New Liverpool boss Brendan Rodgers has certainly made his mark at the club in the short time since he took over the reins, tinkering with the club’s playing style, their formation and the personnel. Fulham midfielder cum forward Clint Dempsey is one of those which have been identified by the manager as he continues with his bold, bright vision for the future, but upon closer inspection, does the American really fit in at Anfield?
Liverpool were far from their fluent best during their 1-0 win in the Europa League third-qualifying phase away at Belarusian side FC Gomel, with certain players seemingly clueless of what has been asked of them, but these are early days and we must be patient. Nevertheless, Fabio Borini occupied the lone striker role, with Joe Cole and Stewart Downing preferred out wide, and Raheem Sterling coming on for the the injured Cole in the first half.
With this in mind, it seems as if Rodgers is attempting to duplicate and transfer his preferred 4-3-3 system which he used at Swansea to Anfield, which is where the main problem comes for me with regards to Dempsey, because which role exactly would he have in that formation?
Dempsey enjoyed a hugely successful season at Fulham last term under Martin Jol, finishing the campaign with 17 league goals to his name and 23 across all competitions. He played largely off the shoulder of the lone front-man in a fluid 4-5-1 formation, and could float about where he so pleased, as could the likes of Moussa Dembele and Bryan Ruiz. It led to some hugely attractive football, some of the most exciting and enjoyable that I had witnessed last term at least, and Dempsey flourished.
Here is where the problem lies, though, the demands of playing for Fulham are very different to those of playing for Liverpool; approaching it purely from a ‘he’s a good player, good players can always play together’ angle is simply far too simplistic, and one suspects Rodgers, with his 180-page dossier, wouldn’t dare dream of falling into such a trap.
For Fulham, little is expected of them, a comfortable mid-table finish aside and it also changes how the opposition plays against you. Dempsey is not a player to break down the sort of stubborn defences which turned out at Anfield last term and nor does he have the game-changing pace to get in behind them and make a difference.
His success at Fulham is a direct consequence of the opposition attempting to play more football against Fulham than they perhaps would do against Liverpool. Very rarely will a team set up to stop the west London side, whereas at Liverpool, despite their struggles in recent seasons, smaller teams still at times set out to stop them playing as opposed to possessing any real attacking game-plan of their own, such is their status within the British game. You may snigger at that, as the anti-Liverpool jokes go into overdrive, but it’s true.
Rodgers stated last month about Dempsey: “Clint is a player we’ve enquired about, it is as simple as that. Ian Ayre, our managing director, has spoken with the club to see what the position is. That is where we’re at. He’s a very talented player but we don’t like to talk about other clubs’ players.”
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Aside from failing to see the irony in talking about other clubs’ players by stating that you don’t want to talk about other clubs’ players, a trick right out of the Harry Redknapp school of media management, it’s clearly had an affect on Dempsey as he pulled out of the club’s pre-season training camp in Switzerland a couple of weeks later in an attempt to force the issue and any proposed move. The situation has been hastened even further by the fact that the club have now sold Alberto Aquilani to Fiorentina to bring an end to a rotten three-year spell at the club for the Italian, during which he was never really given a chance.
Dempsey may seem like an ideal candidate for the role at the tip of the midfield trio under Rodgers’ system, but with Steven Gerrard at the club and Joe Allen surely set to come alongside Lucas Leiva behind him, with finite resources, it seems like a needless indulgence. Add Jordan Henderson into the mix and Jonjo Shelvey, who has come on in leaps and bounds of late, and the squad seems fairly well-stocked in this area.
Where the side does lack any sort of strength in depth is up front, with Andy Carroll having been left out of their European squad for the time being, which alludes to a move away. This leaves just Luis Suarez and Fabio Borini to occupy three spaces, with Craig Bellamy looking like he’s heading towards the exit door as soon as the Olympics are over. Dempsey simply isn’t quick enough to play in one of the two wide positions and while he may be comfortable with his back to goal, he’s never really played as an out-and-out striker either.
The pursuit of the American looks to have been done largely on the basis of a standout season last year, which is merely a continuation of the flawed transfer policy under Dalglish and Damien Comolli that saw the club buy players at inflated values simply off the back of one good season. The club’s record of buying from within the Premier League is also pretty ropey, going back to Robbie Keane and further, and history dictates that we must regard any chances of the move becoming a success with a great degree of skepticism.
Dempsey’s form has been good for a number of years now, but had he scored 7 goals in the league last year as opposed to 17, would the club really be moving for him this summer? Probably not is the answer to that and with Fulham reluctant to sell, you have to wonder whether forking out over £10m on a 29-year-old really the sort of fiscally responsible, financially sound long-term purchase that FSG had in mind when they appointed Rodgers in the first place.
Dempsey is clearly a very good player, but much like with Tim Cahill at Everton, he may just be one of those players which suit one particular club extremely well and it might not work elsewhere. With the doubts over what clearly defined role he would have, his age, price and the fact that given the budget at his disposal, Rodgers clearly has more pressing concerns elsewhere when bolstering his squad. The move to Liverpool doesn’t quite stack up as much as you might initially expect it to and they’d be best served giving it a wide berth this summer if you ask me and focusing on the side’s fairly obvious shortcomings further forward.
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