It’s a huge weekend of football ahead for all of our fans in the Football Transfer Tavern but particularly Liverpool boss Brendan Rodgers who’ll take his Reds side the short distance across the city to Everton on Sunday afternoon.
The Merseyside Derby is always one of the mostly hotly anticipated fixtures in the Premier League calendar but it’ll be an incredibly tense occasion for the Reds boss who has endured more questions about his long-term credentials of late.
Losing to West Ham United at home before going down 3-1 to arch-rivals Manchester United, a lot of Liverpool supporters are still wondering just what direction their beloved Reds are heading in with consistency still proving to be a problem post-Luis Suarez and that oh so close season of 2013/14.
Buying himself some time with slender victories over both Carlisle United and Aston Villa recently, the performances weren’t totally convincing for Liverpool but at least they were on the right end of the results.
Simply scraping by won’t do in Sunday’s fixture with Everton however with Roberto Martinez getting his Toffees squad playing some really good stuff right now having come back from 2-0 down to secure a dramatic 3-2 comeback at West Bromwich Albion on Monday night.
Liverpool will know they’ll have to be at their best to win the intense derby battle on Sunday and will need to carry no passengers at Goodison Park.
Perhaps these next five Liverpool stars should have that in mind then given we’ve devised a list of the five most disappointing Reds players so far this 2015/15 campaign.
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Click on the image below to reveal the five most disappointing Liverpool players this 2015/16 season.
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Dejan Lovren
Many Liverpool supporters have been claiming he’s been up to his old tricks this term and you can’t disagree with them!
Dejan Lovren was bought into Anfield for a whopping £20 million after some fantastic displays for Southampton as captain back in the 2013/14 campaign.
But if ever a step up into more expectant surroundings could hamper a player, it’s been exactly the case for the Croatian international who has looked out of his depth on numerous occasions in his Reds career to date.
Making a horrendous mistake against West Ham United where he conceded the ball to Manuel Lanzini who only had to pass the ball into the 18-yard box for Mark Noble to tuck away, the worst thing for Reds supporters was that they weren’t surpriseed because Lovren has done it before wearing a red shirt!
Roberto Firmino
While he did of course represent Brazil in the Copa America in the summer with Premier League bosses being more cautious in rushing these players back into action this season, Liverpool’s £29 million man Roberto Firmino has started just two games for the Reds so far, against Arsenal and Carlisle United.
Don’t get us wrong, it’s still incredibly early to be writing off a player who has only just signed for the Reds but when you’re brought into Anfield for that kind of money, surely you have to be starting every week as an important cog in the team?
It’s been well documented that Liverpool out of most clubs have threw away huge sums of money in the past on mediocre players and Damien Comolli aimed a potshot at Liverpool lately claiming this very fact although it was he who was part of a number of those moves.
Only time will tell whether Firmino resides in that bracket but on the evidence so far, he’s going to take some time to adjust to the Premier League and Liverpool supporters will tell you that needing time isn’t something on their agenda right now.
Emre Can
While Emre Can was most definitely one of the success stories of last season for Liverpool with the now senior German international being something of a surprise package in his first season in English football, his performances have been rather erratic this.
Starting all of Liverpool’s Premier League games so far this season bar two fixtures, the German is very much learning on the job and due to his 21-years is making a few mistakes here and there.
Reds legend Jamie Carragher has previously taken a swipe at Can’s performances in a Reds shirt with the player sometimes being far too easy to bypass at right or centre back but in fairness to the player, he’s still learning the game while being a player who has been deployed in multiple positions in his career so far.
The problem playing for a club the size of Liverpool is that individual mistakes aren’t tolerated nearly as much as they would be elsewhere so there is an onus on Can to seek consistency in his performances as soon as possible.
Divock Origi
When Liverpool signed Divock Origi in the summer of last year, there was a huge wave of excitement building around his signature due to the fact he burst onto the scene with Lille with aplomb throughout the 2013/14 campaign.
Initially loaned back to Lille for the 2014/15 season, Reds fans still got to see the Belgian international perform in the World Cup where he was one of the youngest and most exciting players at the competition, even bagging a goal on the highest stage.
But fast forward to this season where he’s finally on Liverpool’s books and you just can’t help but feel that his stock has fallen dramatically with Origi being nothing more than a squad player at best.
At the time of writing, Origi started just once in his Liverpool career so far in the Europa League game with Bordeaux back on September 17th while coming on as a sub at Manchester United but we don’t think it’ll get better than that for the Belgian who looks destined for another loan move away in January.
While Liverpool have a lot of strikers in Christian Benteke, Daniel Sturridge and Danny Ings nowadays, Origi’s apparent fall from grace is still disappointing with Brendan Rodgers surely having seen something in training not to call upon the Belgian so readily.
Jordon Ibe
A controversial selection in this countdown perhaps given so many Liverpool supporters hold such high hopes for Jordon Ibe making it at Anfield but in truth, has he really blew anybody away so far this season?
Starting just one game for the Reds at the time of writing against Bordeaux in the Europa League like the aforementioned Origi, Ibe would’ve had designs on being a player in Rodgers’ starting eleven this season after breaking into the first team last term.
Even mentioned by Roy Hodgson as somebody who could infiltrate the senior England squad this term, we still think Ibe has a long way to go to get on the plane for Euro 2016.
Unfortunately for the player himself, many will always compare him to the breakthrough enjoyed by Raheem Sterling given the duo’s path from playing in the Football League at an early age.
Although some Reds supporters may still claim that Ibe boasts more talent than Sterling, the now Manchester City player’s breakthrough at Anfield still most definitely outshines the one as enjoyed by Ibe.
