Huntelaar and two others Liverpool may want to consider in January

Brendan Rodgers has been open in his thoughts that Liverpool need some new signings in January and three strikers instantly spring to mind as viable options to provide some competition for Luis Suarez in attack.

Liverpool are still only six points adrift of sixth-placed West Ham at present despite their slow start and a new striker in January could make their current price of 23/20 look on the high side for a top-six finish.

The merits of Klaas-Jan Huntelaar have already been highlighted here and it is hard not to be impressed with the partnership he forged with Suarez previously at Ajax.

However, the big issue for Liverpool comes in whether they can beat off the competition to the cut-price capture of the free-scoring Dutchman.

Huntelaar is sure to have at least a handful of admirers and Rodgers may have the cards stacked against him should some other interesting parties be able to offer Champions League football.

Chelsea and Arsenal are two clubs that could do with beefing up their forward lines and look more likely than Liverpool at present to reach next season’s Champions League.

Should Rodgers prefer a player with Premier League experience, then Darren Bent would have to enter the reckoning now that he has fallen down the pecking order at Aston Villa.

The one leading criticism labelled at Suarez is his miss rate and although Bent is fairly one-dimensional in what he offers teams, he is one of the most prolific in the business when presented with opportunities.

Villa will do well to get any more than £12m for Bent in January and he could certainly make an impression at Anfield on par with that of Papiss Cisse at Newcastle earlier this year.

When joining Villa in a January transfer window from Sunderland, Bent mustered nine goals in 16 games and given that Liverpool create more chances than that Villa side, he can at worst emulate this return.

The final option would seemingly present the greatest risk, but Wilfried Bony has averaged a goal a game for Vitesse Arnhem this season to sit as top scorer in the Dutch Eredivisie.

Afonso Alves and Mateja Kezman are prior examples of players who scored for fun in Holland but were unable to replicate this in England.

But Bony arguably has more to his game than this pair, has age on his side and has to be at least performing to a similar level to Gervinho at present.

All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing.