One of the reasons certainly that Poulsen was bought was because he was relatively cheap at £4.5million; purchased at a time when there was uncertainty over Javier Mascherano’s future and a lack of money to spend on transfers under the previous owners. Sometimes you do get what you pay for and his lack of pace was found wanting in the furious pace of English football. Roy simply should have known better. Many Reds fans would claim they knew all of this before Poulsen signed but Roy still firmly believes he can get the best out of him, despite the fact he knows that the fans are on the player’s back after a string of bad displays.
“There have been one or two games, in front of our own fans, where he has not played well, and unfortunately you cannot stop that sort of response. He knows he hasn’t played to his normal level, and he is devastated by it. The crowd aren’t stupid. They can see for themselves. All he can do is keep working hard and, when he gets his chance to try and show what he’s capable of, make sure he takes it. It will be tough getting the fans on his side. He is a good defensive midfield player and is also not bad on the ball, but he has made a bad start here.”
Forgive me for being sceptical but I was willing to give the player a chance when he arrived at the club but, bar one solid performance against Manchester United, Poulsen has failed to fill the gap vacated by Javier Mascherano. With Poulsen struggling, Lucas Leiva has stepped out of the shadows, and it will need a hell of a lot of improving from Poulsen to shift the Brazilian now. In some ways I feel sorry for the Dane, and I don’t think getting on his back helps, but then again. when you play for Liverpool Football Club, the fans expect you to perform and when you are so below par, you going to get stick; the only way he can change this is if he find some form and adapt to the Premier League, but with his abilities I am not sure he can.
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It’s simple, how can you replace Mascherano, a 20 million player, captain of Argentina with this guy Poulsen, a 30 year old who’s way past his prime? To me and I’m sure to many other fans as well, this guy’s a bad signing and we can do without him. Lucas can do the job and even Plessis can do better if he hadn’t been sold. We didn’t have a lot of money to spend in the summer but I’m quite sure there are better defensive midfielders out there than Poulsen. Getting this guy for 4.5 million and loaning out Aquilani in the opposite direction doesn’t make sense to me. I really don’t think it’s matter of form or confidence it’s just the fact that he’s too old, too slow and simply not good enough. Poor signing by Hodgson.
That was a truly bizarre bit of business, Liverpool gave Aquilani to Juve for free and made sure they covered his wages on behalf of Juve by giving them a further £4.5mln for a midfielder Juve didnt need seeing there was already Sissoko, Melo and Diego ahead of him with the latter 2 bought to replace him
Instead of blaming it on confidence, on the fans, on the new country… Hodgson should just admit that Poulsen’s not good enough for Liverpool and ship him out.
Following that, Hodgson should admit that he himself isn’t good enough for Liverpool either and ship himself out.
Even a Christian Poulsen full on confidence and playing to maximum of his ability would not cut it in the Premier League. Likewise, a fully-supported Roy Hodgson given free reign over the team and unlimited funds would also still not be good enough to take Liverpool to the title. It’s a matter of ability, nothing else.
Without been overly negative, the fans knew the situation when Poulsen came into the club, we were strapped for cash, we lost Mascherano and we sent Alberto in the other direction. It would have been difficult for any player coming to the premiership from another country, but given what the club lost and then got him. It made it 100x more different for him. I never understood why we signed him in the first place, but I am not going to call for his head about a quarter of the season.
There is a valid point made that he wasnt even making the grade at Juve, and then came in and was not up to speed with the pace of the premiership. All factors for him struggling.
No one should have expected him to come in light up the league, he is a squad player at best, and he will have his moments when he is called upon, but I dont see him ever being a starter unless people are hurt.
Fans tend to give players stick way too quickly and everyone calling for him to shipped out, the same ones that wanted Lucas gone after his first couple games. Supporters need to realize that the squad is already thin, so guess what he is not going anywhere. So instead of booing him when he gets substituted, cut him some slack and let him adjust to the club, country and league.
I agree with you Baje that people may be giving up on Poulsen a bit too quickly, but at his age, he is only a short term option and so expectations are for performances to be delivered quickly as there is no long term future for him at the club.
I disagree with you about Lucas though – fans only wanted him out after he’d become a regular in the starting lineup. Even then, most just wanted him to develop as a squad player instead of continuing to be allowed to deliver underwhelming performances as a guaranteed starter at the expense of the team.
you must be joking …cut him some slack….id like to cut his legs off….hes useless.
I can only gather you are a Hodgson but sucker..
Ship this player out and Hodgson with him
YNWA!!!
Too bad of ROY
It was just a crazy signing from Hodgson who probably remembers the player from years ago that he used to manage as opposed to the slow older player he is now. Did Hodgson even have any recent scouting analysis on him before signing him?
It’s the Aquilani loan transfer that has baffled me, he loans out an attacking midfielder who was just settling in nicely to sign Meireless another attacking midfielder but older and not as talented who again will need time to settle, another crazy decision.
Then he loans or tries to sell Insua a promising young LB and brings in an older average LB for £5 million and a few reserve players thrown in for good measure.
Crazy decisions from Hodgson that NESV must be looking at and thinking do we really wanna give this guy any more money to spend?
Uncle woy your time is over !! Please give us a christmas gift, go away from liverpool before it’s too late !!
ROY GET OUT!!!
roy,konchesky,polsen go away.
kuyt,agger babel, maxi must be sold too.lets buy llorente,matuidi,honda,gary cahil,contrao.if u dont want to use johnson as a rite side midfilder sell him too
one thing in defence is, no one thought aquilani or knew if aqua would still have cut it in the prem, you all slagged him off last year.
aqua may have got about 80-90K a week 80k is about 4 million a year so we are only seeing 2 miilion payout at the end of the year.
and hopefully aqua plays well and we can see some decent money back.
i remember seeing poulsen playing in world cups and always thought he was a great player, i think it will come
I do not believe Poulsens best is good enough unfortunately i don’t think it is his fault.
Roy made a poor signing and Poulsen should never have signed the deal!!!!!!!!!!