Manager: Brendan Rodgers.
Last season: Second.
Major signings: Rickie Lambert (£4m, Southampton), Adam Lallana (£25m, Southampton), Emre Can (£10m, Bayer Leverkusen), Lazar Markovic (£20m, Benfica), Dejan Lovren (£20m, Southampton), Divock Origi (£10m, Lille).
Players out: Luis Suarez (£75m, Barcelona), Luis Alberto (loan, Espanyol), Jakub Sokolik (free, Yeovil), Villyan Bijev (free, Slavia Sofia), Yalany Baio, Yusuf Mersin, Michael Ngoo, Craig Roddan, Stephen Sama (released), Iago Aspas (loan, Sevilla), Andre Wisdom (loan, West Brom), Divock Origi (loan, Lille).
Expectations: Who, honestly, can say?
The assumption is that without the 31 goals scored by Luis Suarez in the Premier League last season, Liverpool can’t really expect to finish any higher than fifth.
Brendan Rodgers has been accused of doing a Tottenham, replacing one irreplaceable player with any number of ‘not quites’ and ‘never weres.’
That simply isn’t true, however. Rodgers has spent wisely in securing proven Premier League pedigree in Dejan Lovren and Adam Lallana. Emre Can was one of the best young players in the Bundesliga last season, while Rickie Lambert is as good a back-up striker as you will come across.
Among the six signings, and the five that are staying (Divock Origi has gone straight back to Lille on loan), it’s only Lazar Markovic that looks like a Lamela-sized risk given the £20m or so that was paid for him.
More will come in and don’t be surprised to see either Mario Balotelli or Marco Reus walk through the door at Anfield. More likely, and less expensive, is the Italian.
If Rodgers does have an issue, it’s in getting such a high number of new players to gel within a squad that looked perfectly balanced last season. How will the arrivals of Can, Lallana and Markovic in particular affect the likes of Joe Allen, Raheem Sterling, Lucas, Jordan Henderson and even Steven Gerrard?
Who will start in the centre of defence? Lovren and Skrtel is the conventional wisdom but where would that leave Mamadou Sakho, one of France’s better players in Brazil? Daniel Agger, presumably, will leave and be missed.
Anyway, lots of questions and few answers.
Liverpool fans trust Rodgers, though, and unlike Spurs last season they’re coming at this season from a position of strength not known in five years. One major signing and they’ll be a lot of people’s favourites to go even further next May.
Irish angle: Unless you count Rodgers himself, we’re sadly lacking in Irish representatives. Alex O’Hanlon and Daniel Cleary are two Irish lads who play in the Academy, but don’t expect to see them climb the ladder any time soon.
If they were a fictional character… The Inbetweeners – awkward phase after awkward phase, and now they’re (hopefully for them) all grown up.
Where will they end up? Top four again.
