Is Liverpool Doomed to the Same Fate as Tottenham?

The past two seasons have seen both of the most recent winners of the Premiere League Player of the Season leave for La Liga.  Gareth Bale left Tottenham Hotspur on an £86M transfer fee to Real Madrid and the (in)famous Luis Suarez has been stealing headlines recently with his transfer to Barcelona.  While major talent is starting to centralize around the these two clubs (with James leaving for Real this summer as well) the issue for the english clubs that are loosing these players is becoming, how do they fill the roles of these major playmakers.

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The argument could be made, and I'm about to make it, that Tottenham is the textbook case of failing to refill the role.  When Bale left, Tottenham spent close to £110M during last summers transfer window, and almost all of  the major signings fell on their faces.  Roberto Soldado (£26M) has been a huge disappointment thus far and has actually admitted that his form has been off since the transfer.  Erik Lamela (£30M) appeared in only 9 games last season and tallied only one assist in the stat charts, followed by injury.  Etinne Capoue has lost first team favor as well as accuse the manager of ignorance of foreigners (read racism) and Vlad Chiriches has been injured since January.  Needless to say the hunt to replace Bale has been almost entirely fruitless, and while not all of it is the fault of Tottenham, they made poor decisions in who to bring on.  The players didn't fit the system, Tottenham was just trying to fix the problem by throwing money at the situation, buying players who wouldn't flourish under the circumstances.
And now we have Liverpool.  I think the lesson we can take from Tottenham above is that there is no quick fix replacement.  Their style is going to have to different than when they had the leading goal scorer in the EPL in their line-up.  So the important move is going to be picking up not only a solid striker, but one who fits into Brendan Rodgers play style.  Arguably the best option for the Reds would be Radamel Falcao.  The striker is one of the most prolific scorers in the game right now, which is an important factor to consider when trying to find a suitable fit.  Suarez was the end all be all of Liverpool scoring last season, and while it is unreasonable to assume that they will find some one to put up a comparable performance, they still need some one with experience putting it in the back of the net.  Unfortunately for LFC, it's pretty much understood that Falcao would be a long shot for the Reds to pick up as he's got many offers from teams all around Europe.  The latest rumors around the league seem to suggest however that Liverpool's top target currently is Chelsea's Samuel Eto'o.  The striker posted 9 goals in 21 appearances last season, nothing compared to Suarez's 31, but again, the Reds have to know that there will be no replacing the talent that Suarez was.  From the prospects that have been linked to the club, it does appear that Brendan Rodgers is going to attempt to put a star name into the hole left by Suarez, however I believe the best chance they have for the coming season is to find a solid striker who is willing to cooperate with Rodgers and adapt to his style of play.  We can fully expect that Liverpool will not be as offensively successful this coming year, but if they play their cards right, they can still walk away from the year with somewhat successful domestic and european campaigns.