OPINION: Liverpool need to look beyond Shane Long to solve their problems

Brendan Rodgers wanted Alexis Sanchez and he got Mario Balotelli.

The former Liverpool boss gave us an insight into the workings of the Liverpool transfer committee over the weekend and, even making allowances for the lingering bitterness of a sacked employee, Rodgers did not paint a particularly functional picture.

"If the player you want is not on the list you have to take someone else. For example if you want a left back, but the one you want isn't there, you have to take the best one that's in that group."

Rodgers' issues at Liverpool extended beyond a hamstrung transfer policy, but it doesn't help when the man charged with assembling a team is not free to assemble a squad of players as he sees fit. A successful scouting and recruitment campaign at any club, at any level of professional football, is beyond one man. Leicester City are dazzling proof that coherent and consistent scouting domestically and globally can yield superb results. Driven to second in the Premier League by former non-league striker Jamie Vardy and a fleet-footed wide man called Riyad Mahrez, who was signed from Ligue 2 side Le Havre, the Foxes this month added Birmingham winger Demarai Gray and are close to signing Ghanaian international Daniel Amartey from FC Copenhagen. Whether signed by Nigel Pearson or Claudio Ranieri, they all fit into Leicester's pacy counter-attacking style and they seem to be part of a coherent plan. Can the same be said of Liverpool's reported pursuit of Shane Long? Whose long list is the Ireland attacker on - Jurgen Klopp's or that of the transfer committee? The prospect of a Republic of Ireland international being cheered on by the Kop for the first time since Robbie Keane's ill-fated spell at Anfield seven years ago has excited Irish football fans, but does the potential move make any sense? Martin O'Neill would love the idea of Long signing for Liverpool and keeping Belgian strikers Christian Benteke and Divock Origi out of the team ahead of our meeting with the high-flying Lowlanders at Euro 2016, but it makes little sense for Klopp to add Long into the mix. Apart from the £30 million Benteke and Origi, the Reds also has the inconsistent Roberto Firmino and injured English duo of Daniel Sturridge and Danny Ings in their striking ranks. How much would Long - a striker with an indifferent goal-scoring record - add to a Liverpool attack that ranks 12th in the Premier League for goals scored this season? Former Liverpool team-mates Didi Hamann and Danny Murphy are divided on their former club's interest in the 28-year-old Tipperary man, with Murphy arguing that Liverpool need to get more from Benteke before throwing money at another striker. Hamann shares the opinion of many out there that Long's willing running would make him an ideal frontman for Klopp's gegenpressing Reds. https://twitter.com/DietmarHamann/status/689068099702755332 https://twitter.com/DietmarHamann/status/689079176096280577 Long is a willing runner, a willing runner who has scored 38 goals in 192 Premier League appearances (116 starts). Despite hopping from Reading to West Bromwich Albion to Hull City to Southampton, Long has remained popular with fans of his previous clubs, which says much for the honesty of his endeavour. Hamann's argument that Long will work harder than some of Liverpool's more talented players may be true, but is there not a hard-working striker on the transfer committee's radar who scores more frequently. If the committee that recommended the signing of Rickie Lambert, Adam Lallana, Nathaniel Clyne and Dejan Lovren cannot see beyond St Mary's, perhaps Klopp could dip into a contacts book that must be bulging after a decade-and-a-half managing in Germany and identify a hard-working striker who scores more regularly. Could Klopp not identify Liverpool's next Dirk Kuyt or Luis Suarez, that striker with an appetite for running the channels and an eye for goal? With a good run in the Saints team, Long will have an opportunity to improve that goal-scoring record and force his way into O'Neill's starting 11 in France, ahead of Daryl Murphy and Robbie Keane. Too much of his best form has come in fits and starts, a pattern that is unlikely to be improved by another move. At this stage his career and international prospects are surely best served by fighting for a starting place at Southampton, rather than switching to a club that is in the early stages of a personnel overhaul. Liverpool, having spent in the region of £100m on strikers in the past 18 months, would be advised to ask their transfer committee to draw up a new list or widen the search.