Luis Suarez +/-

Opposites attract and for Luis Suarez's negatives, Liverpool must find a positive.

As Liverpool fans reran the horrifying opening day defeat to West Brom in their minds, they could be forgiven for silently cursing their wasteful centre forward who missed at least 3 very presentable opportunities against the Baggies. I submit, however, that this is no new phenomena and Luis Suarez will forever be the kind of player who will miss chances that his talents demand he should take. It has been evident for 18 months at Anfield and was even on show during the Olympics for Uruguay. For all his qualities and his Eredivisie exploits with Ajax, the little number 7 is no clinical finisher. Perhaps it is a problem that can only be rectified indirectly.

Rather than lamenting Suarez's near misses and shanked sitters, Liverpool should be focused on finding a solution to the profligacy of their star player from another source. Suarez will have games where he will gobble up three wonderful goals from relatively difficult chances (i.e. Norwich away last season) but then follow it up with a string of misses in the following games that lead to Liverpool firing blanks. And there is the main obstacle that Liverpool must overcome. If Suarez isn't scoring, who is?

Opening day anguish for Suarez at West Brom

For a long time Liverpool have been bailed out by clinical front men who, regardless of how they were playing in a match, would more often than not stick the ball in the net given half a chance. From Torres to Owen to Fowler to Rush to Aldridge, Liverpool have always had someone in their team that guaranteed goals no matter how peripheral they were during a game. Luis Suarez is the antithesis of this. He guarantees sparkling performances week in week out (did anyone think, finishing apart, that he performed anything less than brilliantly at West Brom last Saturday?) but he does not guarantee goals. His finishing is as unpredictable as his bamboozling twists and turns.

However, Liverpool's lack of goals is not all his fault. Suarez is what he is. He's a magician, a conjurer, a creator who people rejoice in watching and he needs a sidekick to take the weight of Liverpool's goal scoring duties from his shoulders. Perhaps a slight reshuffling of the front line would help. Maybe Fabio Borini playing centrally with Suarez filling one of the wide attacking berths would provide more for Liverpool in terms of goals. Borini is a player who does finish chances as we have seen at Roma, but he is also a player whose work rate, knowledge of Rodgers' system and game intelligence are perhaps better utilized from one of the wide forward positions that Rodgers' has placed him in thus far. If that is the case then Liverpool must find another regular source of goals, and quick.

Stewart Downing started in the other forward position alongside Borini and Suarez at the Hawthorns, but is anyone expecting more than five league goals out of him this year? It simply isn't enough for a wide attacker to contribute when the man leading the line is unreliable in terms of his finishing. Oussama Assaidi will hopefully add some much needed firepower to Liverpool this season, but that is again a huge gamble on a young player who must first find his feet in the Premier League before becoming a first team regular. Whichever way you dress it up, Liverpool don't look like a team that are going to be significantly more clinical than they were last year when they recorded just 47 league goals. It is a concern that seeing otherwise good performances being undone by wretched finishing could again be an all too common occurrence this season.

Dejected: Suarez laments another missed opportunity 

Just imagine for a moment, if you can without being sick in your mouth, that Fernando Torres had stayed at Liverpool and was currently playing alongside Suarez. Presuming that they could have dovetailed as effectively as their talents suggest they would have, how many goals do you think the Spaniard would have scored? I'll venture a guess at significantly more than the 11 that Andy Carroll has scored in his 57 Liverpool appearances thus far. The space that Suarez creates for his strike partners is immense. He is forever pulling defenders out of position and gliding past them, but too often he won't have a partner waiting to profit from his beguiling movement or the composure to finish his excellent build up play himself. Torres would have benefited hugely but alas, he is long gone from Merseyside. Liverpool need a new goalscorer. If they had a 'fox in the box' (not Franny Jeffers, mind), they would be an infinitely more frightening attacking proposition.

With Carroll still kicking his heels on the touchline so far this season and the likes of Adam, Cole and Spearing seemingly only taking up space in the bloated midfield portion of the squad, perhaps Brendan Rodgers would be best served by moving these fringe players on (admittedly at a huge loss in Carroll's case) and bringing in a proper foil for his best player to work off. Luis Suarez is a number 7, not a number 9. He's a Peter Beardsley in need of a John Aldridge to work off.

Who knows, with someone else taking the goal scoring burden off his shoulders, maybe Suarez would loosen up a bit and finish a few more of the chances that he gets. Finding an out and out goalscorer could even unlock more potential from Suarez. Just nobody mention Michael Owen. He's a negative force too far.