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Football : Rodgers in Deadline Day Stitch Up

Brendan Rodgers has been left high and dry with very few striking options, after Liverpool's bizarre failure to sign a replacement for Andy Carroll on transfer deadline day.

Carroll was allowed to join West Ham on a season-long loan deal, with Rodgers confident that he would get either Daniel Sturridge or Clint Dempsey in as a direct replacement before the window closed.

However, it appears that Fenway Sports Group - Liverpool's owners - decided against spending £6million on Dempsey, as they believed the 29-year-old was worth no more than £4million, despite the fact he scored 17 Premier League goals for Fulham last season.

The American went to Spurs instead, and now many at Anfield, including Rodgers himself, have been left scratching their heads at what went on on Friday, bewildered at just how the situation materialised.

The Reds' biggest problem last season was clearly a lack of goals in their live scores results, and Rodgers had made it clear over the past month that he needed forward reinforcements to make his side more competitive.

But, after a summer which saw attacking players, Dirk Kuyt, Maxi Rodriguez, Craig Bellamy, and now Carroll leave, Rodgers was only able to add Fabio Borini, Oussama Assaidi, and young German, Samed Yesil, to his options in the final third of the pitch.

That leaves Borini and Luis Suarez as the only 'senior' strikers available - and Borini is just 21 with limited experience, for Swansea in the Championship and Roma in Serie A - so, incredibly, they seem lighter up front now than under former boss, Kenny Dalglish, last term.

It really is a crazy situation. Rodgers will now have to utilise wide-man, Stewart Downing, promising teenager, Raheem Sterling, academy graduate, Adam Morgan, and Yesil as back-up strikers. This is no recipe for a top-four challengeand has left fans frustrated at best and utterly dismayed at worst.

Rodgers himself has, so far, toed the diplomatic line and insists he wasn't misled by the owners on deadline day but he also pointedly made it clear that he would not have let Carroll go if he didn't have assurances that a replacement was arriving.

One long-term injury to either Suarez or Borini this autumn and Rodgers' options are, worryingly, limited even further. It could be a long few months until January for fans banking on the Reds in the sport betting stakes.

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