The summer of 2013 and 2014 are very similar for Tottenham Hotspurs and Liverpool. They both lost their best player, club top scorer and the PFA player of the year to a spanish team. Both also tried(Liverpool are still buying) to fix that departure by purchasing various players. Spurs finished in 6th after finishing 5th the previous season, failing to live up to early season expectation. With the previous resemblance, most people are predicting Liverpool will pull off "a spurs". In this article, I'll give you 5 reasons why Liverpool will not pull of a spurs.
THE MANAGER
Andre Villas-boas to be sincere doesn't have the best record in English football and his time with Spurs was helped by the work laid down by Harry Redknapp. Tim Sherwood even bettered his record with his short time in charge. Don't get me wrong his Porto team were brilliant in 2011, but his record in English football isn't the best. He lacked the right managerial nous to accommodate all the players he brought and make them work as a team. Brendon Rodgers on the other hand, is a brilliant manager. 2nd only to Jose Mourinho as at last season in the Epl in my opiniong. He has the tactical ability to tweak the team to work without Suarez. He also has the man managing skills to help the new players gel in to the team.
NO SUAREZ-DEPENDENCY
Unlike Spurs who had to depend on Gareth Bale for 21 points in 2012/2013. Liverpool were not dependent on Luis Suarez for points. All Liverpool's points last season were as a result of team effort not individualism. Most of Suarez's goals came against lesser teams. His big match goals came in both merseyside derbies, against Spurs and against Man utd (if you can put them in this category). Liverpool also played the first 6 games of last season without Suarez and did just okay without him, losing once during that period.
DANIEL STURRIDGE
If you sell the league's top scorer, you're usually in trouble, but then again, not if you have the 2nd top scorer. Sturridge scored 21 goals and provided 7 goals in 29 league appearances. While he scored 10 in 14 the previous season. Sturridge has been improving steadily since he arrived at Anfield and will hopefully, improve more this year. He scored 24 in 33 in all competitions, while Suarez failed to register a goal outside the league. Sturridge also scored 6 goals when Liverpool were behind last season, compared to Suarez's 1 against lowly Cardiff. Put simply Sturridge was the man for the big occasions and not Suarez last season. Sturridge is up for a big season this year. 30 goals? Its a realistic option
THE DIFFERENCE IN SIGNINGS
While Spurs bought players with no premier league experience and bought players who did not fit into their system (I'm not sure spurs had a system last season. Man utd at least,ripped the profits of their crossing). Liverpool are buying players who fit into the system. Personally,Liverpool played the best football in England last season, which was a high speed, pressing and fast movement game. Southampton tried to play the same type of football, albeit with slower and less technical players. So it makes sense that Liverpool are buying players from a club which play a similar type of football in the same league, and under Brendon Rodgers, they will improve. Divork Origi,Emre Can and Lazar Markovic are the non premier league buys, with the former back at Lille, but no one expects much from the latter 2. They are young and won't play every game, but are expected to improve and also sure to add something to the squad, watch out for Markovic especially, he's a real talent, he thrilled in a brilliant Benfica team last year. If Liverpool end up getting another striker, judging by the recent links (Remy, Bony, Jay Rodriguez) expect him to be a 15 + goal-man.
IMPROVEMENTS
As I said in my last Liverpool article (see link: http://t.co/AH1okVwhnV), Liverpool are a developing team and have a manager that is developing. They both would have learnt from the mistakes of last season, and as a young team, would want to give it another go. The core of the team is English, and after an expected failed World cup, they would want to prove to their critics that they're good enough, more so without Suarez. The captain, Steven Gerrard, who in his own acknowledgement has had a nightmare 3 months, would be especially pumped up for this season. He has even gone on record claiming he feels Liverpool can actually challenge for the league this year. Brendon Rodgers has spoken of how he expects Sturridge to replace Suarez as the talisman, he has spoken about more goals from Henderson. Sterling and Coutinho are players i expect big things from, and judging by what I've seen in pre-season, everyone should expect it. Jon Flanagan will most likely be helped improve in his attacking from full back, and in my opinion, could and should replace Glen Johnson.
