C'mon lads and ladies let's hear your solution to the age-old, World-wide, question: "What is the "magic" formula for successful transfers?"
It's tough one but i'll have a pop.
1/ Decide how you want to play, have a vision.
2/ Buy players to fit the vision you have for the side. If your given a bit if money to spend (as Kenny was this past summer) then spend it on players who fit. On the face of it the players seemed to fit what was required. We needed a left-back, in came Enrique, we needed a young developmental cenntre-half t back up the senior players, in came Coates. We needed a wide-man to lift a glaring weakness and provide better delivery into wide areas, in came Downing. We needed to strengthen the centre-mifield area, in came Adam and young Henderson.
So from that respect, Kenny & Commoli seem to have recognised where the squad needed strengthening BUT the lads who have come in haven't been able to deliver. They were going ok to a point but (like everyone else) they have simply capitulated this past couple of months. Based on our results you have to say that the transfers have (overall) been a failure so far.
For me the elephant in the room is Andy Carroll. He doesn't tick the 'buy players to fit your vision' box in any way and his (and Kenny's failure) to integrate with how we play has compromised the club. Listen to the way Kenny talks, watch our best performances over the past 15 months. It's clear the vision he has for this LFC side is to play in a similar way to the previous great sides. He wants the team to play with tempo, to keep the ball, to pass it well, to be creative and inventive, to have good movement etc. At least that's how i see it. Unfortunately big Andy doesn't and never will fit. Despite the ocassional decent performance you can't throw a big target man into your side and expect us to play the slick, up-tempo passing game we have often seen (without the results) under Dalglish. The lad's confidence is shot to pieces and unfortunately the massive outlay and the pressure to stick it out with him in the side meant it was almost impossible (at least without losing a lot of face) to go out and sign a top drawer finisher.
That for me is our biggest problem alongside the fact that Downing is not (and likely won't be) the player Kenny hoped he would be for LFC. He's a decent Premiership player who was an upgrade on the position for us but has unfortunately continued to play as he has for much of his career ie. one great game, one poor game followed by three average games and vice versa. We don't have the quality in wide areas to make up for our lack of it inside when big Andy plays.
I can't knock the signings of Enrique and Bellamy who were both astute buys for my mind. I defended Adam for virtually the whole season but it seems he is not the answer and while I don't rate Henderson I won't make an absolute judgement on the lad because I never in a million years believed that Skrtel and Lucas would reach the performance levels we have seen from them so who knows we might still have a player on our hands. Same goes for Coates, it's wait and see.
As for the background stuff it's an interesting question. I remember reading Shanks' autobiography years ago when i was a kid (he was before my time) and he said that he wasn't interested in seeing a player at home in a 5-0 win but wanted to see how a player handled a cold, wet night away in front of a tough crowd in order to see what a player is truly made of. I think the game has moved on someaht since then but I think he had a good point.
