A forward line picked from Sturridge, Sterling, Coutinho, Lambert and Lallana is simply not a fearsome one to be honest. Who are opposition teams going to be worrying about? If they turn up at Old Trafford with that line up next season, I'm just not worried (though our own players may give me more nightmares, who knows...)
Sterling is a fine player and Sturridge a good finisher. Lallana and Coutinho both have quality of course and Lambert is a shrewd buy given the price. But honestly, without Suarez I think the fear factor is gone. That's particularly true for United, as Suarez scoring against us had doubly negative connotations.
At at a minimum they need a player the quality of Sanchez to really expect to be challenging for the top four positions in a meaningful way. Even Shaqiri wouldn't worry me. And they still haven't addressed their defence yet.
Sterling has a lot of potential but based on last season with them he isn't there just yet, Sturridge is competent when he's not being selfish but his finishing is very inconsistent. Coutinho hasn't really lived up to the hype imho, he's good but hardly the star player many thought he would be when he was at Inter, Lambert won't do as well for them imo either, with Southampton he was often their main striker, can't see him being as much of a focal point at Liverpool. Lallana is over-rated if you ask me as well.
Sanchez isn't really what they need if Suarez goes tbh, Suarez all round play and goalscoring are what helped them a lot last year, Sanchez has the all round play but he won't get the goals Suarez did, their best hope would be that Sanchez all round play would create enough chances for Sturridge every game that he scores the goals Suarez won't, which imo is pretty unlikely.
And CM. Lucas,Henderson,Allen and Gerrard looks very ordinary.
they need Gerrard on last seasons form again and he isn't getting any younger so not sure I see that happening, he was a liability in the world cup for England which will have hit his confidence too. Lucas I don't rate at all, same with Allen, Henderson worked well with Gerrard last year but if the latter struggles he may do as well.
their defence conceded 7 goals more than ours last season, given how bad a season some of our defenders had that takes quite some doing so I wouldn't expect them to compensate for any shortcomings further forward either.
hopefully we can attract some more players into the club irrespective of the Suarez situation. In addition having a core home based is not a bad idea. Henderson was not a mistake and Lallana will be well suited to the way we play.