Christian Purslow has come out and stated that no player will leave Liverpool until a new manager is appointed. The Managing Director specifically responded to rumours that Emiliano Insua would be leaving the club for Italy:
“At this moment the only objective of the club is to find a new coach and then evaluate the whole roster of players with him. I cannot confirm the interest of Fiorentina for Insua, even if in Italy he is highly regarded, for example at Lazio who last season often came to view him in person. I don’t think the player wants to leave Liverpool. When and where he’ll do this request, regardless of the difficulties of the club, we’ll talk. I exclude at the moment that everything can be resolved within a few days.”
With Fiorentina and Lazio both apparently interested in the player though, is this time for the Argentinean left back to leave the club? For me, it’s a difficult question to answer. There is no doubt that Insua did not have the greatest of season’s last campaign. Even though it was his first season in the first team, having to cover for the injury prone Fabio Aurelio for most of the season, the 21 year old always seemed to lack pace to compete with tricky pacey wingers who seemed to have the beating of him. As a relatively young player, you would expect any aspiring Premier League left back to have the required pace to keep up with the opposition, and it is worrying that this is something that will not improve with age.
There are certainly other things that will improve with age though, and give me reasons to hope that he can make it at the top level. A season in the Premier League would have done him a world of good and his positional awareness should be greatly improved by the experience of last season. Insua also demonstrated on a number of occasions that he loves to get forward, and he has an excellent crossing ability up there with many in the Premier League. But the question remains whether he is good enough to be Liverpool’s first choice left back.
Perhaps bringing in an experienced player to help him progress as a player could be the solution. I recommended 10 World Cup left backs of different abilities, ages and asking prices who might be possibilities, and I think Insua could learn off any one of them while also being a good backup for the next two years.
Of course, much will be in the hands of Rafa Benitez’s successor at Anfield and we will have to wait and see whether the new manager fancies the young Argentine. Rafa had tremendous faith in the player and allowed him regular starts in the side but with interest from Lazio and Fiorentina, will the club be tempted to sell Insua and bring in another left back who could do the job better?
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Not a big fan of Insua.
We badly need to sign a 1st choice left back. Maybe Insua would do as cover but maybe a young local academy player should be promoted to take that role and Insua could be sold.
no, i don’t think he’s good enough to be considered first choice but we don’t have anyone else! personally i would love to see phillip lahm but it’s virtually impossible so my alternative would be either taiwo or drenthe
To be fair to Insua, Liverpool had a terrible season and for a youngster to come in to a team which is struggling was not a very nice scenerio. It’s a lot easier to bring in youngsters when things going well, but they couldn’t do that because of injuries and liverpool were rubbish all season
juan capdevilla of villareal best beft back