Rafa Benitez has stated that Ryan Babel can keep his position in Liverpool’s first eleven next season if he continues with his improved attitude. The Dutch international was all but certain to leave in the January transfer window after becoming disillusioned with the lack of first team opportunities at Anfield but since a meeting they had to clear the air in January, Benitez believes the future looks bright for the winger:
“We had a meeting with him in January. I expressed my ideas and he expressed his ideas about the future. I was very clear that I wanted to keep him because he is a player who has the ability to make a difference in games. He told me that he wanted to be playing games and working hard. I then told him there was no problem because we both had the same ideas. ”
Benitez believes that Babel will gain more confidence in his abilities if he learns to relax a bit more. This was certainly evident in the matches he played late on in the season when he seemed to be trying too hard, working his socks off to get the ball back but not assured enough on the ball to make the right decisions. Rafa believes that the game time afforded to him at the end of the season could help him grow as a player.
“It was good for him to get chance and good for the team. When we signed him, we met his family and you could see they were good people, who wanted him to do well. Ryan has had problems but he is growing and I think at the end of the season he was much better.”
ive always said theres a BEAST of a player inside him,and i think most can agree
you can see when he takes shots and his speed and skill hes meant to be one the best
i hope he stays providing he knuckles down
Heard all this before & fed up listening to it, Babel has more than adequate time to preform week in week out & hasn’t.
Sell him and now.
Well we’ll never know unless he starts getting picked on a regular basis.
Play him up front in a 4 4 2
re: bigrefed
He was given start after start toward the end of the season & scored few and even less assista.
Giving him more games to see him produce nothing consistently will only devalue him when we can sell him now while his stock is higher.
We can then buy someone who will perform more consistently.
His main problems are that he is very tactically unaware. He runs inside looks for a shot and rarely does much else. He has improved somewhat in terms of his work ethic to be fair (last couple of games reveled this) but still, no goals and no assists. He seems to be stuck between being a team player and a wonderful individualist he keeps trying to be one then can’t manage to be the other at the same time….
Result? Frustration all around. We bought him & this was very evident but we hoped then he would have developed by now and he hasn’t so sell.
Sell now.
For the life of me I cannot see what Rafa sees in this stone-footed sour attitude lad. He has NEVER fulfilled his promise. He has NEVER stepped up in a big game, and in my opinion just is not LFC class. He has pace, but that’s it…no control, no eye for the net and it’s only in his last few appearances that he has shown any passion at all. I would choose Ngog every time over Babel, so why not move him out to make room for another youngster. I cannot see him in the starting 11 unless every other choice is injured or suspended.
I think it will be good for all our players to do well for their countrys in the world cup. They will have more confidence and will perform better next season. skrtel and agger will come good and so will babbel. Hope he gets selected for holland he will show us what we been missing from him this season. Ynwa onwards and upwards for next season my fellow reds. We will have a much better reaction from the players next season.
one of the few players in our squad with genuine pace. IMO babel and benny stay, but I KNOW that it definitely won’t be both leaving. babel is still young and talented. having said that his mentality needs a boost sharpish.