Shy Reds Still in Dire Need of Experience

Signing young players with huge potential is an extremely exciting avenue to take in the transfer market. This is what Liverpool under Fenway Sports Group and Brendan Rodgers have attempted to do, however fans are starting to voice concerns over the lack of experience and leadership in what is a very youthful squad.

Players such as Andre Wisdom, Raheem Sterling, Joe Allen and Jordan Henderson have all received regular playing time throughout the season, with other youngsters such as Suso and Fabio Borini also seeing significant time on the pitch.

Liverpool’s January transfer activity saw Rodgers bring in 23-year-old striker Daniel Sturridge from Chelsea, and 20-year-old attacking midfielder Philippe Coutinho from Inter Milan.

With a perceived lack of fight and experience present in the embarrassing defeat to Oldham Athletic in the 4^th round of the FA Cup, Rodgers failure to add experience to his squad in January leaves a glaring gap in the depth of his squad.

The only true veteran in the squad is living legend Jamie Carragher at 35 years of age, with Captain Steven Gerrard not far behind at 32. Goalkeepers Pepe Reina and Brad Jones are next at 30. Most of the back line is in their late 20’s, while the most experienced midfielder aside from Gerrard is Stewart Downing at 28.

Taking into account the mix of youth and experience in recent title-winning sides, Liverpool fans have a right to be worried that the policy of solely signing young players with huge potential could backfire. Manchester City mixed 31-year-old Gareth Barry, 31-year-old Kolo Toure, experienced professionals Yaya Toure and Paulo Zabaleta, both 29, with the younger Sergio Aguero, Joe Hart, Vincent Kompany and David Silva among others when they won the league in 2012. In fact, City won the league playing virtually zero youngsters.

When Manchester United won the league in 2011, they had veteran Edwin van der Sar in goal, with outfielders Patrice Evra, Rio Ferdinand, Dimitar Berbatov, Ryan Giggs, Ji-Sung Park and Paul Scholes all on the older side. This meshed to perfection with the youth of Anderson, Chris Smalling, Javier Hernandez, Fabio and Rafael.

Chelsea won the league in 2010 with a number of elders in the side, as key players Ricardo Carvalho, Frank Lampard, Michael Ballack, Didier Drogba and Nicolas Anelka were all into their 30’s. The younger players such as John Obi Mikel, Daniel Sturridge and Salomon Kalou were able to learn from these players and were given invaluable guidance for the furtherance of their careers.

That is the value of older players and experience in a team. They are leaders in the squad and they know when to stick and when to twist. Youngsters can only learn so much from one another. Even Rodgers admitted after the defeat to Oldham that the Liverpool starlets should take their opportunity to learn from Gerrard while he is still around.

With Xabi Alonso hinting time and time again that he would be open to a return to Merseyside, that is the type of experienced player Rodgers should be taking a gamble on in the summer. Many believe that Gerrard would never have become the player he did without the guidance of Gary McAllister, who was 35 when Liverpool signed him. Imagine what the youthful side of the squad could learn from the likes of Alonso and Gerrard in the same team.

Bringing in experienced players is not necessarily about adding players to make an instant impact, but it can add leadership to a squad. If Liverpool’s most recent games have taught the footballing world anything, it is that many of the youngsters are desperately in need of guidance and leadership.