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Liverpool Thread

Re: Liverpool Thread

Babel, Torres, Lucas, N'Gog is not a bad attacking quartet...

Pool could have cared less tonight, they'll have enough on their plate without mickey mouse cup. I don't blame them at all.
 
Re: Liverpool Thread

Could well be a blessing.

To be honest, I was looking forward to the carling cup this season because i thought Nemeth, Pacheco, Darby and Spearing were going to get a right go at it, but they haven't so...

Onwards, less games to think about, the players couldn't give a flying fuck on this basis, and that was the same for Torres and El Zhar.
 
Re: Liverpool Thread

So apparently (I don't remember it) Jamie Carragher threw a coin back into the stands in 2002, and was subsequently banned for 3 games and fined.

Given Drogba just did the same thing, what do you suppose the odds are he 'escapes' punishment from the FA? (at the same time some nice FA employee starts driving a swanky new Jag?)
 
Re: Liverpool Thread

I was also hoping to see Nemeth and Pacheco given a go, maybe Spearing as well.

I think we're also seeing the advantage of rotating your team. Plessis played superb in pre-season, played one league game and that was it, dropped. He's never going to get ahead of Alonso and Mascherano by choice, only through injury necessity.

Same with El Zhar, I can't see him getting in our first team as a regular anytime soon. Same with Ngog, who's not going to push out Torres, Keane and Kuyt when we need strikers to start games.

Is Lo Zio still convinced we need to give Dossena more time? He's a complete liability and, as someone said in the chatbox last night, makes Traore look good. He's just a complete mess and is definately not up to our standard from what I've seen in half a season of him.

Cavalieri is another who's been poor whenever I've seen him.

Not seen much of Degen but he's another who doesn't look like he's fitting in well at all.

I'd rather have seen Darby start ahead of Degen. And although Torres needed match practice, I'd rather have seen Nemeth/Pacheco and bring Torres on later. Keep the Carling Cup for the kids to get big match experiences usually against teams player close to their first team. Playing a team of players who don't, and aren't likely to, play or get a chance to be a first team regular isn't worth it.

As Peter said, could be a blessing. If we were 6th in the league, I'd be gutted. But seeing as we're joint top, I'm not too fussed.

Just glad we didn't pick up any injuries, especially to Torres.
 
Re: Liverpool Thread

Dags - you should give any new player who's come from another country at least one season before you start judging them, not everyone can settle straight away like Torres did for example. I know what you mean about Dossena he does look dodgy, much the same as Gomes for Spurs but maybe they just need time to get used to the games, the language, the food, the people, everything basically. They weren't bought because the manager fancied their wives were they, they were bought cos they thought they were good players!!
 
Re: Liverpool Thread

Traore and Kromkamp spring to mind as players who were supposed to be good players, had time and failed to develop into what we expected.

I appreciate it takes some players to settle in, Drogba being a very good example, but I (and MANY, if not every Liverpool fan I've spoke to) haven't seen anything from him to indicate he will be a good player for us, or the Premier League.
 
Re: Liverpool Thread

Is Lo Zio still convinced we need to give Dossena more time? He's a complete liability and, as someone said in the chatbox last night, makes Traore look good. He's just a complete mess and is definately not up to our standard from what I've seen in half a season of him.

I believe that was me ;)

He is too slow for the Premier League, therfore no matter how good he was or could be, he doesnt have the pace to keep up.
 
Re: Liverpool Thread

Is Lo Zio still convinced we need to give Dossena more time?

In 2001 juventus bought nedved from lazio. the bianconeri sold zidane to real madrid that summer and pavel was the man choosen to replace zizou (not role-wise, of course, as pavel is an external player, but pavel was supposed to lead juve's midfield, as zizou did before).
well, in his first 6 months pavel was simply awful. he was a "foreign body" in juve's football, and he was considered as the weakest link in juve line up.
he scored his first goal just in december, 1 or 2 weeks before xmas!!! (6 months after joining juve).
of course we all know how this story ended. pavel became the best player in the world in his role and kept his world class status for many years. the scudetti, the champion's league final, the european championship with his national team, the ballon d'or.... etc...
and keep in mind that pavel didn't even had to change country, language, diet, lifestyle..... he just moved from roma to torino.
i still remember some ridiculous articles on "tuttosport" (a sport newspaper which discuss mainly about torino's clubs)... during pavel first season they used to write that pavel didn't deserve any more chances, that he was a waste, that juve should have sold him as soon as possible.

sticking with juventus, zizou's first impact with serie a wasn't really promising, and Platini was absolutely crap during his first 6 months (from august to jannuary 1982).
van der saar spent not just 1 but 2 seasons at juve.... and he's still unanuimously considered as one of the worst (if not the worst) goalkeepers in juve's history

and shall we talk about henry or vieira? henry was bought by arsenal from juve... Titi was crap at torino, and juve made a huge mistake, selling him after just 1 season, without giving him the time to adapt to serie a.
and arsenal also took advantage of milan's mistake..... the rossoneri sold patrick after just 6 months.... vieira was pretty crappy in those six month.... but for God's sake.... we're talking about just 6 months!!!

