Evaluating all of Liverpool’s summer signings of 2015/16

For the past 5 years, Liverpool have drained over 300 Million on new players. It started for Kenny Dalglish when he bought in players for over 100 Million and none of them apart from Suarez (off course) showed any quality. He went for the ‘potential world class players’ instead of buying the proven quality which haunted them afterwards.

King Kenny was shown the exit door on May 16^th 2012 and the owners appointed Brendan Rodgers as the club’s new man in charge. He brought in the likes of Borini, Allen, Assaidi and Sahin in the summer. The only quality signings came on the January transfer window of 2012/13 season where he bought in Coutinho and Daniel Sturridge. Emre Can, Sakho, Mignolet, and Moreno are his only decent signings thus far. During his tenure, he has spent over 200 Million and yet Liverpool are still relying on their injury prone striker to score goals.

Rodgers was given the benefit of the doubt when Owners gave him the vote of confidence and one last chance after the bizarre 2014/15 season where he failed to deliver. Liverpool were forced to sell Raheem Sterling to Manchester City for almost 50 million pounds. Players like Lambert, Borini and Aspas were sold too. This meant than Rodgers still has a healthy amount of money to spend on new signings.

James Milner:

He was bought for free from Man City as Liverpool looked to strengthen their squad depth. Many eyebrows were raised when the fans heard about Liverpool’s first signing of the season because Steven Gerrard was released by the club and Sterling also left which made the Kopites very concerned about the ongoing politics at the club. Rodgers rated him as a team leader and gave him the vice captaincy straight away.  Milner has been pretty average so far. He maybe the hardest working outfield player in the Premier League but with just 3 goals in 20 appearances so far, he isn’t doing the team any favors.

Joe Gomez:

Early days, of course, but the teenager has already exceeded expectations while performing in an unaccustomed left-back role. He is injured right now and probably will miss the rest of the season but he is definitely one for the future.  

Danny Ings:

Ings was considered fourth-choice striker on his arrival, but as the time passed, he become a regular starter and a possible England international. One of the only few positives of this season so far. The highlight of his career at Liverpool so far is the goal in the Merseyside Derby and the connection with the fans as he was praised for his hard work and commitment on the field.

Adam Bogdan:

Taken on as a backup to Mignolet, the Hungarian knows he is a squad player but his penalty saves spared Liverpool a Capital One Cup earlier this season.

Nathaniel Clyne:

Brought in to replace Glen Johnson, the England man has been steady if unspectacular, but would benefit from greater consistency around him in terms of performance and selection. He is my personal favorite signing and has shown glimpses of why he should be the England’s number 1 choice for the upcoming Euros in France.

Roberto Firmino:

Liverpool splashed out a surprising amount of money on the forward in the hope he could prove as inspirational as Coutinho or Luis Suarez. Troubled by injuries in his early spell. He came back strongly and gave some staggering performances as under Jurgen Klopp at Man City where he scored and assisted goals and could’ve even got a hattrick. His little plays near the final third and his vision is brilliant. He only needs a good supporting striker with him upfront who could cash on his through balls and short passes. Uptill now he has impressed us a lot, but we still haven’t seen his best as of yet but one thing is for sure that he is one hell of a talented Brazilian.

Christian Benteke:

Here’s the final and the most debatable signing of 2015/16 season.  Benteke began the campaign as a lone striker and played only 45 minutes playing alongside another front man before being hamstrung. He came back and saw his side struggling for goals. With 7 goals in his 19 appearances so far, the big Belgian is being criticized for his not-so-good work rate. Jurgen Klopp wants his players to presss and to work harder to win the ball and Benteke’s style of play doesn’t seems to impress Klopp and his strategies. There’s a big debate of whether Liverpool should play to his strengths or does Benteke need to adopt the Klopp’s style of play. We will see how he copes and gel with the current squad and hopefully he’ll prove his worth.