Scoring Liverpool’s signings – all but one of them awful.
Liverpool’s incredibly poor start to the season has been blamed on many things, but it is getting harder to ignore that, while the club have undoubtedly been hit hard by the departure of Luis Suarez, Brendan Rodgers has re-invested that money terribly with a series of poor recruits.
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With every player below the high score of 6, here’s how we rank the Reds’ new additions this season based on their performances so far:
1) Mario Balotelli – £16m
1/10 – The worst of the lot, £16m striker Mario Balotelli gets one mark out of ten in honour of the one goal he has scored in eight appearances now. Apart from that, the Italian international gets no extra marks for effort as he has barely put any in, instead disrupting the harmony at Anfield by complaining about being played upfront on his own.
2) Dejan Lovren – £20m
2/10 – a player badly struggling to deal with the step up from Southampton to Liverpool, Dejan Lovren has not looked at all worth £20m on performances so far, failing to bring that much-needed solidity to the Reds’ backline.
3) Lazar Markovic – £20m
2.5/10 – a supposedly promising youngster who has also done precious little to live up to his price tag so far. Lazar Markovic may not quite be a regular yet, but he looks an expensive gamble at the moment and an over-rated talent contributing little to the team at present.
4) Adam Lallana – £25m
3/10 – For the money paid for him, Adam Lallana simply hasn’t done enough at all for Liverpool so far. The England international may have had some trouble with injuries, but he is another who looks caught out by making the step up from a mid-table side to a Champions League team.
5) Emre Can – £9.75m
3/10 – another young player who may come good, but so far Emre Can looks another injury-prone waste of money by Liverpool, making little to no impact for the club in midfield so far. One good season at Bayer Leverkusen suggests this may have been another ill-thought-out purchase by the Reds.
6) Rickie Lambert – £4m
3.5/10 – only brought in as a squad player, but Rickie Lambert has not fully taken advantage of Daniel Sturridge’s spell injured, failing to impress sufficiently as to get into the team on a regular basis. Still without a goal for Liverpool, the England veteran may manage to be a waste of money even for just £4m.
7) Javi Manquillo – loan
5/10 – a decent young player and only on loan, Javi Manquillo has not quite found the right level of consistency yet, but may be worth taking on permanently as a long-term replacement for Glen Johnson.
8) Alberto Moreno – £12m
6/10 – The best of the bunch with a score of six, young left-back Alberto Moreno has caught the eye with some strong attacking performances, though there is no doubt he can still improve at the back. The Spaniard should get better with experience and has shown some potential so far, though one good signing out of eight does not reflect at all well on Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers.