Liverpool striker must get chance to oppose former Saint for spot

England striker Rickie Lambert’s grin at signing for his boyhood club can probably still be picked up by satellite, but now the former Southampton man has arrived at Anfield, Liverpool must make some tough personnel decisions.

For the time being Lambert – who has been price-boosted from 5/1 to 7/1 to score the first goal in England’s World Cup warm-up game against Ecuador – can concentrate all his efforts on Three Lions duty before his Liverpool dream becomes reality next season.

However, Lambert’s arrival means there are now five strikers on Liverpool’s books, with Luis Suarez and Daniel Sturridge, aka SAS, bound to be the first choice once again.

This leaves forgotten men Iago Aspas and Fabio Borini to battle it out as a potential fourth-choice and on the evidence of the season just gone, the former Celta Vigo man will likely be hot-footing it back to sunny Spain imminently.

But Borini makes a far more interesting case, with the Italian having sprung into life on loan at Sunderland after a miserable, injury-hit, first season at Liverpool following an £11m transfer from Roma.

The consensus is that the Italian, who scored 10 goals in 40 Sunderland appearances this season, is determined to prove manager Brendan Rodgers and his Anfield doubters wrong in 2014/15.

A notion backed up by his agent in recent days, who said: “He (Borini) wants to compete with everyone and be an extra resource for the coach and the team.

“Borini could be of use to any team, but no one has contacted us and his desire is to show what he has got at Liverpool.”

With Liverpool’s resources in line for a severe stretching back in the Champions League next season, keeping a reinvigorated Borini makes total sense, especially given the sizeable outlay Rodgers made to acquire him in the first place.

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