Does Liverpool have what it takes to win the Premier League?

by Guilherme Neto

Steven Gerrard holding the Premier League title for Liverpool

Liverpool may have finished 2nd last season and just 2 points behind the reigning champions Manchester City, but do they really have what it takes to win the Premier League?

The 2014-15 has started a few weeks ago, but most of the squads still suffered significant changes until August 31, precisely the day the transfer window expired. In the Reds case, this has been a quite active transfer period and it all started when they saw their main man Luis Suárez signing for FC Barcelona.

The Spanish club agreed to pay a 75-million pounds fee for bringing Suárez to the Spanish League and the Reds suddenly found themselves with an additional budget to spend in this summer’s transfer window. They first turned to the domestic market and signed a total of 3 players from Southampton: Adam Lallana (£24m), Rickie Lambert (£4m), and Dejan Lovren (£20m). Some might say they were all overpriced mainly because none of them is expected to end up earning a starting eleven spot in the upcoming season. but only time will tell…

Brendan Rodgers‘ squad was also strengthened with the signings of the talented midfielder from SL Benfica, Lazar Markovic and Emre Can from Bayer Leverkusen. The two will provide Rodgers a different set of solutions when it comes to creativity and they will surely come handy at different stages of the season.

In attack, Liverpool are basically counting on Mario Balotelli‘s signing to replace the gap left by Luis Suárez departure. The controversial Italian forward costed the Reds 16 million pounds, but he sure won’t have the whole weight on his shoulders. The new Belgium sensation, Divock Origi, was also transferred to the Reds in the past month and he’ll be bringing a totally different level of speed and irreverence to the attack.

At this point of this season, it’s still hard to guess what will be Brendan Rodger‘s preferred lineup. Players like Sterling and Sturridge will definitely be even more influential than last year, while the team’s captain Steven Gerrard will have the responsibility of keeping everything together by commanding the Reds‘ midfield.

Liverpool will have a lot of competition when contending for the Premier League title, with the likes of Manchester City and Chelsea probably coming on the top of the list. Right after them, we shouldn’t overlook the renewed Manchester United, but also Arsene Wenger‘s Arsenal. These last two however, will probably have to settle with for a place outside the podium, since the top 3 candidates right now appear to be Liverpool, Man City and Chelsea.

Sources: dailymail.co.uk / espnfc.com