Liverpool lack squad-depth: Henry

(GSM) – Liverpool owner John W Henry believes the squad’s lack of depth and emerging talent as the club’s main issues.

Henry believes the appointment of former Tottenham Hotspur director of football Damien Comolli earlier this week will help with the club in fulfilling its long-term project.

“We’re not deep enough. We don’t have enough youth,” he told Sky Sports News.

“If you look at Manchester United and Arsenal they have depth.

“They have relative young teams and that’s something that he (Comolli) can help us with.”

Some believe the addition of Comolli could undermine manager Roy Hodgson’s authority but Henry insists Hodgson wanted the position to be filled

Asked whether Hodgson is unhappy with the appointment of Comolli, Henry replied: “No, not at all.

“When I first met with Roy it was really clear that he wanted someone in that position, so I really didn’t talk that much with Roy over the week or so before we made the decision to bring Damien in.

“So I think he may have been surprised when I brought it up, but he’s fully supportive. He knows Damien. I think the model really requires people of certain personalities for it to work and Roy and Damien are two personalities that will mesh well together.

“It will be a group decision. You build consensus. I think it’s a very good model, but though each will be in charge of their own areas.

“We’re still building a team. We’re in the middle of building that. We may make some mistakes early on, but we’re going to try and avoid that and we’re studying every day.”

Henry, who took over after the debt-stricken era of Tom Hicks and George Gillett, wants the rebuilding process to include a new stadium.

“We really have to invest in the club. We need more depth. We need to build the squad,” he continued.

“We need stadium changes, whether we build a new ground in Stanley Park or we rebuild and refurbish Anfield. If you build a stadium there’s debt involved in that. Even Arsenal had to borrow to build Emirates. You cannot sustain a club in the long term to buy players.

“You’re really limited to what your revenues are. That means we have to create revenues worldwide. We have to generate revenues and that’s what we’re really good at.

“When we went to Boston we spent three years trying to figure out whether to build a new stadium or refurbish the new one.

“We need to move faster. Hopefully within a year, but I don’t want to set a hard-fast timeline when we’ll make that decision. If you’re going to build a new ground that takes time.”