WITH a wave of a hand, Liverpool have sold Jonjo Shelvey to Laudrup’s swanky Swansea side. But does this spell the end for players like Jonjo Shelvey at Liverpool?
In many ways, Shelvey is the sort of player that was once the archetype of Premier League football and success in the English league.
Height, power, strength and the ability to score goals all conjure up thoughts of some of the greatest players in the Premier League: Drogba, Vieira, Gerrard. All these players were built in that mould and have been the bedrock of some of the greatest teams over the last 15 years.
Of course, Shelvey has not achieved anything like the names mentioned above but his best attributes all fall into the same category as those referred to.
At times Shelvey displayed quality that suggested that he would have a successful time in the top flight of English football. He could play incisive passes, his attacking movement found him in a plethora of goalscoring opportunities and his aggression was a throwback to the earlier part of the Premier League era, when football was a little rougher.
But since the change in manager, there has been a change of emphasis in the types of players that we look to sign and develop. The desire to have physically strong and powerful sides has been replaced by a tendency to look for more diminutive and technically able players.
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Instead of looking for players like Sissoko we now seek someone like Joe Allen. Where once we had Gerrard, we now aim for players like Coutinho and Aspas. In many ways we are mutating from a typical English side to a much more Brazilian model in a classic sense.
For all Shelvey’s positive attributes, none of those fit with the new direction that the club is moving in. He may well be a footballer who has been lost in time as English football attempts to move away from a culture that had become too obsessed with fine physical specimens over all else.
Perhaps if his form had not dropped so startlingly after the turn of the year, he could have squeaked into Rodgers’ plans. However, the reality was that with increased competition in the midfield and attacking positions and the lack of European football next season, Shelvey would have been lucky to play in more than a handful of ties.
And so this may be the last we see of young, powerful midfielders coming through Liverpool’s academy system as we aim to produce another Sterling or Suso rather than Plessis or Gerrard. It may be something to lament when we have the opportunity to look back but it may also plot the path to a stronger future.
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Plessis wtf
are you having laugh ?
The spanish are being dismanted by the germans and brazilians yet br is adamant to keep buying small players…guadiola has moved to german yet we keep goin to spain…food for thought.
Mignolet is 6’4
He is a goalie u plank
LOL!!!!!
Mignolet is just under 6 foot 3″. Even that is very small for a goalie
We most certainly are going down the lightweight department and although these players have skill and pace it hasn’t worked for arsenal so far?
We need to keep a physical spine to the team or we’ll be having another nightmare of a season.
Too late . Rodgers only likes lightweight wimps
Seems to me that Rodgers is incapable of noticing and correcting mistakes and what needs doing, the physical side was a real problem last season, so what does he do, he signs more of the same whilst at the same time selling players like Shelvey.
We will be lamenting in a few months. Mignolet is a GK, mu.
No. You have it wrong . Shelvey and players of his build are the future of football. Bayern have shown the way , power and strength will beat tippy tappy football.
Shelvey should have been kept , the next manager would have used a player like that.
shelvey was average at best and far too slow you dope
Shelvey was not slow at all . Average maybe but not slow
Even with shelvey’s strength, he lacked the “fear factor” of Gerrard or Alonso…we need creative and strong players though shelvey’s strong he isn’t creative and can be wasteful at decisive moments..coutinho can single-handedly change a game
He was still young and learning
shelvey should of been loaned out if that but hes gone nevermind goodluck shelvey
Shelvey ought not be sold but at most loAned. He is young, strong and talented. I know lfc will regret this move bcos he is gonna be a great player.
Shelvey will turn into a class player , even now he is a lot better than that wimp allen .
Agreed
Anyone noticedvhow bench some of our players have got like coutiniho and Enrique?
^^^^ hench
Shelvey is no good for #lfc @ all and am so happy to see d back of him. D guy is no future replacement for gerrard, all of dat suggestion are all lies n sentimental he has no good footballing brain. All he can do is being aggresive with d ball n some wayward shooting. D guy is a sh*t, sorry to say but its d truth.
The lad is good but somehow sluggish as at last session. Average player can’t take us to anywhere. Anyway God is there for us but we need Papadopolous or any beta defender not Kolo Toure. Henrick M.
i so also think selling shelvey was a big mistake .we need players like him when we play teams of stoke type.