WHEN Allen signed Rodgers claimed he was a bargain at £15m and would have paid a great deal more for the former Swansea playmaker.
Despite inheriting a squad full of midfielders, and a team that had struggled to score goals, Rodgers’ main transfer target was the diminutive Welsh man.
Out went Aquilani (who despite recovering his fitness was never given a chance by a string of managers), then Charlie Adam (whose great range of passing did not compensate for his snail-like pace, poor tackling and penchant for the Hollywood pass) and nearly Henderson (who despite an up and down first season had just turned 22 and is England’s under-21 captain).
In came Joe.
A couple of games into a difficult start to the season the much anticipated return of Lucas was dealt a big blow with his thigh injury vs. Man City. Allen, still only 22, found himself as the holding midfield player (or deep-lying playmaker if you prefer) and through a series of combative displays coupled with tidy possession and good movement, he began to impress.
Rodgers loves to use extremities in his praise, and no other player has been called ‘outstanding’, ‘fantastic’ or ‘brilliant’ quite as much as Allen. But issues started to be raised.
Alan Shearer on Match of the Day stated Joe Allen passed sideways and backwards too much when there were better options forward. With Liverpool continually struggling to win games Allen was scrutinised more and more – he was getting out-muscled too often, he only played simple passes, he only played the ball along the ground and he doesn’t look to be penetrative.
Brendan Rodgers has often come to Allen’s aid in the press, claiming Shearer doesn’t understand the requirements of the position (although Pirlo and Alonso, probably the two best in that role, don’t have problems being creative from deeper positions) and that Allen is much better in a more advanced position (despite only scoring 7 goals in 130 games for Swansea).
Well, Lucas is back now. Our sorely missed Brazilian is not yet at his peak but we’ve won both Premier League games he’s started. An interesting stat from Opta showed that while Allen and the mysteriously under-used Sahin mainly pass to Skrtel and Agger, the player Lucas has passed to most since his return is Gerrard.
The West Ham game was another interesting barometer.
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This was far from our best game, even if we did have 61% possession, and for large periods we were continually pummelled airily by the Hammers. Our centre-halves and Lucas were certainly earning their wages but Joe Allen, like for much of the last month, was struggling to make an impact. Diame is a tough player to handle, but while Lucas & Gerrard lost out at times (e.g. Gerrard’s booking scything down Diame when on the counter attack) , they were both able to come back and still win duels against him and effect our play positively when we did have the ball. Allen, playing in his favoured midfield role, made little impact on the game defensively or offensively.
Few would blame him for the penalty, and there’s no doubt he worked as hard as he could, but the positional sense and game intelligence I was hoping to see was lacking. In the difficult middle period of the game, when Pepe had possession and Lucas and the two centre-backs were being marked, Joe wasn’t giving Pepe an option, leading too often to a long kick forward and a loss of possession. Furthermore, he kept giving the ball away when attempting fairly standard passes, something he wasn’t doing at the beginning of the season.
Brendan Rodgers has acknowledged his dip in form, partly putting it down to becoming a new father and more sleepless nights. In certain situations it’s okay to just keep the ball ticking over but at a club like Liverpool you need to do more to earn your place. Certainly there have been times when Sahin or Shelvey should have started but Rodgers’ eagerness to prove the value of his new signing (much like Kenny repeatedly played Henderson at right midfield when Kuyt was a better choice) is clouding his judgment.
Henderson still has a lot to prove, but there was an improvement when he came on – Jordan using his energy well to both harry the opposition and get forward on the break, making the key cross for our winner. Clearly Diame going off injured made as big a difference as Jordan’s introduction, but when in the entire game did Allen make a run like Henderson did for the goal?
Allen is a talented young player, but at the moment Sahin is better technically, Suso is a better passer, Henderson is more athletic and Shelvey is far more dangerous offensively. Joe looks like he’s struggling for confidence while every performance is bringing added criticism. Xabi Alonso cost £10.7m in 2004 as a young 23 year old and the £15 million paid for Allen is a similar amount taking into account football inflation. Clearly Joe is a very different type of midfielder to Xabi, but if Joe is really worth £15m, how much is Jonjo worth at just 20 years of age?
The jury’s out on Joe at the moment, a good start followed by a disappointing dip. The first thing Brendan should do, so his remaining confidence isn’t completely shot, is take him out of the firing line and reintroduce him after he’s had some good rest and time to work out his problems on the training field. With Luis back against Villa, I certainly hope to see the deserving Shelvey joining Lucas and Gerrard in our midfield on Saturday.
