Liverpool FC: Stuttering Start or Lack of Quality?

I’ve just back from watching another poor, half-hearted performance by Liverpool.

There is no doubt that the loss of Xabi Alonso has been massive, and the way other players step up to fill that void is going to determine the success, or otherwise, this season. Glen Johnson has been superb and his pairing with Dirk Kuyt is working fantastically well. Alberto Aquilani on the other hand is still injured and no one knows how he will recover from surgery to put a chronic ankle problem that has resulted in him only playing 53 games in all competitions during his last 3 seasons at Roma. He has the potential to do big things at Liverpool and if he can fill in the gap between midfield and attack, that is so clearly missing now Alonso has gone, then he will be an Anfield hero. Should we become stronger upon his return to fitness and then go on to challenge hard for the title then much of this will surely be attributed to him, especially since our start to the season has been so poor!

So far Liverpool have lost 2 out of 3 games in the Premier League, resulting in a frustrated and anxious crowd. We only lost two games all of last season, so in order to improve on this we now cant afford to lose a single game, and we must turn a good proportion of the draws we ad last year in to wins. Many fans already believe that we are out of the race because of the class that Chelsea are showing, the result grinding ability of Man Utd and the rejuvenation of Arsenal, not to mention the massive leaps forward that Tottenham and Man City have made. My personal opinion is that the final points tally for this years winner will be much lower than last years and I also think that we will see more upsets that previous years.

I hope that Liverpool step up their game against Bolton at the weekend and then get in to a stride that will see us keep pace with other big clubs. I personally don’t think that the signs on show are a lack of quality, more just a lack of cohesion and lack the magical spark that unlocks teams and changes tough games. Lets hope the top players can step up their game and the introduction of Aquilani later on this year will have the impact we so desperately need it to have.

YNWA!