Are Liverpool About To Sign Another ‘Charlie Adam’?
THERE are a lot of pros and cons to signing another possible ‘big fish from a small pond’ in Clint Dempsey, but I feel the positives overshadow the negatives if we do go ahead and sign the American as is reported.
The fee being touted by the press is around £10m and I think it is definitely worth the gamble. He can provide us with a wealth of experience following the departures of two of our older players in Maxi Rodriguez and Dirk Kuyt and he also has the ability to score unpredictable goals and can be a nuisance for opposition with his creativity.
Yet it’s only in the last two years of his time at Fulham that he has actually improved on actually finding the back of the net rather than just threatening to, by hitting double digits in the Premier League.
In 2010/11 he hit 12 goals and last season he scored an impressive 17 goals for a Fulham side which finished level with Liverpool on 52 points. He finished the season 4th in the top goal scorer list, behind Robin van Persie, Rooney and Sergio Aguero; an impressive feat for a midfielder in a respectively mid-table team. Dempsey may be 29 but he can also provide competition for places and enhance the team’s depth in quality which we have always lacked in relation to the likes of Chelsea and Man United, and with the team also being in the Europa League this season we will need quality back-up to handle the weekly Thursday-Sunday routine of matches.
A prime example of this ‘big fish in small pond’ is currently at the club in Charlie Adam. He was a big player for Blackpool during their season in the Premier League and was an exciting player with his pinpoint set-pieces and lethal penalties helping him to end the season on 12 goals (10 from penalties). Yet he has only showed flashes of brilliance in his first season at Liverpool. But does this mean that we should tar Dempsey with the same metaphorical cautious brush just because Adam didn’t perform in his first season at Liverpool to the standards of his previous season with Blackpool?
I don’t think so. In fact, Adam got off on the right foot early on into his Liverpool career by scoring against Bolton and generally exciting the fans with some wizardry on the ball with some of the excellent passes that we saw at Blackpool regularly. Then it seemed once Lucas got injured, he seriously tailed off towards the end of the season. This was probably as a result of Lucas allowing Adam the license to get forward and not worry about his defensive abilities, something which he must seriously improve upon, as at the minute, his skill in this area is woeful.
Looking at the statistics, Adam conceded the most fouls out of any of our players last season in the league with a staggering total of 58, a stat which most fans would have guessed at as we’ve seen him too often steamrollering opponents to the deck outside the box or fouling when a defender is trapped near the corner flag. Such actions allow the opposition to have a shot at goal or regroup possession and cannot be afforded by a top club. Only Luis Suarez and Martin Skrtel get anywhere near that with totals of 44 and 42.
Yet this doesn’t deny the fact that Adam created the most assists of any Liverpool player in the league last season with an impressive total of six, but sadly these assists fail to mask the general sloppiness in play by the Scot which frustrated many a Liverpool fan last season. All of these weaknesses must be eradicated or at least improved upon by Adam, as with the signing of Dempsey his probability to claim a starting position in the XI will be greatly depleted.
I think Dempsey is a completely different type of player to Adam though. For starters, Dempsey is much more versatile in being able to play in any of the midfield or attacking positions and perform to a good standard. He, like Adam, created six assists for Fulham last season; and with a much more potent strike force at Liverpool he could very easily achieve more assists. The biggest and probably most significant difference between the two though, is that Dempsey likes to keep it simple. He has the killer ball in his locker but he doesn’t attempt it nearly as often as Charlie Adam does during a game, therein retaining possession for the team something which Rodgers’ philosophy is built upon.
Dempsey also, for me, is much more of a sure bet in terms of consistency. Adam could be said to be like our old excellent midfielder Luis Garcia, by this I mean he can have moments where he can be amazingly elaborate and it pay off ending with an intricate assist or a goal or he can be amazingly elaborate only for it to frustrate and infuriate.
The only negatives I could think of if the Dempsey deal went ahead is that maybe £10m is maybe a bit excessive for a 29-year-old. Also, you could say that his arrival could hamper the progression of the likes of Jonjo Shelvey if he is deployed in a central position. Apart from that though I’d say on the whole his signing would be welcomed by the majority of Liverpool fans.
Most importantly, I think he would slot into Brendan’s 4-3-3 system nicely. With the exciting acquisition of Fabio Borini who will seemingly take the central forward role and Luis Suarez ready-made for the left sided slot, could the right-sided vacancy have Dempsey’s name on it? As I’ve said he has all the necessary attributes: he is comfortable with both feet and has the creativity, work-rate, versatility, passing ability and ease in possession; all these things aided by a wealth of experience ticks most of the boxes needed to satisfy Rodgers’ system and with the possible departure of Andy Carroll, we’re going to need a bit more firepower heading in the exciting first season of Brendan Rodgers’ reign.
