GRAEME SOUNESS: How the hell do you spend the thick end of £1bn at Chelsea and still be short of a real striker? Congratulations Mr Boehly!

Spending a billion pounds in the transfer market and not securing a proven, goal-scoring striker is like building a beautiful, expensive house and saying: ‘Don’t let’s worry about the roof.’

This is how I see Chelsea’s current predicament. Mauricio Pochettino’s current predicament.

What we witnessed in their defeat at Middlesbrough on Tuesday night was the latest manifestation of what has been evident all season: a collection of players, some very good, some not so good, and not a single proper goalscorer at the top level.

There were signs of discontent among the fans after the Carabao Cup defeat and if Chelsea don’t make a European place at the end of the season, Mauricio’s job will be on the line.

He could have no complaints about that. It’s the price of football management now. Mauricio has given his tacit approval of the players Chelsea have brought in. But I do think it’s important to remember that he has been given the keys to a dressing room full of players who were bought by non-footballing people and asked to make a team of them.

He’s picking up the baton handed him by that self-styled football ‘guru’ Todd Boehly – who named himself Chelsea’s ‘acting director of football’ almost immediately on arrival.

Timo Werner and Romelu Lukaku were clearly not the answer. But only one Chelsea player scored more than Lukaku, two seasons ago. I know they’ve spent on potential in Nicolas Jackson but if you lay out a billion, as Chelsea have, you have to sign players for today, not some time in the future.

People say, ‘You build from the back’ when putting together a team but that’s not entirely true. If you are getting goals, the confidence is continually there in the team and you can be nicking games, even if the rest of the team is not up to scratch. Liverpool don’t have to play well to win every week because they have firepower – the same as in my time playing for the club.

Time will tell if Mauricio can put things together. He’s come with a decent CV, of course. He’s not won much – just the one title in France with PSG - but he has a proper understanding of the English game and ‘playing the right way’, whatever that means. (I always thought the ‘right way’ was just to win football matches.)

He earned a lot of credit from his time at Spurs, even though he didn’t actually win anything there. That’s where he was blessed with some of that Lady Luck that all managers need. There was a young man called ‘Harry’ someone… and the rest is history! Kane scored 32 goals in Mauricio’s first season. Yes, there’s always a lot of luck involved.

It looks to me like they don’t have any real leaders. Connor Gallagher has been captain on some occasions and when you watch him play, there’s nothing to dislike. Good technically. Good athlete. Tremendous attitude. But is there that presence in the dressing room and beyond where others would be seeing him as their leader?

We now hear that Chelsea may have to sell players to comply with Financial Fair Play, which brings us back again to all the cash they have laid out without buying a striker. How in hell’s name do you manage to spend the thick end of a billion, fall short of securing the most important commodity – and then have to ship more out? Unbelievable! Congratulations, Mr Boehly.

Chelsea have dropped from a team that was winning trophies nearly every year to their current level – a mid-table club. I don’t see this being the quick fix Chelsea fans will expect. It all adds up to dangerous territory for Mauricio. He’s going to need all the luck he can find.

TOP FIVE REDS STRIKERS 

There has been discussion on the Mail’s It’s All Kicking Off podcast about who are the all-time top five Liverpool strikers. That’s my kind of conversation!

Ian Rush and Mo Salah are popular choices, and both Roger Hunt and Luis Suarez have to be in my five. I don’t include my old team-make Kenny Dalglish because he was one of the first false-nines, rather than an out-and-out striker.

Fernando Torres has to be taken out of the argument, too, because he was not on the same level. And that brings me to Robbie Fowler. Robbie was the ultimate fox-in-the-box and a fantastic goalscorer, who I decided to give a debut to, against Chelsea in September 1993. 

There was some pushback from my colleagues at the time but I told them, ‘he’s ready.’ He had the bravery. He had the technique. And that sixth sense for a striker, of being in the right place at the right time. 

He and Rushie scored a lot of goals in a similar manner, where they seemed to be passing the ball into the net. They didn’t have to smash it because of that sixth sense: right time; right place.

It took a bit of time for Rushie to gain that confidence, where it didn’t matter if he missed. Robbie had that from the day he was born. That full-on Scouse self-belief. I’m going to totally sit on the fence on which of Rushie, Robbie, Roger, Luis or Mo has been the greatest. Any team would want any of them.

LEVY HASN'T CHANGED HIS SPOTS 

Spurs have bought earlier than usual this January, with Timo Werner and Radu Dragusin both already in, from RB Leipzig and Genoa. 

But I don’t see this as evidence that Daniel Levy has changed his spots and is no longer leaving things to the dog-end of the window. He’s gone early for several reasons. 

Son Heung-min has gone off to the Asian Cup for four weeks and Werner is a like-for-like, in terms of pace and versatility across the front line. Though Son operates in another world to him in terms of overall quality. 

Clubs would not have been queuing around the block for Werner. And there was competition from Bayern Munich for Dragusin. 

Levy would have rather stuck to his normal modus operandi but in both cases, he’s been forced to operate differently. 

GUNNERS AREN'T FIRING 

Watching Arsenal spurn so many chances against Liverpool, last weekend, reinforced for me all that I have felt about their lack of goalscorers.

I said on these pages four months ago that you are not paying £65million for Kai Havertz on the basis of what he had shown on the pitch for Chelsea. I still think he lacks the basic ingredients you need to be a goalscorer: bravery, aggression and being prepared to take a blow to the chops to score a goal. I’ve never seen that intensity in him, at Chelsea or Arsenal.

If your strikers are not getting the goals, you need your midfielders to be chipping in, which too few are.

I really like Declan Rice. I wasn’t being personal or unduly critical when I said here that I would like to see him more score more goals to take his game to the next level – something Mikel himself echoed over Christmas. Arsenal have fewer Premier League goals than all but one of the top seven. They need more from that midfield.

HENDERSON DETERMINED TO GO 

The heat out in Saudi Arabia won’t have been a surprise to Jordan Henderson. The poor quality of the league and opposition won’t, either. 

Given the money on offer, I could have put up with either of those, if I’d been at the back end of my career. On a footballing level, he must have found it a doddle. 

But I were in his shoes, I couldn’t have stayed if my family were unhappy. That’s the one thing that might make you want to break that contract, as he now seems determined to do.