TOMMY SMITH: Raul Meireles needs to bring extra drive Reds have been lacking

Sep 11 2010 by Our Correspondent, Liverpool Echo

WE might get our first glimpse of Raul Meireles at Birmingham tomorrow and I’ll be interested to see just what sort of player he is.

What Liverpool need him to be is a midfielder who isn’t a specialist at one sort of job, but a player who can give us a bit of everything.

Of course I hope he do what Javier Mascherano was so good at – break up opposition moves and help protect the back four. But the one thing he didn’t give us was goals. We don’t get them from Lucas and it doesn’t look like Christian Poulsen will be prolific, either.

So I hope Meireles can also help add some real drive to our attacks and get himself on the scoresheet.

There are signs that he is good at that side of the game; for me every midfielder should contribute their fair share of goals but Stevie Gerrard aside, we’ve been sadly lacking.

At 27-years-old and £11m I hope he understands too he now has a chance to prove himself at the top in a way that the likes of Morientes and Harry Kewell never did.

Big things are expected of Meireles. And if he can deliver he’ll be an exciting addition.