The 31st of January 2011 was an extremely busy day for Liverpool football club. The club had sold Fernando Torres to rivals Chelsea for a record-breaking £50 million, which upset many fans as they saw the departure of a world class striker as a major step down and that things might look bleak for the future. Fast-forward to March and things seem very different…
On the same day that Torres left the club, Liverpool purchased both Andy Carroll from Newcastle and Luis Suarez from Ajax, who cost roughly the same combined as Torres did. Andy Carroll made his debut on Sunday and will surely offer them something different up front and Torres has not made much of an impact at Chelsea so far. On the other hand, Luis Suarez has come into the Liverpool side and already looks like he will be a fantastic acquisition.
There seems to be a new lease of life for those wearing Liverpool football shirts at the moment. A lot of this is down to the return of Kenny Dalglish to the club, but Suarez has injected more energy and buzz about the time that has not been seen for quite some time.
The Dutch league is often criticised for having a poor standard as several players have come over from the Eredivise with a fantastic goal scoring record and have completely flopped in the English Premier League. Suarez’s goal record at Ajax was 81 goals in 110 games and although it doesn’t look like he will score anywhere near that amount in England, he can offer an awful lot more than putting the ball in the back of the net.
He might actually be the perfect partner for Andy Carroll and could end up with a great amount of assists at Liverpool. There’s no doubt that the Uruguayan forward can score goals, but I think he’ll be more useful playing the way he did against Man Utd on Sunday.
Suarez seems to be able to beat a man (or four) with ease at times and with energy levels that can match Steven Gerrard, it can only be a positive sign for things to come at Liverpool. It will be very interesting to see how his partnership develops with Andy Carroll over time, especially next season. Many wondered if Suarez and Carroll combined would be better than Fernando Torres for Liverpool, but it could turn out that Suarez on his own will do more for the club.
Written by Eddie Smith, a sports writer who blogs about replica football shirts.
