After a long time Liverpool are finally back in the Champions’ League as they finished second last season, first time ever in the history of English Premier League they finished above their fiercest rivals Manchester United while finished below Man City the defending champions. Liverpool missed out on the first Premier League title in 25 years narrowly. Lots of things have happened in the Liverpool camp since the end of last season.
One particular thing happened is the departure of their super star Luis Suarez to Barcelona. This departure would have been a huge shock had it not been Suarez’s actions in the World Cup Brazil. Suarez had bit Italian defender Chiellini and was then banned. His actions caused his departure from Liverpool but he is now a Barcelona man who will be playing alongside Messi, may be his actions came as a blessing for him as in England he was targeted a lot by the media, he had served many bans in his Liverpool career two of which were racial comments to Man Utd’s Patrice Evra and bite to Chelsea’s Ivanovic.
Now Suarez is gone and Liverpool’s manager Brenden Rodgers has not replaced him as yet. Liverpool missed out on Alexis Sanchez who went to Arsenal instead. They have bought 3 Southampton players Adam Lallana, Rickie Lambert and Lovren, while they have bought young midfielder Emre Can. These all players are good and have quality but when it comes to Suarez he is one of the top strikers in world and he was a very vital reason for Liverpool’s successful previous season.
Daniel Sturridge did have stellar of a season but it was Suarez with whom his partnership helped him score those goals. Liverpool’s game play was so good because of Luis Suarez and his technical and dribbling skills which Liverpool are really going to miss next season. There are talks of Shaqiri coming to Liverpool, he is a quality player but it is tough to predict his arrival from Bayern Munich.
One other important factor to be considered is that Liverpool will be fighting on four fronts after qualifying for the Champion’s League. We have seen in past how CL football can affect EPL games too due to hectic schedule and thin line up. CL football might come as a distraction to Liverpool’s EPL campaign and might even cause them some points.
Overall it is possible that Liverpool might struggle next season and as Arsenal, Chelsea, Man Utd has improved a lot, on the other side Liverpool have actually degraded with departure of Suarez and no world class signings. Last season was Liverpool’s best season in more than 5 years and almost every player played well, there was no CL distraction either, while this season things have changed and unless Liverpool come up with some major signings, they are likely to suffer this coming season.
– Jainam Jhaveri
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