and i could go on for ages..... barca sold maradona to napoli for the equivalent of 6,5 million euros..... real madrid let cambiasso leave for free, inter let cannavaro leave for free, samp bought cassano from real madrid for just 5 million euros, etc.....

now mate, how would u define those people who labelled nedved, platini, zizou, henry, maradona, vieira as shitty players? u'd probably have a laugh at them. u'd probably call them clueless..... and u'd be right, because it's absolutely ridiculous pretending to have a reliable opinion on a player after 6 months....
and let's also keep in mind that, concerning dossena, 6 months didn't even pass yet. he came in liverpool this summer, the league begun in august, we're in november...... it's not even 4 months!
using this logic, we should say that zarate is already world class.... that he's already as good as the likes of ruud, toni, klose or villa (wich would be ridiculous, of course).... because in the last 4 months his performances were on the same level of theirs (wich is an undeniable fact).

6 months are just like a "first step". it's enough to express a first impression on a player, definitely not enough to say if a player was or not a good sign.

so mate, yes, i still think u should give him more and more chances before giving up on him.

last season, 4 left footed fullbacks\advanced fullbacks impressed the whole europe: vargas, clichy, dossena and capel. 2 of them moved to different clubs in summer (dossena and vargas).
well, those of u who follow serie a will know that vargas has been awful so far at fiorentina. u guys complain about dossena (and u're right, as so far he has been pretty disappointing)... but even dossena's performances could be considered great compared to vargas performances.
is fiorentina questioning vargas? are they considering to sell him? no way. because fiorentina did a big investment on vargas (as liverpool did on dossena), they know what vargas is about and what he will be able to give to fiorentina, once he'll finally adapt to fiorentina's football.... so they just keep waiting and giving him the playtime he needs. and that's what liverpool has to do with dossena.

actually vargas is even more of a gamble than dossena. coz vargas had just 1 brilliant season, before joining fiorentina, while dossena has been constantly growing through the last 3 seasons.
So questioning dossena's skills would be absolutely ridiculous (and those guys who compared him to the likes of traore, well they definitely don't know dossena, definitely didn't saw what he has been doing before this season).

i remember this summer when Abhi asked me about andrea, i told him "i don't know if he'll ever become world class..... and actually i don't think he will...... but his potential ability doesn't really matter, because his current ability is already more than enough to put him just below the likes of evra".
now this is not a guess, this is fact, proven by what andrea has been doing in the last 3 seasons.... and no one who watched dossena last season, or the season before could ever deny it.

the only (big) question mark is "will he adapt to such a huge change ? (lifestyle, language, training methods, footballing style, diet, wheather, social backgrounds, new teammates, new coaches) .
as i told u weeks ago, i think dossena theoretically is the kind of player\person who shouldn't have big troubles in adapting in premiership...... but then again, weeks ago i also remarked that this is not "science", and that's impossible to tell beyond doubt, if a player is going to adapt to a different league (as those examples i mentioned before prove).
i didn't thought, for instance, that riera would have settled so easlily, as he's definitely not that kind of player who "theoretically" should be able to adapt to english footie in no time.

the only thing we can say "beyond doubt", is that 4 months are far from being enough to judge a player coming from another country (especially if u don't know what that player achieved before joining your club). 4 months can be enough just to have a first impression, nothing more than that.

my first impression on dossena's performance in liverpool is very very bad. i already watched a decent amount of liverpool's matches, and i can honestly say that his best performance in liverpool so far is way worse than is worst performances in italy in the last 3 seasons.
that's definitely not a good start.... but it's just a start.

i'm actually a bit worried about him. here in italy we have a huge amount of high quality young left backs (pasqual, pasquale, moretti, balzaretti, molinaro)..... the average quality is very very high, but none of them was able to step up, none of them seems to be on his way to follow grosso's path (so far).
now grosso has been injured lately, so lippi lined up andrea as italy's starting left back in the last 2 friendlies........ and andrea's performances with the azzurra jersey haven't been better than his liverpool performances.
the day after italy's match many italian newspapers came out with titles like "what happened to dossena?" and stuff like this.
i really hope his troubles at liverpool won't effect his growth, but, then again, everybody in italy was shocked by dossena's performances with italy in those 2 matches, and this is quite a problem for us, as our others "wannabe world class fullbacks" aren't stepping up aswell, and we can't expect grosso to keep playing at his huge standards for many years more, as he's growing old.

i don't know if dossena will be able to show liverpool fans what he is about. maybe he will, maybe not. maybe he will be sold before that moment. i don't even know if he would be back to his standards if he would come back in italy or move to spain. no one knows.... probably not even andrea himself knows it.
what i know is what andrea already proved he can do in a top league like serie a, and since i know this, i can easily have a laught at anybody who would say "dossena is crap".
and another thing i know is that it would be just insane to question the skill of a player who did what dossena did in the last 3 years, just by looking at his last 4 months.

