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The World Didn’t End But One Goal Isn’t Enough To Save Stewart

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IT’S been a long time in coming but on Saturday Stewie Downing put in a shift. He got a bit over-excited after his goal and went over-board but otherwise it was probably his best performance in a Liverpool shirt.

Worryingly his manager wouldn’t allow himself to be drawn on whether the wingers’ time at the club was genuinely up.

In my opinion though, his time at the club should still be up. His record reads like a bit part player: 67 games, 4 goals & 6 assists. That works out to a goal or assist every 6.5 games; that isn’t the form of a player that has done enough to earn his stay at the club.

We’ve always known that Downing wasn’t blessed with the kind of talent that would make him a world-beater, but from his form at Boro and then Villa, we could all see he was a consistent, solid winger.  But we haven’t seen any of that yet and we don’t have time to sit about waiting for him to reach that level.

In just a handful more games, Maxi Rodriguez scored almost three times as many and provided just as many assists and he cost the club absolutely nothing, not to mention that he was probably only earning a third of what Downing is on in terms of wages at the moment.

With the two young winger-cum-strikers in Tom Ince and Daniel Sturridge looking likely to sign, Downing will definitely find his chances limited what with the form of youngsters like Suso, Shelvey and Sterling and that is the way it should be as well.

What Liverpool are trying to build, it would seem, is a team of young players that have the potential to improve but can slot straight into the first team right away. They have a ‘sell-on’ value, will be primarily British (unfortunately) and will be expected to reach a certain level on a regular basis.
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That last point is something which, if we’re to buy into the other points, is going to be a minimum requirement for fans. Buy British and buy young, but only if the players can also improve us straight away; we don’t want to end up like Arsenal, waiting for success for years and being told that we only have a young team so can’t expect too much.

Either way, that is one of the reasons why I don’t think that Downing has a future at the club. He is neither up to the required level to put in that sort of performance he offered up on Saturday every week, nor is he of the age to offer us anything long-term; at 28 he is very much – supposedly – reaching the peak of his powers.

So, as I jokingly suggested last week, if he is genuinely peeking the interest of the likes of Arsenal, amongst others, then his recent performances can’t be doing either the club or himself any harm and if we can get anywhere near what we forked out for him in the Summer of 2011, then we should still bite the hands off of anybody that offers it.  In the meantime though Stewart, keep it up!
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I'm a 32 year old Liverpool fan, living in the heart of the City Centre. I've supported the club since the day I was born and have been writing articles for L4L for over 3 years, writing close over 350 articles in that time. My favorite player of the past generation is Sami Hyypia.

I am the current editor for L4L, with my day job being in R&D for the NHS.

5 comments

  • stah h says:

    Nice to see Asley Williams get his comeuppence after his disgraceful attack on Luis Suarez. What if Suarez had have done that !.
    Also Fellaini was made to look hard done by by the press again what if Suarez had done it. agin 5 penalty decisions “all wrong” in just two games All going Asenal’s way – we are discriminated against almost every game.

    • Ozred says:

      The world has it’s way of evening out. We will get a few calls soon. U take the good with the bad

  • Dave says:

    He has started to play very well , he should be given the chance to see if he can continue it . Do not sell him now

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