Shane Long to Liverpool is looking like a distinct possibility. Irish fans may see the possibility of our best striker going to one of English football traditional powerhouses and rejoice at the possibility of a confident Shane Long leading Ireland at Euro 2016 but the reality of the situation is that quite a lot of non-Irish Liverpool fans are less than enthused.
On the face of it, it's easy to see why. Liverpool are in need of goals and a striker with a 1 in 4 league goalscoring record simply isn't going to cut it. Summing up the belief of the sceptical proportion of Liverpool fans, Danny Murphy was on TalkSport this morning when asked about the reports which suggested that an £8 million bid for Long was rejected by Southampton this weekend.
The former Liverpool player is not exactly a fan of the idea judging by his initial reaction.
Shane Long? Really? No, no, no, no, no.
There’s no point bringing in players who aren’t better than what you’ve already got. Would you suggest Long is a better player than Benteke? I don’t think so.
Liverpool have to play Benteke and use him better. I was surprised how long it took for Klopp to bring Benteke on. The way Liverpool are playing at the moment isn’t really suited to what Benteke is good at…yet he’s still their top goalscorer. You have to play to his strengths.
Sorry Danny but we respectively disagree and it's got absolutely nothing to do with our blatant favouritism for once. Okay that's a lie, but it's only half to do with favouritism and half to do with genuine rationale.
He's right in saying that there's 'no point bringing in players who aren’t better than what you’ve already got'. There is however, a point in bringing in players who are significantly different from what you've already got. We'll disregard Divock Origi in this instance given that he needs a bit of time to round out his game a bit but the options available to Jurgen Klopp right now are Christian Benteke or no recognised central striker.
It's easy to see why he's gone with the second option over the past couple of weeks. If Danny Ings was available to Klopp, there's no chance anyone would even bother starting a rumour about Shane Long to Liverpool but at this moment in time, the Tipperary man could well be the best option available to the German boss (that is, if he is available).
Murphy suggests that 'Liverpool have to play Benteke and use him better'. Nonsense. It's folly to suggest that Liverpool bring in a new manager and expect him to change his tactics to suit a mistake that was made in the past. Benteke is the one who needs to change and so far, he's given every indication that that won't be happening. Everyone knew what would happen when Liverpool signed the Belgian. He'd be hung out to dry just like Andy Carroll was when it became clear that Liverpool weren't going to be crossing the ball from deep. That's not Klopp's problem.
He needs Benteke to play his way and that's not happening despite the fact that the former Villa man has admitted that he needs to change. Speaking after he scored the winner against Leicester at the end of December, Benteke said;
I spoke with the manager a few days ago about where I can improve and what he is expecting from me. Sometimes when you are a little bit on the side you try to understand what the manager needs and what he wants and we had a very good chat.
We had a ‘man conversation’ and I think it is going to help me and help the team. I think I have to run more and I have to be there for my teammates.
A couple of days later, against West Ham, he put in one of the most lethargic performances you're ever likely to see from a Premier League footballer. He was nothing short of awful and you could almost see Klopp disregard the possibility that he'd be relying on Benteke for the rest of the season.
Since then, he's reverted to Roberto Firmino as something of a false nine but it's not a long term solution. Shane Long isn't not a long term solution either but he's at least a 'rest of the season solution'. If Liverpool can convince Southampton to part company with the Tipperary man for anything in the region of £10 million, then they're on to a winner.
He'll implement Klopp's defend from the front style of play and most of all, he'll get the most out of Liverpool's greatest strength. Coutinho, Firmino and Lallana are three no. 10's who although they should score more, a lot of teams would be delighted to have. Lallana in particular needs to be more incisive, but much of the problem revolves around the fact that everything is so disjointed at the moment without a focal point in attack.
Either they write off this season and start again in the summer or they bring in a striker who will do the running that Klopp expects and can bring the litany of attacking midfielders into the game around the box. The reality of the situation is, Liverpool aren't shopping at the highest level in January. Whatever about the extra enticement of working under Klopp, top level strikers simply aren't available in the winter transfer window.
Liverpool don't necessarily need a striker to score 20 goals a season, they need a striker to help the likes of Coutinho and Lallana get ten goals apiece and at this moment in time, Shane Long is easily one of the best options available to them.