Recently its hard to predict how Liverpool's season would go in the coming season, history suggests we will pull of a spurs even without selling Suarez. We usually suffer after a world cup, 2 of the 18 league titles have come after World cups (1979 and 1983), we have been out of title race by the following December after the 3 near title misses of the EPL era (1998, 2001 and 200c). Then we have a tricky champions league campaign up ahead that the squad hasn't experienced. That's 4 factors that suggest we could actually finish below expectations. But what are the expectations? The expectation for this season, as at the start of last season, was to stabilise a champions league place, after a 4th place finish last year. So after the brilliant season we had last year, should we settle for that? I'll say no, we can do better. We should go for it. As Gerrard said last season "We go again" in 2015
THE MANAGER
Andre Villas-boas to be sincere doesn't have the best record in English football and his time with Spurs was helped by the work laid down by Harry Redknapp. Tim Sherwood even bettered his record with his short time in charge. Don't get me wrong his Porto team were brilliant in 2011, but his record in English football isn't the best. He lacked the right managerial nous to accommodate all the players he brought and make them work as a team. Brendon Rodgers on the other hand, is a brilliant manager. 2nd only to Jose Mourinho as at last season in the Epl in my opiniong. He has the tactical ability to tweak the team to work without Suarez. He also has the man managing skills to help the new players gel in to the team.
NO SUAREZ-DEPENDENCY
Unlike Spurs who had to depend on Gareth Bale for 21 points in 2012/2013. Liverpool were not dependent on Luis Suarez for points. All Liverpool's points last season were as a result of team effort not individualism. Most of Suarez's goals came against lesser teams. His big match goals came in both merseyside derbies, against Spurs and against Man utd (if you can put them in this category). Liverpool also played the first 6 games of last season without Suarez and did just okay without him, losing once during that period.
DANIEL STURRIDGE
If you sell the league's top scorer, you're usually in trouble, but then again, not if you have the 2nd top scorer. Sturridge scored 21 goals and provided 7 goals in 29 league appearances. While he scored 10 in 14 the previous season. Sturridge has been improving steadily since he arrived at Anfield and will hopefully, improve more this year. He scored 24 in 33 in all competitions, while Suarez failed to register a goal outside the league. Sturridge also scored 6 goals when Liverpool were behind last season, compared to Suarez's 1 against lowly Cardiff. Put simply Sturridge was the man for the big occasions and not Suarez last season. Sturridge is up for a big season this year. 30 goals? Its a realistic option
THE DIFFERENCE IN SIGNINGS
While Spurs bought players with no premier league experience and bought players who did not fit into their system (I'm not sure spurs had a system last season. Man utd at least,ripped the profits of their crossing). Liverpool are buying players who fit into the system. Personally,Liverpool played the best football in England last season, which was a high speed, pressing and fast movement game. Southampton tried to play the same type of football, albeit with slower and less technical players. So it makes sense that Liverpool are buying players from a club which play a similar type of football in the same league, and under Brendon Rodgers, they will improve. Divork Origi,Emre Can and Lazar Markovic are the non premier league buys, with the former back at Lille, but no one expects much from the latter 2. They are young and won't play every game, but are expected to improve and also sure to add something to the squad, watch out for Markovic especially, he's a real talent, he thrilled in a brilliant Benfica team last year. If Liverpool end up getting another striker, judging by the recent links (Remy, Bony, Jay Rodriguez) expect him to be a 15 + goal-man.
IMPROVEMENTS
As I said in my last Liverpool article (see link: http://t.co/AH1okVwhnV), Liverpool are a developing team and have a manager that is developing. They both would have learnt from the mistakes of last season, and as a young team, would want to give it another go. The core of the team is English, and after an expected failed World cup, they would want to prove to their critics that they're good enough, more so without Suarez. The captain, Steven Gerrard, who in his own acknowledgement has had a nightmare 3 months, would be especially pumped up for this season. He has even gone on record claiming he feels Liverpool can actually challenge for the league this year. Brendon Rodgers has spoken of how he expects Sturridge to replace Suarez as the talisman, he has spoken about more goals from Henderson. Sterling and Coutinho are players i expect big things from, and judging by what I've seen in pre-season, everyone should expect it. Jon Flanagan will most likely be helped improve in his attacking from full back, and in my opinion, could and should replace Glen Johnson.
Recently its hard to predict how Liverpool's season would go in the coming season, history suggests we will pull of a spurs even without selling Suarez. We usually suffer after a world cup, 2 of the 18 league titles have come after World cups (1979 and 1983), we have been out of title race by the following December after the 3 near title misses of the EPL era (1998, 2001 and 200c). Then we have a tricky champions league campaign up ahead that the squad hasn't experienced. That's 4 factors that suggest we could actually finish below expectations. But what are the expectations? The expectation for this season, as at the start of last season, was to stabilise a champions league place, after a 4th place finish last year. So after the brilliant season we had last year, should we settle for that? I'll say no, we can do better. We should go for it. As Gerrard said last season "We go again" in 2015
