Should it really be the last chance saloon for Ryan Babel?

After reading Liverpool manager Roy Hodgson’s comments in the media recently about Ryan Babel being at the last chance saloon, it got me wondering whether it was his last chance or actually really his 1^st chance.

Ryan Babel in my opinion has undoubted talent and if we were to sell him we’d be rueing the day that we did sometime in the near future. When we signed him he was one of the hottest prospects in the world game. If I remember correctly a certain Arsene Wenger also wanted to sign him and Mr Wenger is no stranger to signing a prospect and turning him into a world class player.  When he did sign for us I was overjoyed that such a prospect was going to be donning our famous red shirt.

Now a lot has been made of the chance or chances Ryan Babel really has had. Some people would argue that he’s had a fair crack of the whip and others would say he has not. I’m with the side that he has not. Ryan Babel’s favoured position is as a striker; he has made that as clear as day since he joined us. Whilst Rafa Benitez was manager, he liked to use Babel as a left winger even though Ryan is predominantly right footed, which I often found sometimes bizarre, I could understand it if we’d have played Ryan a right footer on the left and then a left footer on the right, but we rarely did that, we’d often have Ryan on the left as a right footer and Dirk on the right as a right footer which to me unbalanced the team sometimes. I always felt that if you wanted to use Ryan in the winger role, you would be better to put him on the right where he can actually use his pace, get to the by-line and whip in a cross, rather than being on the left and having the tendency to cut in onto his favoured foot. Now i’m no expert and am no way trying to disrespect Rafa as a manger or as a tactician, he would know far more than me and is undoubtedly a world class manager, these are just my opinions from what i have seen with my very own eyes.

Back to my main point, how much of a chance has Ryan Babel really had? I remember it was either his 1^st season or 2^nd season (before we signed Riera) where he had a constant period of playing regularly and if I also remember correctly he played very well during that period, in a position which by his own admission is not one he prefers. But since then how much of a chance has he had? Can you expect a player to impress you so much so that he’ll get a starting role in the next match with only 10-15 mins playing time at the end of the match? I don’t care who you are, but if that’s the only window of opportunity you have then you are going to really feel the pressure when the chance comes round. It was almost as if he doesn’t come on and at least score a hat trick and get two assists, he was going to be back on the bench the next match. And even when Ryan did start, if he wasn’t the outstanding player on the pitch he would once again be back on the bench the next game. 95% of the time Ryan did start and he didn’t have the greatest of games it was down to the fact that the team was playing poor rather than his individual performance.

Even if you somehow believe that Ryan has had a fair chance to show his ability, how many chances has he had to play in his favoured position? Now i know the system we like to play restricts us to having just one striker on the pitch which is Fernando Torres and it would be hard for any striker in the world to get in the 1^st team ahead of such a player. But as both I and you know, for a large parts of the last two seasons Torres has had a good few injuries, which has meant the striker role has been a position we have needed to fill on many occasions. Now I am a big fan of David Ngog and I think in the near future he’ll be a very very good striker but last season at times he did struggle. This was a perfect opportunity to play Ryan in his preferred role.  But it never seemed to happen.

I’m glad Hodgson has decided that he is going to use Ryan as a striker, because we may finally realise that he is as good as his potential suggested and we will then be looking for an additional striker rather than a replacement during the next transfer window. So far he has started once this season in his preferred position and he has scored one goal, which is a great start.

Is Ryan Babel at the last chance saloon? I think not, in actual fact he’s only just started.

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