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ha ha ha . is Joe Allen value ? NO – one of the worst buys ever . lightweight and slows us down , only passes sideways and offers nothing going forward .
If Allen was bought for 1m – he would still not be worth it
and what would you have offered you are not even worth a free signig
and what will we get back for Allen now ? 2 or 3 million . another waste
told you to get back to your Manu sites – woolie
stop being a retarted troll matt
need to give him a chance- he has good technique and still very young. There is much more to come from him
I think right now he is getting more playing time than he deserves, Shelvey has definitely done a better job than Allen on the rare opportunities he has got. And Wasting a proven and top talent like Sahin is bloody shame really.
I think Allen needs to be dropped every now and then, it’s not like we’ll loose the fluidity without him on the field. I hate it when managers are stubborn in trying to prove their signings and keep on adding the pressure on the player. Give the guy a bloody break maybe.
one of our biggest mistakes ever , allen is not only not good enough for liverpool fc , the situation is made worse by rodgers refusal to drop him .
so we have a poor player in the team every week , and he will never be dropped because he is the managers pet , reminds me of houilliers stubborness with heskey , at least heskey contributed a bit every week
what does allen give us ? offensively – absolutely zero
defensively – nothing , he is too weak and is bullied by most more physical midfielders
all he does is keep possesion with 5- 10 yard sideways or backwards passes , not a difficult thing for a pro . and even then his sideways passing is delaying any quick attack opportunities
even if he was good , we certainly could have spent 15m better , with lucas , henderson , gerrard , spearing , and shelvey all there , we didnt need to spent what little money we had on another non goalscoring midfielder
your footballing knowledge is completely shown up when you say all he does ‘is keep possession’. If any pro could do that we would be essentially watching basketball each and every week.
For me Allen was brought in precisely because of his ability to retain possession and keep it simple. He was brought in to play alongside Lucas not instead of so unsurprisingly when playing in a team without the Brazilian, and having to perform the Brazilian’s role his natural game has dipped.
But hey he has had 16 league games yeah? do me a favour
Tim, I believe that Allen has ability – he has good touch & control, passes accurately along the ground, has pace over short distances and works hard for the team. A player can be bought to keep possession but shouldn’t be to ‘keep it simple’. An exception can be made if the player is a holding mid or a defender, but surely not if he’s meant to be one of the more attacking midfielders! I’m prepared to give Allen time, but I’m not prepared to accept he keeps starting when 1) Even his evangelical manager says he’s out of form and 2) Others add more to the team – Shelvey, Sahin and possibly Suso (I believe he’d play well with Lucas & Gerrard around him)
Keeping it simple is a very over used expression in football, on one side you can have a Makelele who would win possession and keep it simple by short passes to more expressive people around him, or you have a xavi who 8-9 time out of 10 will keep simple short passes but this is entirely different from the Frenchman.
I would see Allen more in the mould of a Xavi, a player capable of recyclcing the ball in the majority of situations. Knowing that if you are under pressure you have someone available to give it to to allow you to move into space or whatever is invaluable to possession football. Also by having someone capable of retaining possession which Allen clearly is aids the overall philosophy of possession football in that those without the ball will tire quicker.
He has been playing out of position as we have no actual cover for Lucas (which is worrying seen) and lets remember he 21/22 and taking a big step in his career. Many wrote off lucas, good job he stayed around.
You are totally stupid when it comes to football timmy , easily the most unintelligent writer on any site ive seen , and now u troll other writers pages putting people down . Get a life
haha vickers what a response, dont even know where to begin r if in fact i should.
Football is a sport enriched by opinions, if it relied on any from you it would starve. The definition of a troll can be pretty much summised by your post.
you disagree with my opinion then thats fine but at least argue your case. Is that too much to expect? you will have to forgive me I am pretty unitelligent! Will pop to Sainsbury’s now as if im getting a life I may as well get nectar points!
For me not at all if he was 5m then that’s great..but for 15m i expect a couple of goals and assist..if rodgers is saying he bought allen for passing the ball and protecting the back 4..then no point loaning spearing out
So because henderson played fairly well in 2 games now means he is better than allen? Absolutely NO!!! Agreed that he is often been bullied by BIG mens on the pitch but allen is a bargain. Every player has his own off day and when that happens does not mean the player is not good. LFC has lost many great players due to the fact that some fans who don’t really know anything about the game take their precious time to slate them. So Please, Just leave allen alone $ let him concentrate on his game. And if you still not satisfied, pick up your jersey $ step on the pitch $ show us what you got. YNWA!!!
