The Futures Bright, The Futures RED!

Well our valiant Premiership challenge is finally over but it’s been a hell of a ride and there were times when our football was so good, that it felt like we were back in the 80’s again. So I guess I should be feeling gutted right now, but I’m not. Obviously there is some disappointment but while we always remained hopeful, I think deep down we all knew weeks back that this would be the likely outcome. As Liverpool fans we have a tendency to believe in miracles as we’ve seen a few over the years, but even miracles are hard to come by when things are out of your hands and you have to rely on other teams to do you a favour.

In the circumstances it was natural that the team was going to be a bit flat in our game at West Brom on Sunday but, other than Carra and Arby swinging their hand-bags at each other, it was a very professional performance. Gerrard’s 24th goal of the season and Deadly Dirk’s 15th, gave us a fairly comfortable win with both players achieving their highest ever seasons goal return in a Liverpool shirt. The victory also brought us to 83 points our best ever tally in a Premiership season, with another possible three points available in our final game against Spurs at Anfield.

This is one of the big reasons why any disappointment I may be feeling is totally overshadowed by how proud I am of our teams efforts this season and how positive I’m feeling about the seasons ahead. History shows us that in almost all cases, a team needs to mount a serious challenge for a season or two before going on to win the league and we’ve certainly ticked that box this season. All of the excellent work and steady progress Rafa has made with the side since arriving at Anfield is beginning to come to fruition but even the great man himself has admitted there is still much work to be done and lots of room for improvement.

There have been plenty of positives for us this season but also a few lessons to be learned. Two of the big ones that spring to my mind is that firstly, there should no longer be any doubt that all things being equal we most certainly have a team that is good enough to win the Premiership and secondly, over the course of a season all things are often not equal and it is for those occasions that you need a strong squad.

It’s been very evident in recent months that we are now regularly playing the type of Valencia-like football that we hoped Rafa would eventually bring to us. It’s perhaps taken us longer to get to this position than either ourselves or the manager would have ideally liked but a total rebuild from the youth to the senior side was required and for various reasons the boss just didn’t have the financial backing to make it happen any faster.

By my reckoning, in the four seasons since he’s come to Anfield he has had just £60-£70 million to buy players and the rest of his spending has been financed through player sales. If we had, had the foundation of a strong title winning squad when he arrived, as the arse did at the time and the chavs and mancs have had since, then that kind of money might have been just enough to freshen things up and keep us on track, but that was by no means the case.

Next season only Carra and Gerrard will remain from the squad he inherited. So it really is an amazing achievement that in just four seasons this man has rebuilt the entire playing side of the club both on and off the pitch with less funds than he would have had available at the likes of Spurs, Newcastle or even Sunderland! That would be remarkable by itself but during the rebuild process he has also managed to firmly cement our position in what seems to be becoming the “Big Three”, we are the current number one ranked side in Europe and we also picked up a bit of silverware along the way.

Despite the frustrations of managing a club with champagne aspirations but lemonade transfer funds, he has kept plugging away. With one or two exceptions, enough money wasn’t made available for his main transfer targets so cheaper alternatives had to be gambled upon. Some worked out and some didn’t but they were usually sold on for a profit which would then be used to fund a better quality replacement. Having to upgrade the side in this fashion obviously takes time but to a large extent this method is responsible for the squad we have now.

We have come a long way with Rafa in charge. Under previous managers and in the boss’s first couple of seasons, our team often resembled a sinking life raft where one hole would eventually be plugged only for us to spring a leak somewhere else, but things are a lot different now. The gaffer first gave the side a strong spine, then built a strong team around that spine and now he is trying to build a strong squad around that team. Building a squad is an ongoing process and progress has been made, but more work needs to be done over the summer if we are to continue to make progress towards our ultimate goal.

The fact that Fernando Torres and Steven Gerrard were in our starting line-up for only the 13th time this season in our game at West Brom, really tells its own story. They are our two best attacking players who have struck up a great partnership which is our biggest source of goals and I’ve no doubts in my mind that we would already be champions if they both had been available to us more often this season. But football, just like life, isn’t always fair and sometimes you’ve just got to get on with it and try to take whatever positives you can from the negatives.

Considering that we were without our two main men for long periods through various injuries but still managed to do well and keep ourselves in a challenging position, is evidence of the progress that has been made in adding more depth to our squad. However, more depth and quality is needed for us to potentially win not just the Premiership but the other competitions as well.

Realistically you can’t really replace players like Gerrard and Torres but you can improve the quality of the options you have available when they aren’t around. For example, when Torres is injured our options consist of the tireless but unprolific Kuyt, the inconsistent Babel, the promising but still developing Ngog and maybe Benny Onion.

These are all good players with various qualities of their own but if they have to play the role of our main striker, the gap in quality between each of them and Torres is far too wide. The mancs are ahead of us in this department. They have the likes of Tevez, Chimp features, Ladyboy and Barbie Doll as their attacking options, not to mention Fergie’s young Italian rent boy. Given our transfer budget it won’t be easy, but we need at least one more option in attack who can partner Torres when required and more properly fill the void when he isn’t available.

Central midfield is another area where I feel we need to strengthen our options. For a team that often uses three central midfielders to only have four experienced ones in the first team squad, seems to me to be cutting it a bit fine. In our strongest 11, Alonso and Masch play behind Gerrard which allows him to go forward to support Torres. Those three are a very strong combination but all of them have had injuries over the season and I find it worrying that our only natural cover for this area is Lucas.

I don’t have a problem with Lucas, he is still developing but comes in and provides decent cover when we need him. But we need more cover and competition for places in this area and again I think there is that gap in quality between Lucas and the players he replaces. This is one of the big reasons why it really does my head in when I hear some people say they don’t see where Gareth Barry would fit in at Anfield.

If Rafa chooses to go after him again in the summer, I think he would be a great signing and an ideal extra option for us in central midfield. I honestly believe this guy would be a perfect fit for us. He is a quality player, well proven in the Premiership and an international who already links up well with Gerrard in the England team. He was also captain of Villa for a few years so he is also a leader and you can’t have too many of those in your team.

Barry is also versatile and can play on the left if required. He also has a sweet left foot, which he uses to good effect in dead ball situations and corner-kicks, and the list goes on. This guy just ticks so many boxes. Last summer he was Rafa’s number one target but it didn’t work out and now he will be available for about half the price, so for me this really is a no-brainer.

I’m not talking about him replacing anybody, I think we need to add him to the central midfielders we already have. I’m also not suggesting he would walk straight into our first team but he would get plenty of games for us, probably as many as he gets at Villa. He could slot in nicely beside Alonso, Masch or even Lucas and provide us with that extra quality option that I believe will be very useful to us next season. If all we manage to do this summer is cover these two areas and bring in another option at right-back, we will be in great shape for the next campaign.

The mancs and their media buddy’s are now in full celebration mode but they have merely matched something that we achieved almost two decades ago with almost none of the same over the top fanfare. It’s taken 19 barren league years from us, £100’s of millions from them and lot’s of kind help from the FA and their officials over the years, but finally they have drawn level with us on 18 league titles.

Next season we will battle to see who gets to 19 first and thankfully for the first time in two decades I really believe we are ready. With a couple of additions over the summer I feel we will be well equipped to take on the mancs, the chavs, the arse and any other team that gets in our way. The mancs may be the ones celebrating at the moment but I remember a wise old saying which says that those who follow in your foot steps, can never pass you by and maybe next season we’ll find out if it’s true!