Prior to Liverpool’s second-half capitulation at St. James’ Park on Saturday, the side had enjoyed something resembling a mini-renaissance. Five wins in seven league games catapulted the side away from the relegation zone, leading manager Roy Hodgson to state that a top-four finish was a possibility. Although much acclaim was heaped upon midfield duo Lucas Leiva and Raul Meireles, Hodgson was keen to stress the importance of one of Anfield’s unsung heroes. Speaking about Maxi Rodriguez, Hodgson said:
“People have not spoken much about Maxi but he has been a revelation. He is a bit of an unsung hero at the moment, he’s not getting a lot of credit but he’s doing a great job at the moment. He has taken on board the work we have tried to do and embraced the role I have given him and interpreted it so well both offensively and defensively. Suggestions that he goes missing in a game are very harsh and I can produce statistics to prove he doesn’t go missing. His positional play is very good, his technical ability is very good and, at the moment, with three goals he is right up there.”
After arriving from Spanish outfit Atletico Madrid in January, Maxi endured a slow start to life in English football, and often found himself subject to criticism. He was accused of drifting in and out of games and lacking the fitness required to compete in the Premier League.
However the Argentina international has become a mainstay of Hodgson’s starting XI, keeping out summer signing Joe Cole, and has managed to win over large sections of the Anfield faithful.
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Maxi is fine as a squad player but Liverpool will continue to struggle until the club wakes up to the fact that we need wingers who can take on the opposition fullback on the outside and get crosses and cutbacks into the box. Liverpool are one of the easiest teams to defend against as the opposition knows Liverpool will not stretch them out wide therefore the opposition can draw the majority of its players into the middle of its defence when Liverpool attack. A big reason why Man Utd have won so many league titles in the last 18 years is because Ferguson has always played with real width pulling opposing defences apart which leaves huge gaps in front of the opposition goal. I am not a Man Utd fan, I have been a Liverpool fan for 33 years.
Kenny mate this is the main problem with English football and the main reason behind the England’s failure to win major trophies e.g. do you remember how many times the Spain team crossed the ball into the box on their way to lifting the 2010 World Cup – I’d say less than 10 times in all their games and the culprit of all those crosses was Jesus Navas who was quickly dropped from the starting 11. The point I’m trying to make is crosses don’t always get you goals unless there’s a 3v3 or a similar scenario in the box otherwise there’s no point in crossing for the sake of crossing.
The season before we bought Pennant, he had the highest number of crosses into the box but do you remember how many headed goals Birmingham got that season – not that many if my memory serves me well. Anyway, I agree with you about wingers who can beat a defender and ‘preferably’ cut the ball back to a CM/AM running into the space vacated by the defenders tracking the strikers or a winger that can dribble past his man and get into the box and pass the ball like all technical teams do, for instance, Spain, Brazil, Barcelona, Real Madrid, Villareal and even Arsenal most times, just to name a few and not this crossing malaki I keep hearing people scream for. Oh in case you hadn’t noticed, I hate crosses and long hopeful balls. YNWA!
Didn’t Navas get the most assists in la liga last season? Isn’t a winger’s primary role to create opportunities?
Bheko – where did you see Kenny or anybody else crying out for a wideman that just launches crosses aimlessly into the box??
Real Madrid and Arsenal do actually cross the ball pretty frequently anyway (more than we do at least!) And the problem with Pennant was that he used the most ineffective type of crosses (high arched balls dinked beyond the far post), not that he crossed the ball frequently.
I agree Zarif, Maxi has been a great signing since we picked him up. And again, a bargain buy of Rafa Benitez’s that usually always gets overlooked because he cost very little and hasn’t finished top scorer every season since. He is a good squad player and there’s no reason he shouldn’t get 25-30 games a season easily.
Maxi is fool and Roy is better than maxi a gr8 full. Yes maxi ahs scored goals but he is not a striker. How many times he is active in a game, we all have watched matches. How many times he assist passes. Most of the time he is invisible. We need to get rid of these two fulls.
Now even blackburn sacked their manager. we are waiting for to be relegated. All are saying new owners have a vision? I dont know what kind of vision, they can see we running out of games. we will not qualify for CL and no best players willing to our club.
I hate this when they ignore LFC.
You made some nice points there. I did a search on the theme and found the majority of people will have the same opinion with your blog.
Guess I’m in the minority then – as far as I’m concerned, Maxi has received waaaay more praise and waaay more starts than his performances merit.
Atletico had the right idea in dumping him on the bench, and then onto the next biggest fools (us 🙁 )when it became obvious that he was past his best
Maxi is a decent player but he’s a squad player at best. He has put in some good performances this season but what we actually need are two out-and-out pacy wingers who can run down the flanks and get balls in the box. Maxi is good technically, good in possession but not the sort of player who can provide the width and get crosses in. He has proved to be a useful addition to the squad since his arrival in January but he’s past his prime and for a club like Liverpool, he should be only a squad player. When we get two real wingers, I expect him to drop back to the bench.
NO NO NO!! A unsong hero ???? Maxi don´t do nothing. have no speed, rarely creates a chance, disappear in games and play total alibifootball!!
Out ASAP, and take Roy with you as well