Tuesday, March 19, 2024

Could Wilfried Bony be the answer to Liverpool’s prayers?

Would Wilfried Bony be a good signing for Liverpool?

Would Wilfried Bony be a good signing for Liverpool?

Liverpool suffered a 3-0 defeat at North West rivals Manchester United yesterday in the Premier League, despite having 19 shots on goal, of which nine were on target.

The Red Devils were far more clinical in front of goal and that is what the Merseysider’s are missing at the moment.

Also on Sunday, Ivory Coast striker Wilfried Bony scored his 20th goal of 2014 in Swansea’s 2-1 home defeat against Tottenham. Why you might ask am I mentioning these two things in one article?

Speculation

Well Wilfried Bony has long been linked with a move to Liverpool. In fact the Reds were believed to be looking at the former-Vitesse striker this summer as an alternative to Italian striker Mario Balotelli, it seems like they may have chosen the wrong option.

Records

Bony and Balotelli’s statistics cannot even be compared this season. The Swansea man now has eight goals in his 16 Premier League appearances this season and four goals in his last five top-flight games. He is certainly a man in-form.

Balotelli has failed to find the net in ten Premier League appearances since his return to the English top-flight in the summer. The Italian had missed the previous four Premier League games through injury prior to his substitute appearance at Old Trafford yesterday.

Creating

Liverpool are creating chances, but at the moment they are being clinical enough in front of goal. The Reds are no doubt missing England striker Daniel Sturridge, but even when the former-Chelsea star does return I believe they are in need of another striker, a fox in the box goal poacher.

Youngster Raheem Sterling started as the main striker yesterday and had a number of opportunities to score, but was denied by a fantastic goalkeeping display by United keeper David de Gea.

Sterling seems be to lacking confidence at the moment. At just 20 the winger is shouldering the attacking burden for Liverpool. Some of the chances presented to him yesterday may have been taken by a Bony or a Sturridge.

Positions

Ironically I do not think that Bony is that clinical with his chances. He is at the point of his career where he is getting lots of chances, but is not scoring with all of them. Bony will get goals though because of a superb sense of positioning and his determination to sniff out a goal.

The striker is now Swansea’s record ever Premier League scorer with 24 goals, after one and a half productive seasons at the Liberty Stadium. Bony will get goals and is a player that seems to be determined to get on the scoresheet every time he goes out.

The Ivorian is currently odds of 40/1 to be the Premier League’s top scorer, which are quite big odds considering he is currently only four behind leading Chelsea’s Diego Costa.

Vital

Swansea are currently enjoying a decent Premier League campaign and are ninth in the Premier League table after yesterday’s last-gasp defeat against Spurs. Bony has played a vital part in the Swans decent season so far.

The 26-year-old plays the role of lone striker very well holding up the play and bringing other players into the game. His record of 24 goals in 50 Premier League appearances displays his importance to the Swans.

His goal scoring record has attracted interest from elsewhere, with Tottenham also believed to have shown as interest in Bony in the summer. The Welsh side will not want to lose their star striker though and a fee of around £25million has been mooted.

In truth that would not be much of a profit for Swansea and they would find it almost impossible to replace the goals that Bony scores. It would probably not prove to be in the best interests of the Welsh club to sell, especially as they are not too far away from the European spots.

Fee

Liverpool spent major money in the summer, but failed to sign players of real quality. Some Reds fans dismissed Bony as not good enough quality to be signed in the summer.

However, I am sure the majority of those fans would now take Bony in a heartbeat, especially after the poor start to his Reds career that Balotelli has made. The Italian may be more high-profile, but the Ivorian that has been the one delivering on the pitch this season.

Swansea fans would not thank me for saying this, but I believe that Wilfried Bony could be the ideal man for the Reds to sign, if the opportunity arises, because at the moment the attacking players that Brendan Rodgers has at his disposal are simply not getting the Reds enough goals.

Could Wilfried Bony be the answer to Liverpool’s prayers?

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

David Nugent


David is a freelance football writer with nearly a decade of experience writing about the beautiful game. The experienced writer has written for over a dozen websites and also an international soccer magazine offline.
Arguably his best work has come as an editorial writer for Soccernews, sharing his good, bad and ugly opinions on the world’s favourite sport. During David’s writing career he has written editorials, betting previews, match previews, banter, news and opinion pieces.

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