The past few days have been towards the gloomy side for Liverpool and its fans. Steven Gerrard recently announced that he will be leaving the club at the end of the season. This came as quite a shock to the footballing world and the fans were naturally overwhelmed by their talismanic captain’s decision to leave his boyhood club.
This is especially hard to take since the Reds have not been performing well this season, and find themselves knocked out of the Champions League and in the eighth place in the league- something unimaginable after their title push last season.
There was a slight betterment in mood when it was reported that Raheem Sterling is close to a signing a new deal, but it is time to be disappointed against Liverpool fans. Adam Lallana, who has looked in great touch recently, has been ruled out for a month after sustaining a thigh injury against Leicester.
The A?23m summer signing has recently done very well after being used centrally (alongside Philippe Coutinho) behind Sterling (false nine) in a 3-4-2-1 formation. His form has been similar to how he performed last season at Southampton.
The England international scored two goals against Swansea recently, and has three in his last seven games. He was forced off after 55 minutes of the New Year’s Day draw with Leicester and early reports have claimed that he is now set to miss a busy month of action for the Reds. The injury will see him miss the two-legged Capital One Cup semi final against Chelsea, plus league games with Aston Villa, Sunderland and West Ham.
All these fixtures are incredibly tricky and the Reds would be disappointed that an in-form player will miss out a crucial time for them. Liverpool’s target this season is to finish in the top 4 and Lallana recently proved that he could be an influential part in that quest.
Liverpool are reportedly chasing Xherdan Shaqiri and if they manage to pull off this deal, Lallana’s injury won’t have as big an impact as it could as the Swiss international would add similar, if not better, attacking flair into the side.
For now, it would seem that Lazar Markovic would replace the Englishman into the side and Alberto Moreno and Markovic would form a partnership on the left.
