Liverpool

How to walk alone in first place in the Premier League before it’s too late

Torres --- Villa
Babel --- Mascherano --- Xabi Alonso --- Gerrard
Arbeloa --- Agger --- Carragher --- Glen Johnson
Reina

Bench: Aurelio, Skrtel, Dossena, Insua, Riera, Benayoun, Lucas, Kuyt, N’Gog

Buy: completed - Glen Johnson (£18.5M), TBD – David Villa (~£40M) or some other Spanish striker, because the manager only buys Spaniards (unless he goes Dutch again, in which case Huntelaar is available). But really, perhaps it’s time to bring Owen home on the cheap, at least as a quality backup.
Or, forget Villa, put Babel in front, and go buy David Silva (~£30M) to play on the wing. This would actually help the squad just as much given Babel’s talent & potential. David Villa is also not as young as Silva, even though he has a cosmic bond with Torres already.

Sell: extra parts: Benitez has a huge squad, too many of whom play very little. On record he has 5 goalkeepers. FIVE! At this point he should sell at least two. Then he has 14 defenders. FOURTEEN! But 7 of them are 21 or younger, so he should just keep many out on loan or decide who is going to be a quality Premier League player. Sell at least 3, for goodness sake. If he had done that last year maybe he’d have already had Gareth Barry who is off to play in… well, for nothing. After that I count another 14 midfielders. FOURTEEN! 7 Forwards later (SEVEN!) we have 40 members of Liverpool Football Club. Many are young and should be off on loan, but many are not, and this team just needs a few more high level performers. Sell some lambs and buy some sheep. You are LIVERPOOL! (and you need to win the EPL before ManU & Chelsea recover from their upcoming “down” year).

What will happen: Glen Johnson has used up all the budget (£10M after Crouch), which means more extra parts will be bought, sold, and keep Liverpool spinning their wheels. Why oh why did they buy Robbie Keane again last year only to sell him for half-price six months later?

Honestly, look at the bench – only Kuyt is of high-class quality. Benayoun is good, Riera & Skrtel are serviceable along with Aurelio, and Insua, Lucas & N’Gog are possibilities for the future. But I just don’t see stars coming off the bench. I don’t see the cohesiveness (possibly because Rafa is constantly shifting line-ups) that make up a combative champion. Then again, Liverpool came in 2nd and has advanced to the quarterfinals in the CL for years running, along with a trophy and another final. They are good, and defeated ManU soundly in the last month, and still came up short.
Torres, Xabi Alonso, Gerrard, Mascherano & Carragher are strength after strength in the middle of the field. It’s time to get a winger. He should be able to get enough back from lesser players to buy one more stud. With debts and expenses too high that’s all they’re going to get, which is too bad.