Liverpool forward Ryan Babel is a player that many Reds fans find difficult to make head or tail of. No doubt, he has some exceptional talent, but rarely during his 3 ½ year stay at Anfield has he shown his quality or realised his true potential. Many have cited his lack of game time and the lack of opportunities to play in his favoured position up front, as reasons for his failure to shine, but for me, the fundamental problem is that he hasn’t developed over the last few seasons, his growth as a player has been stunted and there isn’t too much difference from the player who arrived in 2007, to the one in 2011.
Some have attributed this to laziness. Certainly in some games for the Reds he has lacked the desire necessary to grab his chance by the scruff of the neck and prove to his doubters how wrong they were. On many occasions when he was given a start, he shied away from the limelight and put in a performance way below his abilities. Some of this could be attributed to confidence and when Rafa Benitez had a heart to heart with him after his twitter rant last January, the Spaniard picked him to start in a greater amount of matches. The difference in attitude was instantly recognizable, chasing down lost causes and making threatening forward runs, but still, his displays were not what they should have been.
For all the effort he put in, Babel only had fleeting moments of inspiration, with a blistering forward run, a cross to assist a goal, a consummate finish or a rasping long shot only coming in drips and drabs, rather than the avalanche that you should expect from such a talent as Babel. He would give away the ball needlessly on occasion, provide an errant pass for a team-mate or get caught offside when he didn’t need to. The same thing occurred at the start of this season when Roy Hodgson decided to pick him in his preferred position as a striker. Hodgson picked him to start on fewer occasions than Benitez did, but every time he was picked, Babel generally made an effort and tried his hardest to put in a good performance.
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we may well regret this decision, Good luck ryan, someone somewhere will turn you into the great player you promised to be
no we are well rid of him, if he ever goes as he is sure to mess the move up as much as possible.
i still dont tihnk he has been treated fairly at anfiield and good luck where ever you go ryan i hope you become a top class player and show rafa who you really are n y u shud have been playing ahead of ngog
As a club you have to make a decission after 4 years (!). You can debate the lack of opportunities he was given but in most of them he didnt stood up. Too bad but hes got to go.
Oh come on you must be joking? What are we supposed to do – keep on paying this guy for the rest of his career and get nothing out of him whilst he moons around playing music and twittering to all and sundry? He has never, apart from three or four games, approached his job with any real intent of doing it! The bullet has to be bitten sometime and I was one who was thrilled at the idea of his coming to Anfield – how wrong could I be???? A complete wastrel…
lets hope i’m wrong about ryan and the webb tweet was excellent
you must be joking babel has promised so much but delivered nothing. he has speed and a fearsome shot when he uses it, but has far too many short fallings. one of the worst is his touch the amount of times he gives the ball away with his bad 1st touch is shocking.
I still think he has qualities we are yet to see. Maybe anfield is not the place for him. Remember Thierry Henry never showed the qualities he had at ARSENAL when he was Monaco or Juventus. But he reached the dizzying heights @ arsenal
I had such high hopes for Ryan, but as said he has not delivered. I think Rafa, as he often did, displayed a certain level of contempt for the lad and his needs as a player and that, in my view, is what stunted his development from an early stage.
I though Roy might give him a go, especially after his beautifully taken strike in the UEFA cup last year, but N’gog must put in one hell of a shift on the training ground to get ahead of Ryan so often!
Ryan is clearly a confidence player of the worst type, that needs a lot of games and constant reassurance from the manager, and while I wish he could have had that (and I think this would be a different discussion if he did), we can’t be having players that become passengers as soon as the managers back is turned, or another player tries harder.
One of those great shames of football, as far as I’m concerned.
I don’t see how you can expect the player to improve when either warming the bench or freezing on the wing. The guy did’nt just need games – he needed games in the position he was bought as – a striker. He got very few of those.
Babel could and should have been a class act but his mind hasn’t solely been on footballing matters. Best he be moved on. All the best Ryan. YNWA
I’m fed up with all the positive things said about Ryan Babel. He arrived with so much promise. I remember an interview with Steven Gerrard where he firmly stated Babel had got to step up to the challenge. He just never has… trust me 3 LFC managers aren’t wrong. He looks exciting when he runs and he has a good shot – thats all I can say about him… His appreciation of the game is nill. He’s not a team player. His positioning sometimes is absolutely laughable. When we haven’t got the ball either he’s lazy or when he does put in the effort he runs around like a headless chicken, clueless. For people to say Ngog has been given the chance and Babel hasn’t means they don’t understand football. Ngog is a team player. No he isn’t a world beater but he keeps the ball, passes it to his team mates and defends! Simple game really! Get a grip people. If you don’t believe me get off your sofas and get down to Anfield… Babel is rubbish!
Really would have loved him to have worked out but with a first touch that bad it’s hard to see how. To be fair he will never ever be a winger. Lacks the skills to beat his man and produce a great cross. I am always disappointed he never got much of a chance up front as that’s where he looked best, but 3 managers have had him and none have given him a go there. Shame.
He’s 24 years old! 25 this year!
He should be showing by now!
Good luck in the future Ryan but you’ve wasted enough time.
How people defend this guy is beyond me, seriously what has he done, the odd piece of magic only goes to highlight his problem. The Rafa haters blame Rafa for not playing him but Hodgson didn’t rate him and neither does Kenny, maybe that should give everyone a clue. It’s not that he lacks talent, he lacks a brain, his problems are all up there. Maybe it’s a mental problem like Collymore, or maybe it’s the product of today’s society where success comes to quick to soon. Whatever it is Liverpool are right to get rid as he’s going nowhere here.
if Daglish and Comolli have their way then Maxi Rodriguez,Ryan Babel,Alberto Aquilani,Emiliano Insua,Milan Jovanovic,Nabil El Zhar,Christian Poulsen,Daniel Ayala,Phillipe Degen,Paul Konchesky,Gerard Bruna and Sotirios Krygiakos will all leave the club before the start of next season in an attempt to free up the wage bill and raise funds towards a number of signings , two attacking wingers that can supply the striker{s} and add some pace, Ashley Young and Keisuke Honda , two central midfielders one attack minded Charlie Adam and one defensive minded Lee Cattermole, one left back Taye Taiwo, one centre half Gary Cahill and two strikers Luis Suarez and Conor Wickham
He never got a real chance, had a good start to his Liverpoool career and then benched by Rafa for far too long! Roy did not understand how to get the best out of the team let alone Babel! Kenny it seems has no time to nurture him. Bet he wishes he went Arsenal!
Babel has never been treated fairly at Liverpool. He played a lot of games in his first season here and he was only 21 back then. He showed his qualities and scored 10 goals that season on the left wing. Rafa was the one who bought him to Anfield but I thought he was too harsh on him. Babel has undoubted quality and I thought Roy was willing to give more chances to Babel but for some reason he prefers David Ngog. To start a 1.5 million signing in Ngog who offers very little up front ahead of Babel who cost 10 times as much is a joke. Babel has exceptional quality and I do think selling him will be a big mistake, especially if you sell him for only 6-7 mil. I thought Dalglish would be willing to give Babel a chance but it doesn’t seem to be the case. Also, you really can’t expect Babel to improve if he plays only 10 minutes of first team football a month. For the past 2 seasons, he’s either been on the bench for the whole game or he’s come on for the last 5 minutes. I do think we’ll regret this decision because he’s a great talent but if he leaves, I wish him all the best.