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Should Liverpool have sold Downing?

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LFC West HamSTEWART Downing has left Liverpool.

With Andy Carroll and Charlie Adam having departed already, Brendan Rodgers is continuing to get rid of the expensive flops signed during Kenny’s second reign.

Many fans have been harking on about selling Downing for a very long time, though, now he’s gone, some are querying whether selling him, and in particular selling him now, is a wise idea.

Stewart Downing’s travails have been much publicised. He has never been a prolific wide player, and a shockingly paltry return of 3 goals in 65 Premier League games has been testament to that. One would expect an international attacking wide player, who had signed for circa £20m, to produce more than zero goals in all 36 games of his first Premier League campaign at Liverpool.

In his second season Downing had improved. Some key goals in the Europa League, and some important assists looked to have stayed the axe that Rodgers had hidden behind his back ready to wield.

Encouraging pre-season form looked like he may give the young starlets of Sterling and Ibe a run for their money this season, but a £6m offer from Big Sam Allardyce, and Downing will join his North Eastern chum Andy Carroll amongst the Hammers.

Some players who arrive at Anfield and fail never look like they could have made it. The likes of Torben Piechnik, Paul Stewart or Istvan Kozma looked doomed from the start. But Downing, when he joined, had a lot going for him, and still does.

Downing has pace (more than Coutinho or Suarez), a technically good left foot (better than Enrique), solid weaker foot (better than most in our squad), has power in his shot (though usually shoots high and wide), works very hard defensively (even being deployed at left-back when Enrique suffered a loss of form) and really wanted to play for the Reds (unlike some).
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The immense frustration is that he is simply unable to put everything together on a consistent basis at a top club. His greatest weakness is where he is most needed – making decisive impacts in the final third. Downing doesn’t make natural movements into goal scoring positions, so rarely gets chances, and when he is in such positions hasn’t the composure to take advantage.

Stewart grew up playing a brand of football where his job was quite simply to get a yard of space away from the fullback and whip in a cross (hence the reasoning behind his signing to provide ammunition for Carroll), but with a woefully stationary Carroll and other limitations to Downing’s game the former Middlesbrough player wasn’t able to deliver.

I’d have been happy to see Downing leave if we were getting a top quality winger in replacement, but he has been sold late in the transfer window and we haven’t signed a replacement. I wouldn’t want to rely on width being supplied merely by Sterling and Ibe. They are both talented but very inexperienced and are likely to blow hot and cold.

Aspas looks a good signing, but I had hoped he had been signed to add additional strength to our squad. Selling Downing, if we don’t get a replacement in, with our failings to get some of our other top transfer targets and with the Suarez situation further depleting attacking numbers, looks a risky move.

However, £6m for a player who is nearly 30 and is not going to get better is probably too good a deal for the club. In the far smaller surrounds of Upton Park, Downing is likely to thrive, where the immense scrutiny he had been under will immediately dissipate. Allardyce will give him the tender loving care that Rodgers never would, and the papers will lay off him.

Downing never caused any problems at Liverpool, he was a solid professional, if only he had caused more problems for opposition defences.

You can catch more from me on my own blog: http://taintlessred.blogspot.co.uk/

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Gabriel Darshan (Writer) - aka Sutha Nirmalananthan aka TaintlessRed. I am a lifelong Liverpool fan who has followed the Reds from near (e.g. living in Kirkby) and far (e.g. living in Johannesburg), though am again living back home in the UK. I’ve watched football in stadia all around the world, from the Maracana to the Camp Nou, though Anfield will of course always be the greatest! I enjoy healthy football debate, preferring reasoned analysis based on sound evidence over gossip. I also write a blog at http://taintlessred.blogspot.co.uk/ on all things Liverpool FC and you can follow me on twitter @taintlessred

41 comments

  • shuldhvcldhv says:

    Thanks for Downing = cheap too – he played a blinder when we came on for us against Cardiff. He was simply stunning. Everything he did looked dangerous. Bearing in mind he was playing down the right, he turned their left back inside out. Several times.

    Happy Hammer.

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