advance forward into striking positions when Firmino drops back, and he already has an excellent rapport with Coutinho. We saw how well he worked with Lallana against Barcelona too, so it’s certainly exciting having so many creative players around.
Perhaps the biggest thing in Firmino’s favour is that he could play the false nine role in a 4-2-3-1 or a 4-3-3 and he wouldn’t need to change any of his game to be successful in either. The fact that he can drop back to a number ten at any time also helps, for if Sturridge, Origi or Ings were to be brought onto the field.
Much like the Origi option, I consider Firmino to be more likely to be playing up front in a tough away game (such as Arsenal on Sunday), because of his ability to drop back into midfield and compete for possession if he needed to. I do worry about his pace though, he is the slowest of all our options here, and that could be a slight concern if we are looking to play on the counter attack. I have been very encouraged with his link up with the likes of Mane and Lallana though.
Danny Ings
Source: liverpoolfc.com
And finally onto Danny Ings, the man so cruelly robbed of the final two thirds of last season after making such a promising start. Ings has looked bright in pre-season and like Origi is the sort of player well suited to a Jurgen Klopp team. He is hard working, infectious, rapid and is always prepared to press. I really like Danny Ings and I feel quite sorry for him because I don’t think he’ll get so many opportunities this season. One thing I will say is that he’s very versatile; he’s perfectly capable of playing 4-2-3-1, 4-3-3 or even a 4-4-2 diamond, and can even do a job on the wing.
No doubt he will get his chances, and a good run in either of the cups would be perfect for Ings, who will get game time in the domestic competitions. I’ll also say that having Ings as a fourth choice is testament to the number of strong options we have in the squad right now. Back in 2013/14, Ings would’ve been making regular appearances as back up for Suarez and Sturridge. Still, there will be chances for him in the league as well as the cups this year, and I hope he is able to come off the bench for 20 minutes pretty often. The fact that he’s so versatile means that there’s not really any type of game that suits him more than another; he can do a good job in any circumstances. If disaster strikes and we have an injury crisis, this is a good man to have in reserve.
Conclusions
Sturridge – I want us to have good players and good goal scorers and there aren’t many better goal scorers in the world than the former Chelsea man. So naturally I want him to play as much as possible, and as I said earlier, in games which we are expected to dominate, Sturridge should start.
He won’t let us down. Let’s just hope that his body lasts long enough for him to have an impact on our season.
Origi – In big games, I trust this man to do the business for us. He has improved so much already under Klopp and I know that there’s so much left for us to see. If it was up to me, he’d be our go to man when the going gets tough this season.
Firmino – This is a weird one because I think that when you have two strikers as good as Origi and Sturridge, it makes sense to have one of them on the pitch. But by playing Firmino up front, both of them are relegated to a place on the bench. For me, that’s a waste of goalscoring talent. I definitely want Firmino in the side, he’s one of our best players and is key to us having a good season. However, I want to see him in the number 10 role with Mane and Coutinho either side of him, and Sturridge or Origi sitting in front of those three. That prospect excites me. But, it isn’t up to me, it’s up to Jurgen Klopp, who knows more than me about football, and I predict that Firmino will start a lot of games up front, allowing Klopp’s favourite player Adam Lallana to play the number 10.
Ings – I hope that Ings gets a good amount of game time this season, I really do think that if injuries occur or any of our other attackers lose form, he will be able to step up to the plate. He could be a more important player for us than people think.
The answer to the question ‘Who should start up front?’ actually has a really simple answer: It depends. It depends on opposition, venue, form, other attacking players, importance of the game, availability of options etc. The best thing about having all these options is that I can’t think of a single fixture where we don’t have a player who would be suited to playing up front in that type of match. We have an impressive array of attacking options, and as a result, we can play to our strengths. Horses for courses. It’s not something we’ve been able to do much of before, but this season we are packed with midfield and attacking options and as a result we can set up for each game individually with a line up specialised for the game, rather than just a generic ‘best 11’ which we’ve been forced to field in previous years. There’s strong competition in the squad beyond the first eleven, and that’s a massive positive.
I don’t know where we’ll finish this season and I don’t think we will win the league. But I think we are starting to address the problems that have plagued the club for years, from an inadequately sized ground to a terrifying lack of squad depth. That is an achievement in itself and even if we don’t make top 4 this year, I’m feeling good about the future. The club is being managed intelligently, and with that, on field progress with naturally follow.
So. That’s my thoughts. But what about you? Send us a tweet, let me know what you think. Who do you want leading the line? Sturridge? Don’t blame you. Origi? Me too. Firmino? Looking likely. Ings? Interesting. Benteke? Pull the other one.
Big thanks to @LFCRoundUp for the fantastic photo.
Daniel Daykin
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Great review – thanks for posting.