New Signings, West Brom and Season Prediction

At 15:00 tomorrow Liverpool will kick off a potentially exciting new era in the league under Brendan Rodgers. A trip to the Hawthorns to face Kenny Dalglish's former right hand man Steve Clarke is what faces the Reds in the first game of the season. As I will be writing an entire article on it tomorrow I don't want to spend too much time on the West Brom match however I will put forward my predictions that Liverpool will win 3-1 and Suarez will score first (got a bet on Suarez scoring first). I would also like to put forward what I think the squad will look like, I'd like to stress that this is not what I believe to be the strongest squad but what I feel BR will go for.

Reina (GK)
Johnson (RB)
Skrtel (CB)
Agger (CB)
Enriqué (LB)
Lucas (CDM)
Gerrard (CM)
Allen (CM)
Downing (RW)
Suárez (ST)
Borini (LW)

Subs: Jones, Kelly, Carragher, Spearing, Shelvey, Assaidi, Carroll


Now on to what I think Liverpool will do this season. I do tend to be optimistic and therefore I can see Liverpool just sneaking into a Champions League slot, I would say it will come down to a last day of the season result. I don't foresee any silverware this season, I believe that the Europa League and the League Cup will be used as an opportunity to give youth players experience and therefore no serious attempt to win the competitions will be mounted. As for the FA cup I believe that LFC will come up against quality opposition around about the quarter finals and fail to make it through. Despite no silverware I would regard this as a successful season but would be happy to hear your opinions as to what might happen and what constitutes a successful season on my Twitter account @LFCviews.

As for the new signings I see Borini being used mainly as a winger but also as a backup striker for whenever Suárez is unavailable if Andy Carroll is sold. I see Borini as a first team choice and a player that will be involved in the majority of games, my guess at a goal tally is 11 in the league.

Joe Allen will be a key player for Rodgers in my opinion, he is a player that knows the system well and can keep possession of the ball even under intense pressure. Despite a lot of competition for the central midfield roles I believe that Allen will only miss league games in order to be rested for a bigger game. I firmly believe that Rodgers sees him as one of the first names on the team sheet and the price he was willing to pay for the little Welshman shows this.

Finally the big news of yesterday and today, Oussama Assaidi. Now I see this signing as that of a rotational squad player. With a price tag of around £3million and competition for a place from Cole, Sterling, Borini, Downing and possibly even Jonjo Shelvey I can see Assaidi being used for around half of LFCs matches as a starting player. I also think that this will help him to settle in at the club as the pressure of playing for, in my opinion, the World's greatest club will be lessened by not being a regular starter. I estimate a goal tally in the league of 5.

I am always happy to hear your opinions on the club on my Twitter account @LFCviews and I'm willing to retweet any good ones.