Suarez to Liverpool

Liverpool Savior?

Times have been tough at Liverpool for some time now. Okay, so the runners-up finish in the 2007-08 season was nice, but it was a mere blip on the radar for a club that has been in a steady decline for quite some time now.

Things hit rock bottom this year. The Reds have lost ten matches already, were swept by EPL newcomers Blackpool, watched the form of Fernando Torres and Steven Gerrard suffer, and saw any chances of a top four finish go out the window by the New Year.

But 'Pool may have just been thrown a lifeline. It comes in the form of young striker Luis Suarez, who fell into their laps for a shockingly low price (in today's game), and gives them a chance to start really turning things around at Anfield.

It was a lifeline they desperately needed.

The team looked underwhelming throughout the season. The squad wasn't great last year, and a series of impulse summer buys weren't working out (Rau Miereles being the exception). Just look at Joe Cole and Paul Konchesky, who have been complete non-factors and both appear to already have a foot out the door. Meanwhile, the likes of Christian Poulsen and Milan Jovanovic are still question marks having lacked consistency.

There was much off-field drama surrounding the club, too. We all remember the ownership mess that finally culminated with New England Sports Ventures (headed by Boston Red Sox owners John Henry and Tom Werner) taking over in November, the Roy Hodgson fiasco that ended close to the New Year, not to mention the ongoing Fernando Torres transfer saga.

But while the papers focused on the soap operas (and surely the distractions didn't help), the real cause of their struggles was surely a basic lack of quality in the squad.

With only Torres and Gerrard able to put the team on their backs, they were clearly in need of an infusion of talent to give them someone else to take pressure off those two.

Well, Werner and company made funds available for interim manager Kenny Daglish for this January. And it will surely pay off with the purchase of the Ajax striker and Uruguay International, which came at a price of €26.5 million.

I first read about Suarez after he arrived from Groningen in the summer of 2007 and promptly amassed 22 goals and 14 assists. Having learned about him, I began to watch Ajax matches on the internet to see what the youngster was all about. I was immediately impressed. The 24-year old was simply a pleasure to watch during his time in the Eredivisie.

He became a bona-fide goal scorer at a very young age and did so immediately after making the move to the big time. Plus he had both the ability to score the brilliant goal, and pop up at the right time to net a poacher's goal as well.

Okay, so it was just the Eredivisie, a league where defense is not exactly at a premium. But check out some of the goals the guy has scored. These are just a few highlights, and you'll see there are quite a few goals of great quality.

I won't toot my own horn too much on this one. But after what I had seen on my laptop, I felt Suarez was destined for stardom before the 2010 World Cup even began (that doesn't make me some sort of soothsayer, just someone who watches way too much soccer). In South Africa, he and Diego Forlan set the tournament alight with goals and helped the team to a shock semifinal appearance.

For me, Suarez is already a far more dangerous player than the more well-known Forlan. Yes, both of them are world class strikers. But Suarez can also be employed effectively as a center forward or winger, allowing him to roam around the pitch and bring defenders with him, which would be absolutely massive in terms of taking pressure off of Torres and Gerrard. Forlan got a lot of the press, but I'd say Suarez was just as valuable if not more so than he last summer .

Suarez has also been a beacon of consistency in a game where strikers go in and out of form on the regular. After a great first year at Ajax, he returned last season to score an unbelievable 35 goals in the Eredivisie.

If you want to get an idea of how good he was, let's look at it this this way; Suarez has scored an exceptional seven goals in 13 appearances this year. Yet those decent numbers represent the worst form of his career at Ajax.

And then the kid caps it off with a clutch score like this one against South Korea in the World Cup's Round of 16? Clearly, we're talking about a player that not only knows how to score, but can also do it in the highest of pressure situations.

Of course, I am ignoring one factor that everyone loves to harp on: character. Suarez has persistently picked up pointless yellow cards and has been the subject of a diving controversy or three. And of course there is the famed "biting incident" that took place against PSV in November. He would be suspended for eight matches due to his absurd actions.

But if Liverpool want to win, they should have no problem taking that sort of chance on a player that has done nothing but produce on the field despite the rage expressed against him off of it. If Suarez can handle the physicality of the EPL, where his oft-questioned mentality will be put to its highest test, then he will surely flourish as his talents and accomplishments as a striker are already on par with most premiership strikers.

Add in the fact that he could be at 'Pool for a long, long time due to his young age, and maybe, just maybe, the Reds have made the long awaited purchase that can turn their season around. Perhaps it might turn around the club's fortunes as a whole in the process.

Where was everyone else?!

Look, I know that €26.5M is a lot of money. But in a market where the Manchester City's, Real Madrid's, and Chelsea's of the world are spending more than that on the likes of Emmanuel Adebayor, Andrei Shevchenko, and Karim Benzema, you'd have to say Suarez is coming at a bargain.

One has to wonder why Man City would drop all that cash on Edin Dzeko, when an even better player was available for less. Hell, what is Chelsea doing wasting their time spending a similar sum on a solid center back in David Luiz when they could have had a perfect striker to play off of Drogba for the same price?

These clubs had been linked with Suarez in the past. But Ajax clearly had a price tag on his head throughout, and they surely jacked up his transfer value after signing him to an extension last year.

And suddenly, a player that was one of the top scorers in Europe, became one of the breakout performers in South Africa, and is only 24-years of age is sold for a price that in today's transfer market seems sensible? I'll never understand it.

Gap Widens in Spain

A 3-0 win for Barcelona is routine at this point. They beat Deportivo la Coruña by that score over the weekend, getting an early goal from Pedro and two late scores from Messi.

But the real story went down in Pamplona, where Osasuna shocked Real Madrid 1-0. After enjoying a great run of form, it's all come undone for Jose Mourinho's team. They're losing track of Barca at the top of the table after dropping points in this one and against Almería earlier in the month.

Even more troubling is their goal-scoring record. Despite having an array of offensively talent (Ronaldo, Ozil, Benzema and Di Maria to name a few), they have scored just four times in their last five matches.

The defense has definitely been Mourinho-esque, and we've seen his teams grind out results in this manner before finding their form and finishing strong. But with this Barcelona team being their main competition, dropping five points over five matches (as Real have done) is essentially a death wish.

Mourinho may take some criticism for losing out this season. But even the "Special One" can't pull this off. Barca are simply too good.

In case you missed it...

What a golaso this is from Charles Takyi of St. Pauli. The Ghanaian helped his team gain three crucial points in their battle against relegation in the Bundesliga, netting a brace against Koln.