Liverpool have successfully signed Maxi Rodriguez from Atletico Madrid on a free transfer. Rodriguez has signed a three-and-a-half year contract with the club. He may make his debut for Liverpool in the weekend game against Stoke. This is Rafa Benitez’s first signing in this transfer window. He has already sold Andriy Voronin and Andrea Dossena.
Liverpool FC’s performance in this season is worst among the so called «top four» clubs. They are out from the champions league, they are out from Carling cup and most recently they are out from FA cup. Seeing the current position and performance one can easily think of Liverpool not finishing in top four this season in the premier league, so they can be out from next year’s Champions league also.
Why so many problems to a club who were second in the league last season? In fact their performance was very good in the premier league last season. Some snapshots of their performance are as below:
o Liverpool lost only two matches in the premier league in 2008-09 season.
o They got double (won both home and away games) against Manchester United (league winners) and Chelsea.
o They were on the top of league for more than six months.
o Liverpool won 4-0 against Real Madrid in Champions league.
Now in this season Liverpool have not shown any sign of being a threat to the league winners. Seeing Manchester City’s and Spurs’ performances it will be very difficult for Liverpool to finish in top four.
The club’s problems are not only on the field but also off the field. They are in huge debt, team boss Rafa Benitez has already said that they may sale Torres and Gerrard for the future of the club. Team’s ace striker Fernando Torres is also very much concerned about the team’s bad performance this season and he has told the owners to buy some quality players. He said «If we want to compete with United and Chelsea we need a much, much more complete squad. We need more genuinely first-class players and we can’t let our best players leave.»
The main reason behind Liverpool’s bad run in this season can be the absence of Xabi Alonso. Liverpool have sold their midfielder Xabi Alonso to Real Madrid during the summer transfer window. They bring Alberto Aquilani for the Spanish Alonso.
Liverpool’s recent game against Reading has added a lot to Liverpool’s problems list. Liverpool lost the game 2-1 in extra time, moreover they lost three first team players in this game. Striker Fernando Torres will be out from action for six weeks, while Steven Gerrard will be sidelined for two and Yossi Benayoun is set to miss a month.