When Damien Plessis joined Liverpool from Lyon in the summer of 2007, there was optimism that the young French midfielder would make a quick progression from reserve team action to first team football. Two and half years later though, and Plessis still finds himself on the fringes of the first team at the age of 22. With Lucas Leiva ahead of him in the pecking order, the likelihood of the defensive midfielder breaking through into the starting eleven seems very unlikely.
Plessis hasn’t really progressed as much as the coaching staff would have liked since his move from Lyon. Rafa Benitez was optimistic on the player’s arrival at the club that he would quickly progress from the reserves to first team action. Plessis had all the pedigree to achieve at the top level; he had been an integral part of the France team which reached the semi-finals of the 2007 UEFA European Under-19 Football Championship along with David Ngog. His move to Liverpool was seen as a good stepping stone towards a very bright future in the professional game, and his first year at the club had a lot of promise. During the 2007/08 season, he played an important role in central midfield as Gary Ablett’s reserves won the Reserve League title. Such performances were rewarded with first team action and Plessis was surprisingly selected to play against Arsenal in a 1-1 draw at the Emirates in April 2008. Benitez praised the young Frenchman’s performance after the match:
“Today was the debut for Damien Plessis. We knew when we signed him that he was a good player. He’s played really well for the reserves, and to play as well as he did today in this stadium, it shows we are going in the right direction.”
A strong, tall defensive midfielder, it was hoped Plessis could push on from his good debut to develop other aspects of his game but the Frenchman has sadly not progressed since then. He was given the number 28 shirt for the start of the 2008/09 season and began the campaign very promisingly. He played in the Champions League qualifying round versus Standard Liege, started his first Premier League game against Sunderland before starting also in the Carling Cup against Crewe in October 2008. He scored his first senior goal against Tottenham in the Carling Cup in November of the same year but his appearances have dried up since then. He has in total played 8 senior games for the club, but he hasn’t featured in a Premier League game this season. He still plays regularly for the reserves but his development as a player has come to a stand still.
His style of play has always been pretty laid back but he certainly does take too much time on the ball. He also is not the most mobile of players at 6ft 4in tall and his tackling is not at the standard required for a defensive midfielder. His positional play is not of the highest quality either, and all of this made it all the more surprising when Rafa Benitez gave the 22 year old a contract extension back in October that keeps him at the club until 2012. Despite the new contract though, it is unlikely that Plessis will be at the club much longer. Even back in January, just a few months after signing a new contract, when Lazio were interested in the player, Benitez was keen on making a deal for the player:
“Plessis is a young player who isn’t playing games. We were considering a loan but we’re talking to the player and his agent. We had an Italian team asking about him and we’ll see if we can find a solution that is best for him and for us.”
Despite his strength, height and good left foot, Plessis’s abilities are probably not good enough for the Premier League and Liverpool will surely look to offload the player in the near future.
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He is meant for Italy.
for some reasons young player can not cope with the hype surround him, while at the same time the manager won’t take a gamble and play him week in week out
here is a perfect example of it
did you know Alou Diarra ? young french starlet that join the club under Houllier. Now if you look at him in his current team he improved and become better player. At some staged last season he considered to join into the national team.
but apparently his destiny would be much more like Le Tallec the french “next big thing” that never hit the big stage compare with his cousin Florent
Give the Young Lad some time as he showed that he can be decent backup to mascerano against arsenal, a guy can’t be bad in a fortnight, may be a loan spell to one of a club in italy can do him a favour, as italians play more physical game than the fast and furious we play in liverpool. He can be really handfull when playing against physical sides such as bolton, he is still young can give him some time in some other league just to build his confidence.
What are you going on about, the italian game more physical? I’ll defo not bother coming back to these websites again what a load of s***!
no time left for liverpool ” give the lad more time, ? er … you what how much time do you give any body? what a load of crap. this guy is and will be a good pro, but hes is not better than lucus and for me;
he can go along with;
darby, spearing, nemeth, el zhar, degen, cavalierli gk, aurelio- injury is just to much for him. san jose, cash for him too, and reira. sell em all, we have to cut throat, we havent got time any more, its time for ” fit in or fcuk off” attitude and its clear we need heavy weight pros in at liverpool to help torres and gerrard, WE HAVE NOT GOT TIME AT ALL,, WAKE UP LIVERPOOL FANS WE ARE HAVING TO GET GOING…
His signed a new contract so loan him out for a year maybe to an Italian team, although I am not sure where you got the “more physical” from Ashok, but he will gain experience there. If he doesn’t improve as much as we would like him to, I am sure we can sell him on at a profit.
Not all players who look great at a young age go on to fulfil their potential, where some others are late developers. We have got some great players in the youth and reserve teams only time will tell if they can make that step up, but give them time and encouragement, not slate them. As for Samuel Charles, stay on the message-boards lad and give the match a miss, we can do without so called supporters like you
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Giving a player a new contract merely ensures that you can receive a transfer fee from another club rather than just allowing him to leave on a free.
That being said, I thought that Plessis should’ve been given more opportunities in the first team this season. At 22, if he’s not going to be given a chance to breakthrough, he should just be allowed to move on as keeping him in the reserves is no good for anybody
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