wow , u really talk cr@p. every player has an off day ? well Allen has had 20 of them .
oh wait , so when we get under performing rubbish in our team .. we should what ? give them 2 years to be rubbish ? hardly the way to be successful
did u want christian poulsen given more time too ? and if not , why not ?
ur a joke
Common lads Allen i?????s????? a good player and will definietely become brilliant and fantastic.let’s give him time because i see him becoming great midfielder. Trust •??e his one of our good buy last summer . Chears!!! YNWA
Allen is a good signing.if you don’t want to be patient with Liverpool performance then go to chelsh** or money-city.
read my comment above u thick
if you are happy with Allens standard u should go support Barnsley or someone
I’d rather have young Spearing back in the middle and I didn’t think he was much of a player either!!!!!
completely different type of player
No diffrence with Jay or Allen , both neat n tidy passers but nothing else , id prefer Jay
Jay falls into the midfield category of Lucas, a DM that breaks up play, rather than Allen who would fall into the more Alonso role. Before people get their knicker sin a twist im not comparing like for like
allen is anew xavi just wait his time to shine will come
ha ha good one
There have been the same people doubting others I.e Lucas,Henderson etc.who always had the skills & needed to adjust,Allen played well for g.b.team & then covered for Lucas,I think we have yet to see his best atL.F.C ,wait until we do
Allen is awful ,THE worst ive seen in years play for pool
Why?
lol obviously you forgot about konchesky
Konchesky and poulsen were far worse put together than Allen.
NO they weren’t
hahaha dont bother Matt, both Derek and Statham have given 1 sentence answers, how can that possibly be argued or disagreed with. They probably wont reply either as they will be adopting a similar approach to world hunger ‘just eat something’ and knife crime ‘dont do it’
Explain why.
Poulson or Allen – no difference to me , both no good attacking , clumsy tacklers and give the ball away too much
are you for real?
clumsy tackler? what do you say to the fact that he has won possession more times than anyone else in the league?
gives the ball away too much? his passing stats for completion is in the 90% range, easily the highest at the club and among the top in the whole league.
Im with u niall on that one , allen is giving away too many FKs and putting us in danger with mis placed passes
So despite having the best pass accuracy of the entire squad, and one of the best in the league, he is solely putting us in danger with misplaced passes?
And he is giving away too many free kicks? What about sterling and Suarez? They have given away more fouls than Allen, are they to be slated for putting us in danger?
Fews years ago, Many crucified Lucas $ hauled abused at him saying he’s not fit to wear the LFC shirt, Now we can’t do without him. So please leave allen alone!!! The little man has not even played a full season $ he’s already been crucified. The funny aspect of i† all is that those leading the assault on allen can’t even control the ball. Damn sadists!!! They never see anything good in anything someone else does. YNWA!!!
you do talk nonsense , you expect a championship class player NOT to get criticism ? have liverpools standards sunk sooo low ?
good article and so much to the point.rodgers has spent unwisely on allen and borini.both cost 26million and neither up to the standard required doubt whether either will be dropped though by rodgers
Thanks Runnerbeen. It’s even more frustrating that Sahin, Shelvey or Suso aren’t playing instead.
how can you judge 16 league games into a season, of which Borini has been missing for both?
Yep i agree , Allen is surely one of the costliest mistakes of recent times , i cant remember a Liverpool player so weak and timid . I also think he is a quiet lad and perhaps doesn’t have the personality to make it at a huge club
Brendom Rogers brought Allen in when we had a wealth of Mids to choose from , imagine his 15 mill plus the 10 he paid for Borini could have got us a Super Striker ….This was the only problem in the Daglish – Clarke team . Instead of focussing on that , he went on his little Allen ego trip ….without the both of them im sure we would have been much further up the table , people talk about how dalglish wasted money well what about Brendom …. Not spend 25 Mill on a proven striker that could help out Saurez is a crime and he is the only one responsible for that …. does saying this meen im not a true Liverpool supporter …i dont think soo …
No you are spot on ,well said
Im not buying that Rodgers is solely to blame for a lack of attacking options being brought in. Does anyone really think he chose to approach the season with 1 recognised striker??
He is a question I will throw out to you Imraan, Liverpool currently play a system that uses 1 striker, this is Suarez, would a recognised striker actually sign to play second fiddle/wide striker?
Next question, in light of Suarez being our recognised striker should we be looking more at wider attacking players to bolster the positions around him?
SUSO IS A MUCH SKILLFULL PLAYER THAN ALLEN.
In terms of performance Allen is as poor as Christian Poulsen , Poulsen got dumped but Allen wont unfortunately .
