City are welcome to Barry

I had two reactions to the news Gareth Barry had signed for City. The first was surprise that a player who has spent two years bleating about his desire to play in the Champions League and appeared desperate to join Liverpool last summer has joined a team that didn’t even qualify for the rebranded UEFA Cup (whatever silly name they’ve now given it) proving money was a bigger motivator for him than professional ambition. The second was a sense of relief that Liverpool will not be signing him.

Don’t get me wrong, I think Barry is a top player who would have been a decent addition to the current squad but when we were once more linked with signing him (and I understand we made a last ditch attempt to hijack City’s deal), I was concerned about the ramifications for Xabi Alonso and the rest of Rafa’s summer spending.

This time last year, had Xabi been sold for £16m and Barry bought for £12-£15m, most fans would have accepted the deals. Xabi had been below par for two seasons while Barry had linked well with Gerrard in the national team. It was only when Villa’s asking price for Barry escalated to £18m that fans rightly questioned the sense in selling a 27-year old player only to buy an arguably inferior 28-year old player for £2m more. The impression I get is that had Rafa had total control of transfer business, Alonso would have gone and Barry would have been bought. Who knows how that would have worked out but a year on the same prospect would not be considered. Alonso was one of the Premiership’s players of the season while Barry was distinctly average for Villa. Barry, now 29, is too old to constitute a good investment for a club like Liverpool and was over-priced at £12m. Alonso meanwhile is reportedly attracting bids of £25m from the likes of Real Madrid. If Liverpool are to build on this season’s progress, Alonso has to stay at Anfield and continue his form of the last 12 months.

The other key factor that will determine whether Liverpool can further progress next season is Rafa’s transfer dealings between now and the start of next season.

With Rafa reportedly having just £20m to spend plus whatever is generated from player sales, our manager has little room for error and simply has to invest in the right areas. With Alonso and Mascherano in central midfield plus Lucas, who improved a lot as last season progressed, providing back up, not to mention the likes of Gerrard and Aurelio who can also slot in there, central midfield does not need strengthening. Buying Barry would have been a waste of a significant chunk of the transfer budget. Yes he can play at left-back or on the left of midfield but with Aurelio and Insua (plus Carra and Arbeloa as potential back up), we don’t need another left-back and if Rafa wants to invest in a left-sided midfielder, he needs to be looking at wingers who can take on a player and create things. Barry does not fit the bill.

For me, the areas we most need to strengthen are at right-back, up front and/or on the left wing.

At right-back, Arbeloa had his best season for the club last season and proved he can do a job for the team. However, we need someone who can compete with him for that position and provide cover in his absence. Last season, Degen couldn’t stay fit for more than 15 minutes and I can’t see him having any sort of a future at the club. Stephen Derby is yet to be given a real opportunity and, while I hope he is given a chance, it would be a risk to rely on an inexperienced youngster. During the season, Carra, Skrtel and Mascherano were all deployed at right-back in Arbeloa’s absence. Carra hates playing there and really struggles for pace and the stamina to get up and down the wing; Skrtel had an absolute nightmare there against Middlesbrough, and Mascherano was actually very good in the position but is best deployed in his central midfield role.

That said, our defence was actually very good last season. The team was solid and difficult to break down meaning that in most of the games when our attacking play was not up to much, we at least took a point.

Ultimately, I feel we dropped too many points last season because of weaknesses in our attack. When you compare the effectiveness of the attack in the second half of the season with the comparative ineffectiveness of the attack in the first half of the season there are two differences which stand out. In the first half of the season, Torres missed a lot of games while Keane played a lot, whereas in the second half of the season, Torres played more regularly and Keane had been sold.

Keane is not a bad player but for Liverpool he was a shockingly bad player. In the nil-nils against Aston Villa, Stoke, Fulham and West Ham, Keane had chances to score but did not take them. Keane actually managed to score in just three of the nineteen Premiership games he played for Liverpool and that included braces against West Brom and Bolton. The plain fact is, he didn’t score enough goals. Prior to Christmas, Torres had scored just 5 goals – not bad considering the number of games he had played but in his absence the only attacker to regularly find the back of the net was Gerrard. In those nil-nils and in the second half against Hull, we needed a player who could get a chance and take it. Kuyt doesn’t do that often enough; Benayoun was doing that in the second half of the season but had never done it previously; Riera doesn’t do that; Babel doesn’t do that, and Keane certainly didn’t do that.

While it is to be hoped that Torres and Gerrard stay fit for the whole of the next campaign we clearly need another attacker both for back up and to give the manager another option in games where the attack is floundering. Can Benayoun maintain the form in which he ended this season over the whole of next season? Will Kuyt chip in with so many goals again? Can Ngog or even Nemeth make the step up? Will Babel finally live up to his potential? These are all gambles that I think the manager cannot risk taking. Therefore, the priority this season has to be either a proven quality striker (like Tevez) or a quality left-winger/forward who can chip in with goals but equally unlock the most stubborn of defences with a piece of skill or trickery.

If the price of Tevez is too much, Rafa should look no further than his old stomping ground, Valencia. David Villa or David Silva are exactly the sort of players we need. Maybe £20m would not be enough for either but if we can raise a bit of cash from selling the likes of Voronin, Dossena, Degen (unlikely I know), Itanje (again, unlikely), and possibly Babel (worth trading for Villa or Silva) then who knows.

Whatever deals are done, Rafa simply has to get this summer right.