Who replaces Steven Gerrard at Anfield?

Steven Gerrard’s decision to quit Anfield at the end of the season is among the many issues the Reds are facing. Also, the Champions’ League exit and their worst Premier League start in 20 years.

Losing their veteran skipper allows the word crisis to be used in its proper context. Not that the Reds are in a state of meltdown, but they have reached a crisis point in their season, a point that will define the immediate future of the club.

Without Gerrard in Liverpool next season, they will have to find a world-class replacement in the summer, a true leader on the pitch and someone who can offer the same expertise the captain provides.

Brendan Rodgers knows that. He knows you can’t replace a genuine world-class talent with youthful potential.

Rodgers admitted, as much when he told the Anfield owners they would have to spend big money on an established international if the club is to keep progressing in the wake of Gerrard’s departure.

“The model at this football club is clear, we want to take young players and develop them into world-class ones, but that can be a long and a difficult process,” Rodgers said.

“The owners know that, and they also know that not every player can be a developer if you are going to keep progressing. A large part of our squad will always be young players, but if you want to take those steps forward at times you have to look to bring in some ready-made players.”

To do that though, to move on from one of – if not– greatest players in their history, Liverpool will have to be in the Champions’ League… and if they are not, then they will face a very different route back to the level they so tantalisingly reached last season.

There are two very simple reasons why. Firstly, it is almost impossible to attract the sort of player who can replace the skipper without Champions’ League football.

The second is equally blunt – there will be even more money on offer to those in the Champions’ League next season, an exclusive gentlemen’s club where those on the outside will have their faces pressed up to the window in (relatively) impoverished longing.

Those teams that don’t make the European elite next season could well find it takes years to break through, because of the massive financial gulf between themselves and those who are members of that exclusive club.

Liverpool are already facing Financial Fair Play restrictions, after being investigated over their spending in the past three seasons, and if they are denied a Champions’ League revenue stream they must make some serious spending adjustments.

Which is another way of saying, Liverpool are at a crisis point in their season. They need to act now to ensure they give themselves the best possible chance of reaching the top four.

“It’s like Suarez last year. You can’t replace them, but you have to move on, and that means the owners have some real work to do, because they need to find one, maybe two top, top players to move forward,” according to John Aldridge.

Raheem Sterling’s brilliance in a variety of roles means the pressure has been reduced to sign an out and out forward, particularly with Daniel Sturridge set to return in the next fortnight and Divock Origi now almost certain to end his loan spell with Lille and join his new club in January.

But the injury to Adam Lallana, and Sterling’s absence after being rested at Wimbledon and sent on a pre-planned holiday to Jamaica, exposed the lack of depth Liverpool have in the key positions wide of a centre forward, which have been a catalyst in their recent revival.

With Sturridge, Sterling and Origi to provide depth and bite to the attack and Mario Balotelli and Rickie Lambert as back up, the focus is on a wide player who can play in a front three and score goals…which is the exact profile of current target Xherdan Shaqiri.

Liverpool have made a firm bid for the Bayern Munich attacker, but they are currently hamstrung by their Financial Fair Play restrictions, which mean they have to balance the books before they can add to their wage bill.

That has inspired talk of the Swiss star going out on loan to Inter Milan, and then moving to Anfield in the summer, but the Reds’ owners simply can’t allow that to happen.

We will see in this current transfer window where their ambitions lie. They simply have to find a way to ensure they prove themselves a bigger club than Juventus and Inter Milan in the race for Bayern star Shaqiri.

Financial considerations are important of course, not least because Liverpool’s owners are one of the strongest proponents of FFP.

So they will have to offload someone, anyone, to ensure they can tempt Shaqiri, with Fabio Borini the most likely candidate as Sunderland again attempt to sign him.

If they don’t find a way to sign a keeper and a goal scoring wide player, then you fear for Liverpool’s future, because without Champions’ League football, replacing Gerrard looks very impossible.

@AnthonyNlebem

Anthony Nlebem