We’re starting to see it already; the transfer window just opened officially today, but already the draw of playing Champions League football with Liverpool next season is paying out in dividends for the Reds with the capture of Southampton captain Adam Lallana confirmed earlier today.
Last season we saw the Anfield outfit miss out on numerous “marquee” signings with a lack of European football, and the prestige of playing on the continent that comes with it, hindering them at every turn. For the first time since 2009, those famous mid-week fixtures will be returning to Merseyside, and Reds boss Brendan Rodgers — and Kopites everywhere — are all the better for it. Just ask their latest signing and he’ll tell you exactly what he’s here for.
“It’s a huge step. Liverpool have got so much history and after the season they had last season, I can’t wait to get started and carry on and build on that” Lallana told the official website in his first interview. “Champions League football is back; everyone is telling me that the atmosphere on Tuesday and Wednesday evenings at Anfield are something special.”
Many will argue that his £25mil price tag is steep for a player that only a few short seasons ago was plying his trade in League One, but you’ll find few that will dispute his ability on the pitch. As a tactically gifted footballer, there’s two things that come immediately to mind when the conversation turns to the former Bournemouth man, and that’s his spacial awareness and his ability to play all across the front line. As good in close quarters as he is in acres of space, Lallana seems to know not only where everyone is on the pitch at any given time but where they’re about to move to. Certainly a more continental style player, his strengths lie not so much in his fleet of foot, but in his ability to move the ball quickly, always thinking of finding space for not only himself, but the player he’s shifting the ball on to and that will be a major plus when he’s stepping out under the bright lights against decidedly non-English opposition.
The 26-year old, who made his intentions to play on Europe’s biggest stage known last season, arrives from Southampton with not only a walloping price tag attached to him, but also a fair bit of expectation.
With nine league goals and five assists for the Saint’s last season, he earned a well deserved place in not only the PFA Premier League Team of the Season, but Roy Hodgon’s England squad for the World Cup in Brazil. On the back of his blistering performances for the South Coast club, Lallana was garnering interest from all over, but in the end, he chose Liverpool as his destination of choice with a shot at playing on the continent and competing for the title major factors in his decision to move to Merseyside.
The Reds pushed eventual champions Manchester City to the final match of the campaign as Brendan Rodgers and company enjoyed the kind of success reserved for the upper echelons of football’s elite. Without the distraction of midweek matches, the Northern Irishman was able to get the best out of what was a relatively small, inexperienced squad, but with a major increase in fixtures and a potential step up in the quality of opposition just around the corner, bringing in quality recruits is job number one for the entire hierarchy — something they’ve certainly succeeded with in bringing Lallana to Anfield.
“There had been a lot of toing and froing and it had been a little bit longer than I’d anticipated, but it’s something I’m not quite used to” he said when asked what he first thought when he heard that the Reds were interested in him. “I’m grateful that Southampton accepted the offer in the end and granted my wish to play at such a fantastic football club, in Champions League football and competing for Premier League titles.”
With one of his primary targets tied up, Rodgers will quickly turn his focus to bringing in players that will not only complement the Reds attractive style of play, but that will enhance those already at his disposal. Champions League football, with all it’s glory and prestige, certainly won’t do his cause any harm — I’m sure Lallana, and the rest of the players in the pipeline, would be more than happy to confirm that for you.
–Steven
