MY impressions recently are that many Liverpool fans don’t have a lot of love for Charlie Adam. From Twitter to Facebook, the general consensus appears to be that he is slow, one-footed and has also lost any ability he had to take half-way decent set-pieces. Oh, and he’s also fat. It’s funny that, when any criticism is aimed at Adam, it tends to involve his size as well.
This treatment of Charlie is a fairly recent development amongst Reds. Having been a supporter for 31 years, I’ve never known Liverpool fans to actively hate on their own.
Then came Lucas, and the hate was visceral, vocal and, on occasion, quite vile, and since then we’ve had a number of players that have received similar treatment; the latest of these being Adam.
When the news ‘broke’ online last week that David Moyes was considering a move for his fellow Scot, as a ‘replacement’ for Jack Rodwell, forums and Twitter feeds exploded with relief but there was also an undertone of nastiness. Now, I can fully get behind not rating a player. If I’m honest, I don’t really rate Adam a great deal myself. I was interested to see how he got on when he joined us but he hasn’t set the world alight just yet. But given that he’s been allowed barely half a season to prove himself (not to mention that he’s only in his mid-twenties), you have to wonder whether many are judging him too harshly.
From my point of view, we could do with shedding Jay Spearing much, much more. The only thing that’s prolonged Spearing’s career with Liverpool up to this point, is that we wouldn’t have any cover for Lucas if we let him go. I’ve made no secret of how poor I think Jay Spearing is, but I’ve never been derogatory about him or picked at his size or weight. He’s still one of our own; when he has a good game, I’ll give him credit. When he doesn’t, I’ll fume and express my opinions about his ability but I don’t hate him.
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If anything, I would say that Downing and Henderson were far, far more disappointing than Adam last season yet, they seem to have escaped the same treatment. Downing less so, but Jordan Henderson appears to have escaped the wrath of fans, full stop. In many of his games last season, Henderson was a non-entity; he coasted through games, being carried by his team-mates. The one thing you can say about Adam (and I guess, Spearing, too) is that you always know they’re on the pitch, whether for better or for worse.
So, basically, I’m not trying to say that anybody should think Adam is a great player, and I’m not trying to change anybody’s mind about whether he is good enough for this football club. But what I am saying is, while he is still at the club, show him some respect and get behind him. This is Liverpool Football Club, after all, and if we want to preach our values and virtues about how special our club is and how great our fans are, then that has to be universal.
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Absolutely right. There has been a bandwagon rolling over poor Charlie since the end of the season and people have been competing with each other to write him off as insultingly as possible. He worked hard and would have looked much better if a few more goals had gone in up top. No player is independent of the performance of the other ten ( or twenty one) on the field Assuming he stays we should give him more support and more time.
agreed – I don’t rate him as a first team player either, but think if our squad is as small as BR is making it out to be, then as a back up option in Adam is worthwhile keeping. Same for Spearing really, if Lucas gets injured there is nobody else.
All these players have faults. Adam does seem slow and gives away silly free kicks.Henderson plays like a headless chicken,who goes knowhere.Downing plays like he`s held down by moon boots and does next to zilch! I remember sitting in the Kop and fans all around me where giving Lucas a hard time which I found shocking,looked how he turned out.Of the players mentioned I cant understand why Downing gets away with being so poor.At times he doesnt seem intersted but I bet he is when he picks up his big pay check every month.Downing is the worst out of the bunch for me no doubts!
You are right about Henderson. No one made any comments about his really poor performance throughout the season. Poor guy looks lost and like no one told him what he have to do out there. We have to stick to ours but they make our club look real bad and they give us the feeling of disappointment week out week in last year. I don’t think that we are any different this year but the window is still open and i hope we can finally play our game and be proud of our team.
I think the reason Adam gets more gruff is that he was a bit heavy and a bit slow when he first came into the squad. He was easy to pick out because many of his tackles were so late. It is not right that people get so personally insulting in their criticisms but blogs do tend to drop to the lowest common denominator. I saw him Adam in Boston and he looked much more fit than last season.
Henderson got, not really a free ride, but much less criticism last season because Kenny insisted on playing him wide plus he’s a bit younger.
Downing just seems to be a misfit. When he did make a run down the side there never seemed to be anyone there to receive, as if the other players couldn’t read his intentions so they could get themselves into position. Add that to the fact that Kenny seemed almost hell-bent on not having Carroll on the pitch when Downing was out there and his game became hugely anonymous.
Actuall non of KD’s British signings could be rated but the author is right by saying Downing and Henderson escaped from getting stick from fans. In fact those 2 sorry excuse for a footballer should get the lion share, Downing in particular as he rewarded us with 0 goals and 0 assist despite costing us 20 mill.
If fans barbour any hate at all, it shoukd be directed at KD eventhough he is no longer part of LFC now, as his British signings and the mindf boggling fees he paid for them had set us back for years. SD for example is not worth even 2 mill today. WE should rate KD up there with those 2 cowboys in terms of hatred.