After Brendan Rodgers said “”bye bye”” to the title, he knows he must buy and buy.
And top of his shopping list will be defenders as he overhauls Liverpool’s deficient defence.
Liverpool’s leaky backline has shipped 49 goals this season, and no side have ever conceded that many goals and won the Premier League.
Compare Liverpool’s goals against tally to City’s figure of 37 and that is why the title is heading back to the Etihad.
Rodgers knows this and he vowed to strengthen their defence in the immediate aftermath of the Reds’ fatal capitulation at Crystal Palace, when they conceded three times in the last 11 minutes to draw 3-3.
“We just didn’t defend well enough,” said the Liverpool boss. “It’s an area that we know we need to be better at. We’ve improved a lot in many aspects of our game and that will be an area I’m sure we’ll look at – and nobody more so than myself.”
Rodgers will be given £60million to spend this summer and he wants at least one new centre-half and a left-back.
He remains interested in Schalke’s Greek international defender Kyriakos Papadopoulos and is tracking Cardiff’s Steven Caulker, whom he had on loan while manager at Swansea.
Rodgers will also have Portuguese defender Tiago Ilori back and he has impressed during his loan spell at Granada.
He will consider offers for vice-captain Daniel Agger, who has spent the last few weeks on the bench, and will look to offload Sebastian Coates back to his native Uruguay.
Rodgers does not rate either Jose Enrique or Aly Cissokho, who will be returned to Valencia, and his chief scout Barry Hunter has been watching Sporting Lisbon’s Argentina left-back Marcos Rojo.
The Irishman wants to make at least six quality signings to bolster his squad for Liverpool’s return to the Champions League.
http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/liverpool-hand-60m-transfer-budget-3503910#ixzz311Yjqa3e
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