Atletico defeat exposes squad shortfalls

Pre-season is about one thing: preparation for the big kick off. As such, you can forgive an element of rustiness, occasional bad decision-making and overall sloppiness but enough about Phil Dowd’s refereeing.

What yesterday’s match confirmed is that Liverpool look worryingly short of cover at the back. With Sami and Arbeloa having departed and with Agger, Skrtel and Aurelio all injured, Liverpool were forced to field young rookie Ayala alongside Carragher at centre-half. When Carra limped off after 15 minutes to be replaced by another rookie, San Jose, the back four looked incredibly vulnerable.

Carra is expected be fit to play at Spurs and Rafa said post-match that he was optimistic one or both of Skrtel and Agger will have sufficiently recovered in time but it is clear that more cover is needed. Both Agger and Skrtel have endured lengthy absences due to injury in the past two seasons. If both were simultaneously unavailable, as occurred last year and as was the situation last night, it would be a massive and reckless risk to rely on either Ayala or San Jose to fill in.

At full-back, the cover for Johnson is a choice between Darby, Degen and Kelly or Carragher (if both Skrtel and Agger are also fit) or Mascherano. Personally, my order of preference would be Carra, Mascherano, Kelly, Darby, fielding 10 men, Cavalieri, Voronin, the end of the world, then Degen. The situation is not ideal and given that it is a certainty Johnson will miss some games during the season, we need further cover. At left-back, Insua suddenly finds himself unchallenged as first choice with Aurelio injured until near Christmas. Dossena is still at the club for the moment but if Rafa has the chance to recoup some or all of the £7 million wasted on the fat Italian last summer he will surely take it. Either way, Dossena is a defensive liability and cannot be considered reliable back-up for Insua.

What we need is a utility player who could do a job in any position across the back four when required. I see we’ve been linked with Hull City’s Michael Turner and Pompey’s Sylvain Distin but the prices quoted appear unrealistic – even in a world where Cristiano Ronaldo costs £80 million. I’d never heard of Skrtel or Agger before we signed them so hopefully Rafa’s scouts can pull another rabbit out of the hat and get us the cover we need.

I was keen to watch how well Liverpool coped in midfield against Atletico in the post-Alonso era. ‘Mixed’ pretty much sums up my observations. Lucas seemed to play with more attacking licence than we’ve seen from him in the past while Mascherano was typically busy but the team lacked a playmaker to direct the play in Alonso’s absence. Aquilani has been signed to fill that role but clearly if the Italian is absent or simply doesn’t prove as successful a signing as we all hope, it leaves us with two realistic options: (1) bring Steven Gerrard back into midfield, or (2) replicate the sterile performances that saw Stoke, Hull, West Ham, Hull and Man City easily draw at Anfield. I would be loathe to break up Gerrard’s partnership with Torres but there’s no point having those two up front if they get no service. I hate to say it but while all teams have their key playmakers, Chelsea and Man Ure are far better equipped than Liverpool to cope with injuries to those players or the loss of players’ form in that department.

Given the lack of cover for Fernando Torres up front and the lack of a creative left-sided midfield player, I’m starting to feel increasingly concerned about this Liverpool squad’s prospects of sustaining a title challenge this coming campaign. This year, more than any in recent seasons, I really feel the title is there for the taking but as things stand, for Liverpool to win that coveted 19th title, we need to quickly invest in quality reinforcements or else will need to be exceptionally fortunate on the injury front for the whole campaign. Given the current situation at the back, it would be hugely optimistic to bet on the latter.