When Liverpool signed Christian Poulsen from Juventus, I wasn’t one of those fans who instantly thought it was a bad signing. After all the 30 year old had had a pretty good career playing in Germany, Spain and Italy, and I thought there was a chance of him succeeding in the Premier League if he played to his maximum. After all you don’t get to a UEFA Cup final with Sevilla being a mug and he was an important part of the Juande Ramos’s side that won the competition in 2007. There were some bad omens however, that other Liverpool fans picked up on which I didn’t take into consideration at the time.
Poulsen didn’t make the grade in Italy in Juventus after a £8m move, and at the age of 30. with a lack of pace, it seems blatantly obvious now that he wasn’t best suited to the Premier League. There a couple of mitigating circumstances to the Dane’s current troubles though. Before arriving on Merseyside, Poulsen had a morale sapping experience where he wasn’t playing for Juve. He played rarely during his two seasons in Italy; something which will no doubt have dented his confidence.
Low on confidence and form he moved to Liverpool, seeing it as a great chance to revitalise his career under the manager who gave him his first chance in the professional game at FC Copenhagen. From the first match though against Trabzonspor, it was clear there was massive uncertainty in the Dane’s game. Looking rusty after many months without first team action, his passes invariably found opposition players rather than his own team-mates. A bad start was never going to help somebody already bereft of confidence. Roy Hodgson admitted yesterday that Poulsen’s morale is at an all time low and that he is currently nowhere near his best:
“When I took him off in one game he was devastated, not just because I’d made the decision but because he knows he was nowhere near the level he can play. He knows having played in Italy, for Juventus, that when you play well the crowd sing your name and when you’re not playing well they boo you. He knows that.”
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It’s simple, how can you replace Mascherano, a 20 million player, captain of Argentina with this guy Poulsen, a 30 year old who’s way past his prime? To me and I’m sure to many other fans as well, this guy’s a bad signing and we can do without him. Lucas can do the job and even Plessis can do better if he hadn’t been sold. We didn’t have a lot of money to spend in the summer but I’m quite sure there are better defensive midfielders out there than Poulsen. Getting this guy for 4.5 million and loaning out Aquilani in the opposite direction doesn’t make sense to me. I really don’t think it’s matter of form or confidence it’s just the fact that he’s too old, too slow and simply not good enough. Poor signing by Hodgson.
That was a truly bizarre bit of business, Liverpool gave Aquilani to Juve for free and made sure they covered his wages on behalf of Juve by giving them a further £4.5mln for a midfielder Juve didnt need seeing there was already Sissoko, Melo and Diego ahead of him with the latter 2 bought to replace him
Instead of blaming it on confidence, on the fans, on the new country… Hodgson should just admit that Poulsen’s not good enough for Liverpool and ship him out.
Following that, Hodgson should admit that he himself isn’t good enough for Liverpool either and ship himself out.
Even a Christian Poulsen full on confidence and playing to maximum of his ability would not cut it in the Premier League. Likewise, a fully-supported Roy Hodgson given free reign over the team and unlimited funds would also still not be good enough to take Liverpool to the title. It’s a matter of ability, nothing else.
Without been overly negative, the fans knew the situation when Poulsen came into the club, we were strapped for cash, we lost Mascherano and we sent Alberto in the other direction. It would have been difficult for any player coming to the premiership from another country, but given what the club lost and then got him. It made it 100x more different for him. I never understood why we signed him in the first place, but I am not going to call for his head about a quarter of the season.
There is a valid point made that he wasnt even making the grade at Juve, and then came in and was not up to speed with the pace of the premiership. All factors for him struggling.
No one should have expected him to come in light up the league, he is a squad player at best, and he will have his moments when he is called upon, but I dont see him ever being a starter unless people are hurt.
Fans tend to give players stick way too quickly and everyone calling for him to shipped out, the same ones that wanted Lucas gone after his first couple games. Supporters need to realize that the squad is already thin, so guess what he is not going anywhere. So instead of booing him when he gets substituted, cut him some slack and let him adjust to the club, country and league.
I agree with you Baje that people may be giving up on Poulsen a bit too quickly, but at his age, he is only a short term option and so expectations are for performances to be delivered quickly as there is no long term future for him at the club.
I disagree with you about Lucas though – fans only wanted him out after he’d become a regular in the starting lineup. Even then, most just wanted him to develop as a squad player instead of continuing to be allowed to deliver underwhelming performances as a guaranteed starter at the expense of the team.
you must be joking …cut him some slack….id like to cut his legs off….hes useless.
I can only gather you are a Hodgson but sucker..
Ship this player out and Hodgson with him
YNWA!!!
Too bad of ROY
It was just a crazy signing from Hodgson who probably remembers the player from years ago that he used to manage as opposed to the slow older player he is now. Did Hodgson even have any recent scouting analysis on him before signing him?
It’s the Aquilani loan transfer that has baffled me, he loans out an attacking midfielder who was just settling in nicely to sign Meireless another attacking midfielder but older and not as talented who again will need time to settle, another crazy decision.
Then he loans or tries to sell Insua a promising young LB and brings in an older average LB for £5 million and a few reserve players thrown in for good measure.
Crazy decisions from Hodgson that NESV must be looking at and thinking do we really wanna give this guy any more money to spend?
Uncle woy your time is over !! Please give us a christmas gift, go away from liverpool before it’s too late !!
ROY GET OUT!!!
roy,konchesky,polsen go away.
kuyt,agger babel, maxi must be sold too.lets buy llorente,matuidi,honda,gary cahil,contrao.if u dont want to use johnson as a rite side midfilder sell him too
one thing in defence is, no one thought aquilani or knew if aqua would still have cut it in the prem, you all slagged him off last year.
aqua may have got about 80-90K a week 80k is about 4 million a year so we are only seeing 2 miilion payout at the end of the year.
and hopefully aqua plays well and we can see some decent money back.
i remember seeing poulsen playing in world cups and always thought he was a great player, i think it will come
I do not believe Poulsens best is good enough unfortunately i don’t think it is his fault.
Roy made a poor signing and Poulsen should never have signed the deal!!!!!!!!!!