Oh, and there’s still 1 more thing i know: dossena is not slow. At all. ;)
(little side note: let's cut with all this crap talking about pace! i don't know if u guys noticed it, but in the last 3 seasons, premiership's pace has been going consistently down, and, as a result, premiership football's average quality grew as never before).

so keep waiting, cos it could be worthy. when u sign an average\decent\good player and he doesn't adapt soon to your gameplan, u might even think to sell it, and look for someone else.
but when u sign a player like dossena and he doesn't seem to be settling well, u wait, and wait and wait and wait, hoping he'll eventually play at his standards. coz if u don't wait, if u sell him, and then, after a couple of months he gets back to his standards in another club, then u'll regret it.
just try to immagine how would man utd fans feel today if sir alex would have sold evra after his first season (wich was pretty average… if not worse).

besides, even if he wouldn't be able to show his skills for the whole season, what would be the point in giving up on him? i mean wich are the others options? fabio aurelio??? i don't think so :D. so who else? i don't think evra, clichy or cole are going to move in the next transfer window, wich basically cuts all your domestic options (as there are no other leftbacks in premiership who are better than dossena) so what? another sign from a foreign league?
maxwell is not moving in the next transer window, and the same goes for abidal or grosso..... and even if they would be reachable targets, who could say that maxwell, grosso or abidal (or anybody else) wouldn't face the same problems dossena is facing? who could tell u they would be able to play at their standards in no time, without any adapting period?

sorry for the long post (as usual :D)
 
Re: Liverpool Thread

Fucking great post Ben. Some perspective on Dossena! Though, I'll just say, Fabio Aurelio is rather good.
 
Re: Liverpool Thread

Worth noting Evra was rather sh*t when we signed him in his first season. First game against Man City we had to sub him off as he was getting completely pwned. Against City.
Ditto Vida.
Both turned out okay.

Then again, United tend to be pretty good about giving players a chance, I mean, Kleberson and Djembax2 stuck around for ages and consistently got matches, and they were absolutely shocking. Maybe Fergie is just to stubborn to admit he bought crap, so plays them til they get it right ;)
 
Re: Liverpool Thread

Worth noting Evra was rather sh*t when we signed him in his first season. First game against Man City we had to sub him off as he was getting completely pwned. Against City.
Ditto Vida.
Both turned out okay.

Then again, United tend to be pretty good about giving players a chance, I mean, Kleberson and Djembax2 stuck around for ages and consistently got matches, and they were absolutely shocking. Maybe Fergie is just to stubborn to admit he bought crap, so plays them til they get it right ;)

To be fair, Rafa's done that as well. Crouch, Kuyt, Skrtel, and more recently Keane.
 
Re: Liverpool Thread

He was relatively unknown in England when he came and he was a bit shaky to start with wasn't he so Abhi's right there, no?
 
Re: Liverpool Thread

I'm praying Darby gets his chance today. And Insua soon too. Full back does seem to be a problem, but we have two very talented youngsters waiting in the wings.
 
Re: Liverpool Thread

Good Result, decent enough performance, thought Bolton won far too many highballs in the 2nd half. Agger just isnt as good as Skrtel in the air.

Should have won by about 4 or 5 if it wasnt for Keane, Gerrard, Torres and Lucas missing sitters. Torres hit the post, Kuyt hit the bar.

Kuyt's header was awesome and the move that led up to it was vintage. How good was Torres's cross for Stevie?
 
Re: Liverpool Thread

Don't know where all the negativity is coming from for Dossena. He hasnt done anything special but I remember him defending in such a simple, no nonsense way to be impressed earlier in the season.

As for today's game, how many bloody chances do they want?! It was ridiculous today. But atleast we won.
 
Re: Liverpool Thread

Good Result, decent enough performance, thought Bolton won far too many highballs in the 2nd half. Agger just isnt as good as Skrtel in the air.

Should have won by about 4 or 5 if it wasnt for Keane, Gerrard, Torres and Lucas missing sitters. Torres hit the post, Kuyt hit the bar.

Kuyt's header was awesome and the move that led up to it was vintage. How good was Torres's cross for Stevie?

Even my VERY bitter bluenose mate commented on how good Torres' cross was :SHOCK:
 
Re: Liverpool Thread

Not too worried. Kuyt and Riera have been too good to replace, and I think Babel will play a lot more in the 2nd half of the season.
 
Re: Liverpool Thread

Our blip this year was Stoke at home. Had that goal rightly stood, we'd be 2 clear :D

I think the draw at Villa was a good result (although a poor performance from both teams) considering how well they've been playing this season.
 
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