Comments appreciated!
All statistics taken from: http://www.liverpoolfc.com/team/first-team/statistics
You can find me on Twitter here: @m1cklfc
Live4Liverpool is recruiting columnists. For further info contact the site editor at live4liverpool@snack-media.com
Follow us on Twitter here: @live4Liverpool and ‘Like’ us on Facebook
Newcastle News 24/7
July 19th, 2012
Please(!!) dont compared Charlie Adam with Luis Garcia in any way shape or form!! Garcia was a legend whose contribution to the club far exceeds any player we currently have (barring Reina and Gerrard) let alone CA. If Adam contributes half of what Garcia did then hed be considered a success here IMO
July 19th, 2012
Spot on, remember the derby in his 1st season at Anfield we get to half time having had to make all 3 subs and Luis’s ankle is f*****d. The physio told him they could strap it up but there was no chance he’d be able to play for Spain the next week (where he was tipped to make his international debut) his response the team need me strap it up LEGEND, LUIS GARCIA YNWA
July 19th, 2012
I wasn’t comparing Luis Garcia to Adam, mate. They’re completely different players who play in different positions so it would be foolish to do so. I meant it by the way they’re both hit-and-miss type players.
July 19th, 2012
Whilst I think Dempsey is a good player and would suit the passing style of football, he is 29 years old and he has one year to run on his contract with Fulham. He would have little or no sell on value and he can go on a free next Sumnmer. Why are prices like 10 or 12 million being talked about? I think we should keep our powder dry and let all the press speculation die down a bit. There won’t be any takers at those sort of figures. I can’t see why he should cost any more than four to five million maximum.
July 19th, 2012
Spot on shout there, Eoin. The club confirmed they spoke to Fulham, that is all. If Fulham want that kind of money then we are right to back off – nobody else would pay that for Dempsey – a 29 year old with a year left to run on his contract. No point in paying over the odds now just to rush him over for the US tour, lets just wait patiently and see what develops. We can’t be ripped off for players anymore, and with Comolli gone, we can be hopeful of that!
July 19th, 2012
Dempsey had a good season last season and decent seasons for the few years before that in which he was in the PL.
As he was the focal point of the Fulham attack and he won’t be in ours (Suarez) I doubt he will be able to make the same impact.
However, give him the ball and he will be a threat. I think with a front 3 of suarez, dempsey, and (shelvey/downing/cole/ who knows) will be worrying for opposition due to their goal threat and mobility.
playing with a midfield of Lucas as holding midfielder, Gerrard, Aquilani as creative distributors and our attacking fullbacks, we should find ourselves scoring many many goals.
Therefore, sign him. 10 million is not too high- he has another 5 good years and will sell as much in shirts accross the pond.
July 19th, 2012
out
kuyt 1
maxi free
bellamy free
carroll 18
downing 10
adam 4
spearing 2
joe cole 4
aquiliani 4
in
borini 12
g.ramirez 16
wamyama 8
merntes 15
torres 25
—————reina—————-
jonson—-skrtel—-agger—-enrique
gerrard——-wamyama——g.ramirez
suarez——–torres———merntes
July 19th, 2012
BR is doing himself no favours by keeping the likes of henderson, spearing, adam, carragher, doni, cole. He needs to sell and replace them with better, younger players as the case may be. Already, we’ve lost aurelio, maxi (even after reports BR wanted him to stay! So something must have happened), kuyt, and if reports are to be believed, bellamy. What do we have to show for it; borini. This is no slight on borini, but i can already see this season being mediocre at best. BR is making d exact mistake AVB made at Chelsea: failure to clear the moribund players, only this time, Chelsea’s players are thrice better than LFC’s. Henderson will never be as good as modric, neither will adam become an alonso, nor will spearing a mascherano. Sell thes and bring in Quality. And as for FSG, if they think they’ll get results without heavy investments, they’re in for a shocker. The Arsenal they’re trying to copy spent heavily in previous seasons, and we can see their lack of spending is the cause of a seven year drought. If that’s what they want, good luck to them but b4 i go, i need us all to remember, this is LFC. We should be trying for the likes of gaston ramirez, kevin strootman, leroy fer, radamel falcao, edinson cavani, james rodriguez, john guidetti, mario gotze, erik lamela, markus henriksen, iker muniain, markel susaeta, andriy iarmolenko, ivan rakitskiy, jese rodriguez, christian eriksen, paulinho, casemiro, lucas ocampos, alan dzagoev, victor moses, mario fernandes…most of these players are way better than those dalglish wasted money on and most will cost less! Now we’re beginning to realize what a set-back dalglish’s management was!
July 19th, 2012
Dempsey is average at best.
If LFC are to compete with the elite in Europe, we cannot fill the team with the likes of Adams’, Downings’ and flops of that nature…