Henderson is better , both faster and stronger . or i would prefer Shelvey personally , even Sahin has more quality than Allen
Give him a chance guys. Rodgers has proved with Sahin that no one is undroppable and it’s obvious Allen needs a break. It wouldn’t surprise me if he waited for him to have a good game before benching him for a couple.
Remember also that Diame can make any midfielder look lightweight. He made mincemeat out of Chelsea as well.
Liverpool could afford Allen and with a system playing three central midfielders we need six in the squad, which we now have. Hopefully BR will get two more up front and then we are sorted for challenging for fourth. No big names will come until then.
Liverpool cant afford to wait til he has a good game , we r struggling as it is . Liverpool cant afford passengers
struggling? can you elaborate?
are you fkin blind ? why you trolling on everyones comments anyway ?
how is asking someone to elaborate trolling?
How can any reasonable discussion take place when someone gives a 1 sentence response and any sort of challenge to this leads to abuse.
If you agree with Statham thats absolutely fine, but at least add flesh to the bones.
1. Why do you think we are struggling?
2. Who do you hod as responsible for us struggling?
I think the reason we are strugglin IS Joe Allen
and why do you think that?
as it stands we are 5th in the form league over the last 6 games in a run which included a defeat to Spurs which was generous to them to say the least.
Do you see the bigger picture at all? What state were the club in when Kenny got sacked in terms of morale, form, confidence?
Allen did start out well and I could see the value in him but over time he has progressively gotten worse. Now, when people say he worst player to put on a Red shirt I’m sure their the people who said the same thing about Lucas. I am giving Allen the benefit of the doubt of being played out of position and I’m hoping he can proove my current thoughts on him wrong in a more advanced role. Every player deserves time but, also when a player is out of form they are giving a rest or subbed and I would like to see Sahin or Suso given more chances. BR needs to do something quickly because its not fair on other players who aren’t given the chance.
Why is he worth $15m? We had a lot of midfield players at the time and what we really needed was strikers or attacking midfielder who can score goals and given his history he aint that type of player. I still believe Allen can become a Liverpool great but I do also have my doubts.
he was not playing out of position , Rodgers always plays 2 deep + 1 further forward . There should be no excuses , he is not a kid , Liverpool deserve better
I know that’s BRs style of play but I remember once said by BR that when Lucas comes from injury Allen will be played further up the park and so far has proven to be true. It has only been 2 games so far and I think he needs more time to adjust.
Does a experienced pro really need time to adjust to a very minor change ? Players are used to swapping over , playing here and there all the time .
How many positions have Shelvey or Suso filled ? (Nobody needs to make excuses for them) . If Allen was playing left back i would still expect a decent performance from a Liverpool player
FFS this is professional football not kindergarten
He doesnt need time – he needs to be dropped
That a serious question redrum? ‘does an experienced pro need time to adjust?’ of course they do. Some hit the ground running whereas others need to acclimatise and grow.
I completely agree redrum, as I said ‘if a player is out of form the he should be rested or subbed’ and I did say that would like Sahin or Suso to be given a chance, but he also did start very well when he first arrived and was the leading tackler in the premier league for the first 7 games and passing forward and off the ground and that’s why I think he can change his form. He is Rodgers pet after all and it is unfair on other players.
Why give more time to Allen ? He is useless
Konchesky , Poulsen ,Jovanovic are players who looked useless in a Liverpool shirt ~ all were binned quicker
Allen has had 21 games and looks as useless as those 3 , he is keeping out players better than him
I would understand ( maybe ) if it was a kid or a foreigner new to UK – like Lucas was , or Coates , or youth like Sterling , Suso sometimes need time .
But he is a 22 year old experienced international playing for a manager he knows and who will always pick him . He is so not good enough for a top club and really should be binned ASAP
we cant be giving players 40 – 50 games when they look so far out of their depth
good job patience was shown with lucas!
Lucas was young and from a different country u fool
Allen is not young no? (and also technically from a diffeent country/prinicality)
you missed the point (shocking), but there is no blueprint to how any player settles or how long it takes. Suarez is young and from a different country but he hit the ground running, so did Torres. Rafa kept telling us what a good player Lucas was and he needed time before we really saw it (did you boo him?) We have already in a red shirt seen how good Allen can be but the first lull in form you are writing him off completely? after 16 league games? and im the fool?
I agree Harry , he is not young or inexperienced , there should be no excuses . We are Liverpool – players should be top class not championship level
i dont think rodgers has realised that liverpool is a step up in class from swansea ( or it was before rodgers came )