Don't panic!!!!

My last post was entitled.. "Is top 4 realistic for Liverpool?" - Yeah, sorry about that.

I'm going to stick my neck out and say at that it isn't. 8 points off 4th at the turn of the year and bobbling around in mid-table isn't too great.

In the last 3 games, 1 decent performance (at home against Fulham) and 2 not so good. A horrendous result against Villa, which has even got worse when you consider their next 2 games have resulted in an aggregate 12-0 loss.

I was never very hopeful going into the game against Stoke, but I was very briefly given a glimmer with an actual penalty.. I was almost in shock when we got an actual penalty, from one of the weekly assaults on Suarez as well which I thought the FA had now allowed, but apparently not.

If we could have actually held on to this advantage for more than a minute then the game may have turned out differently. If we had been able to stretch the game with Stoke needing to get back into it, we could have exploited the space. Unfortunately none of this happened and we just collapsed instead.

The Stoke game did look like the hardest of the 5 we had around Xmas, which sadly was how it proved. But we still have a couple of reasonable games coming up. QPR away and Sunderland at home, although they are going to be buzzing after beating Man City which isn't ideal.. although they have got Spurs between then and now so that might bring them down a bit.

I now have to think of reasons why I titled this blog "Don't Panic!!"

Well for once it looks like we might have actually lined some transfers up before the January transfer window opens again. Daniel Sturridge of Chelsea could be a good signing.. I can't help thinking though that it would have saved a lot of problems all round if we'd just got him as part of the Torres deal.

If we'd got say £35m plus Sturridge then we'd be in so much better shape.. So would everyone else. Andy Carroll would most likely still be happily banging him in for Newcastle without any of the pressure of having a laughable price-tag hanging over him. It would be a similar story with Torres, I think he suffered in a similar way to Carroll with the pressure of ridiculous money flying around.

The main difference for Liverpool would have been that we'd still have had £35m to spend, although given the way we were throwing money around at that point (Downing / Henderson etc.) we'd have probably ended up with Lee Cattermole for £20m.

Tom Ince - Why?

We also seem to be lining up Tom Ince back from Blackpool - Why? This is a player, as I understand it, we sold for £250k on 16 months ago after he'd run down his contract because initially he wasn't getting a look in  under Hodgson and when this situation changed, well he didn't fancy it much under Dalglish and decided to do one and we had little choice but to let him go for virtually nothing.

Now I'm not saying he's not a decent player, but I don't think he offers much different to what we already have (Sterling) and he's already shown his commitment to the club and personally I will  be shocked if we do sign him and he doesn't do exactly the same 4 years down the line and run his contract down.

But I do think Sturridge would be a good acquisition.. I remember seeing him playing against us for City in the Youth Cup Final a few years back and being impressed then. He will give us more threat and someone for Suarez to actually pass the ball to will be a significant step forward. It also gives us reinforcements going into a very sticky few fixtures round the corner. Two trips to Manchester and also to Arsenal in January /  Feb aren't going to be easy, but having said that we were wildly unfortunate not to already have 6 points off Manchester from the games early in the season. And against Arsenal... look over there, is that a badger?

Moving on.. well, if we can get a couple of decent results out of the next two games then hopefully the form of a few players can pick up. Shelvey is looking a bit sloppy and Allen, before his injury, was starting to look  a bit lightweight. But on the plus side even Downing is showing signs of turning it round.. it is this kind of imbalance that is one of the reasons for out somewhat erratic form.

I think though that Rodgers does seem to have an idea of where he wants to take the team, but one things for certain is that it will take more than 2 or 3 transfer windows for this to take shape. If things haven't improved by this time next year, or more into February / March next season then we need to start having a look at things but idiots who want to sack the manager after 6 months.. well frankly need to concentrate on ripping off other Russian billionaires with underhand deals and other things they do best.