Andy Hunter
The Guardian, Friday 7 December 2012 16.42 GMT
Liverpool's best-laid plans failed to get off the ground due to the cancellation of their chartered flight from Trieste airport on Thursday. Not for the first time, Brendan Rodgers may have thought, as his side head to West Ham United – after an extra night's stay in Udine – without a senior striker to call on.
It is ridiculous that a club of Liverpool's stature, turnover and ambition should have no forwards available for a Premier League game. A consolation for the Liverpool manager is that the by-product of a calamitous end to the last transfer window and Fabio Borini's ankle injury have affected only one league game so far, thanks to Luis Suárez's suspension, and there are only five more before rodgers can spend again. Hence his pragmatic response to Suárez's fifth booking of the season, for deliberate handball against Southampton last Saturday. "We knew it was coming at some stage so I'm not going to lose any sleep over it," he said.
Rodgers would have been forgiven a fretful night after the travel problems that followed Liverpool's Europa League defeat of Udinese, however, if only at the thought of where his team might be had the fortunes of Suárez and Borini been reversed. There is also the concern of Raheem Sterling turning 18 on Saturday without agreement on his first senior contract.
In the absence of Suárez, the Liverpool manager's pool of forwards consists of Daniel Pacheco, Conor Coady, Samed Yesil, Adam Morgan and Jerome Sinclair, not one of whom has a Premier League start or goal to his name this season. It is encouraging to have teenagers coming through, no doubt, but it is a poor reflection on the state of Liverpool this summer when, without a scouting department in place and the club's owners refusing to back their manager's judgment on Clint Dempsey, Andy Carroll was allowed to join Sam Allardyce's team on loan and no replacement was forthcoming.
The up-shot is appeals from Rodgers to Fenway Sports Group to spend early in January and an SOS to the midfielder Jonjo Shelvey to adapt to the "false No9" position against West Ham. "I'm excited about it," Shelvey says. "I supported West Ham as a boy so to play against them in any position is good for me but it is not easy to fill the boots of a player like Luis Suárez. I will just give it my best shot. I played against Young Boys in that role and I thought I did all right, I was happy to do a job for the team. It is an honour to play wherever you are told to play for Liverpool."
Shelvey started on the bench at the Stadio Friuli in readiness for West Ham, although the precautionary move was abandoned after 12 minutes when Nuri Sahin went off because of a facial injury. "I'd just got comfy in my chair when they told me to get ready but I was pleased to get on," the 20-year-old says. "I wanted to start but the manager pulled me aside before and explained why he was putting me on the bench and I understand that. I've just got to get myself ready for Sunday."
With four goals this season in Europe, and the awareness required to bring others into play, Shelvey is the obvious choice for Rodgers on Sunday but admits the change has complications for a midfielder. "It is difficult to adjust to that role because you have your back to the defender all the time whereas in midfield you can see your passes. It is difficult in that respect and you need a different type of fitness to play up front but I'll be ready for it."
Rodgers's desire to move early in the difficult January transfer market has encouraged Liverpool to line up a deal for Daniel Sturridge, despite the manager's reluctance to sign the Chelsea striker on a permanent basis when his plans went awry on deadline day. Arsenal claim Theo Walcott will not be sold next month despite being out of contract at the end of the season and, among other goalscorers in the Premier League, Rodgers dismissed reports of interest in Darren Bent with a brusque "No". But the need to ease the load on Suárez remains pressing. Only Demba Ba at Newcastle United has scored a higher proportion of league goals for his team than the Uruguayan's 10 of 19 at Liverpool, or 53%. Their second highest source of goals this season is the own goal.
"Its the same in any successful team – the goals have got to come from all over the team," Shelvey says. "I think we are getting there. Danny [Agger] scored the winner against Southampton on Saturday and Hendo [Jordan Henderson] scored against Udinese, and I think the more the team plays together the more the goals will be spread out."
Steven Gerrard, Agger and Lucas Leiva, who all missed the win in Udinese that secured Liverpool's place in the knockout stage of the Europa League, are available for Sunday.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2012/dec/07/liverpool-jonjo-shelvey?CMP=twt_gu
