Football FanCast guest columnist Lee Jenson feels Rafa should look to Dutch duo to inject some life into the club in January.

With uncertainty still surrounding the finances at the football club, with differing figures being bandied around about how much money that Rafa Benitez is going to have at his disposal in the January window, I think it is fair to say that the loan market is the only one that realistically we will be looking to undertake until the summer at the very earliest. I’m surprised that Rafa didn’t look to utilise this in the summer, we can only hope that he has subsequently learned from his mistake.

We all know where the failings are with this team at present and the areas that need improving and why our record with Dutch players isn’t great, with Dirk Kuyt the only exception, I believe that Rafa should look to go ‘Double Dutch’ which I feel will make perfect sense to Liverpool in covering our two troubled areas of this current team. Both are great players and both are a damn sight better than what we have got.

The first player in question is Klass Jan Huntelaar who is currently struggling at AC Milan. Despite an indifferent spell at Madrid, which in fact wasn’t as bad as is perceived, he hasn’t hit the heights he was producing during his time at Ajax since his move to the San Siro. Perhaps made the scapegoat for Milan’s shaky start, Huntelaar is yet to score and the feeling is that his spell in Italy will be as short as his time in Spain and questions have already been raised as to whether he’ll need to move on to get regular football, in order to be assured of a place in Bert van Marwijk’s World Cup squad. A straight cash deal will arguably be out of the question, given our current finances, but it makes you wonder whether a possible loan deal, with view to a permanent, is potentially there to be had providing we can convince him to join.

The other player in question is no stranger to Liverpool fans, as most have been screaming for his services at Anfield for some time now. It still amazes me as to why Rafa didn’t try and get Van der Vaart as a part of an exchange deal with either Alonso or Arbeloa, because he is the kind of player who could give us some real width and punch in the final third. The Dutchman is a real box of tricks and everything that Babel isn’t on the left hand side and his presence in the team, in the style that he plays, would give us far more of an edge going forward and give us slightly more penetration. Like Huntelaar, Van der Vaart has been warned about his World Cup chances and the player has actually come out in the past weeks and suggested that he is looking to move on in some capacity from the Bernabeu in January.

A loan once again signing would prove an attractive one as far as we are concerned and it would be a move, like with Klass’, where we as a football club have nothing to lose and pretty much everything to gain. The Dutch duo would certainly benefit from regular first team football so it’s very much a win, win for them too.

Would ‘Double Dutch’ make perfect sense for Liverpool, or should Rafa be looking elsewhere?

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