It doesn’t take much effort to know what the general public thinks about Liverpool’s soon-to-be Barcelona player Luis Suarez. Most fans likely feel that a word which defines his character starts with the letter ‘C’ (and the word is not cake or cute) and rhymes with stunt. Therefore, forums and comment sections have been loaded with, “Luis Suarez is a disgrace” and “Suarez hates babies and cute puppies.” Some other fans still hold some love for the talismanic striker, while others just have no idea how to feel as they clutch onto their pillows and sob.
When an individual betrays the only fans who love him in the entire world and publicly asks to leave as he did last summer, it introduces heightened disappointment. But then Mr. Suarez shows up after 5 matches, scores 31 goals and all of Anfield loves him again. A new contract is signed, he celebrates and smiles with those fangs, I mean teeth, and all is well. Reports of “Luis Suarez tells his teammates he will be back next season” dominate the headlines and Anfield is in love with its little Uruguayan once again. Then in a moment of idiocy and bewilderment, Suarez bites into a tasty Italian dish, gets a worldwide stadium ban and Barcelona strategically move in to swoop for the superstar like a vulture waiting to gather its dying prey.
Luis Suarez is poised to leave Anfield for around £75m in the next week. So let’s hear the mantra, “Suarez scored 31 goals last season and was LFC’s top scorer. Without him, Liverpool can say goodbye to all hopes and dreams.” So, Can Liverpool without Suarez still compete at a high level? Yes.
Suarez is by far the most skilled player in the entire squad and has proven this by bagging goals weekly. It is very unlikely that anyone in the squad will have close to a 31-goal season this year. Logic says that if Suarez formed the whole of Liverpool’s attack, without Suarez there will be no attack. But if teams won based on logic, City would have been the FA Cup champions two years ago instead of Wigan.
Remember Thierry Henry’s last two seasons at Arsenal? This was before Cesc Fabregas and Robin Van Persie had propelled themselves into the upper echelons of football stardom. Henry scored 27 goals in 32 matches in his penultimates season and 10 goals in 17 matches in his final year. When Henry left, the world declared that Arsenal were finished; nobody would be able to score without Henry. The next season, Arsenal finished joint 3rd in the league. Alexander Hleb looked like a star. Not only that, Arsenal had five players who scored nine or more goals (they had three in Henry’s second penultimate season and 5 in his last, but he was injured for a large portion). Fabregas, Van Persie, Hleb, Emmanuel Adebayor, Alex Song, Tomas Rosicky, Theo Walcott and Nicklas Bendtner were fantastic after Henry left. Fabregas more than quadrupled his goal scoring output.
Are all the players who were an integral part of the Arsenal FC 2007-2008 and 2008-2009 (post-Henry) teams great?
Alexander Hleb eventually joined Barcelona, which seems to be THE goal for most Arsenal players along with a 4th place finish, as part of a £17m deal which reportedly had a buy-out clause of £90m. Ninety million pounds! He made just 19 league appearances in one season and left on loan for the next two seasons. Hleb was a good player, but evidently, not great. Adebayor was impressive following the departure of Henry, scoring 30 goals in all competitions. He had continued this success for another season and then moved to oil-rich Manchester City. He was unable to stay in the first team there as he made just 45 appearances in two seasons. He then spent a season on loan at Real Madrid and Tottenham where he found reasonable but inconsistent success. While Adebayor is a wonderful striker, he was not good enough for Manchester City to hang on to him. Nicklas Bendtner? He is still an Arsenal player but he spent the bulk of his time on loan and is now being let go on a free transfer . Alex Song eventually emerged as a strong player before being kicked out by Wenger due to attitude issues; he still managed to engineer a move to Barcelona. He has so far not found greener pastures there as he has struggled to enter the first team. Song did make a name for himself at the World Cup though, for punching Mario Mandzukic and getting sent off. Fabregas spent a few years in Barcelona and found reasonable success, but not enough to be able to stay as he was sold to the highest bidder this summer, Chelsea.
The point I am trying to make is, a number of decent, but not great, players along with two emerging stars-Van Persie and Fabregas-brought success to Arsenal. Without their top scorer, Arsenal continued to score enough to be one of the top teams in England.
With the emergence of a top striker in Daniel Sturridge and 15-goal man Rickie Lambert, Liverpool are in good hands. The increased confidence and piercing threat of Raheem Sterling is another weapon which has been charging brilliantly. Add in the sublime vision and finesse of Philippe Coutinho and Adam Lallana and Liverpool promise to be a strong attacking team. Brendan Rodgers is also poised to clinch the £25m deal for Serbian wonderkid Lazar Markovic from Benfica, who has raised eyebrows since he was twelve. Markovic dares to resemble the talent of Coutinho and some Argentinean bloke by the name of Leo or something. Liverpool did not seem to miss a beat in attack when Suarez was suspended for his other biting incident (not the first one or the third one, I mean the second one). Coutinho, Sterling, Markovic, Jordon Ibe, Fabio Borini, Lallana, Sturridge and Lambert are names who have the chance to be strong attacking figureheads for Liverpool this season. Though they will likely never score as many as Suarez did, they are decent players with great potential. With the focus being off Suarez, the need to fill the void left by him will fall upon these players and they will definitely be motivated to deliver.
Can Liverpool pull off what Arsenal did after Henry departed? There are a few resemblances that may make you want to believe it.
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