It’s safe to say that Joe Cole hasn’t enjoyed the best of times since moving to Liverpool from Chelsea on a free transfer. The former West Ham United man was ignominiously dismissed on his Premier League debut, and injury and loss of form have continued to hamper his fledging Anfield career. In recent days, Roy Hodgson has told Liverpool’s number ten that he must accept any role in the team.
“Joe has to come to terms with the fact that he has come here after an unsuccessful period at Chelsea with high hopes of taking Liverpool by storm and unfortunately it’s not happened. If he says ‘Well I’m not playing in my right position’, then you’d have to ask him what his right position is. If he says the only place he can play is behind the striker, then he is limiting his chances of playing here. We also have Gerrard and [Raúl] Meireles who can play in that position, and at the moment quite often we are playing with two strikers. I would be sad to hear him saying something like that, because he would be suggesting he can’t do what he has done so often for England and Chelsea, which is playing in a different position.”
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Cole arrived at Anfield with high expectations, and his signing gave Kopites fresh cause for optimism after a turbulent 12 months. Even after his opening day sending-off against Arsenal, team-mate Jamie Carragher described Cole as being like a “God in the city” and said that the playmaker’s arrival had ”lifted the whole city.”
A paltry return of one goal and one assist, along with the side’s underwhelming form, has meant that the excitement generated by his summer arrival has dissipated. Cole has struggled to make his impact upon games, and has frequently looked short of fitness and confidence.
Hodgson’s Liverpool team is one sorely lacking in creativity. Cole is undoubtedly a player gifted with technical ability, flair and the ability to unlock defences. However, Cole has failed to show the willingness and discipline required to fit into Hodgson’s rigid system. If he can marry his inspiration with perspiration, he will undoubtedly have a big part to play in Liverpool’s quest for a European spot this season.
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The best player for that position was Aquillani , As effective as Stevie is and as versatile Moreles is none of them could play the position like Alberto, instead we got a freebie substitute in place of a 20m player desparate to show his class, If you ask me is contribution last season with just a few games underlined it. Big mistake throwing Alberto away like that and our position in the league shows it.
NESV are a disgrace, they are showing no ambition as owners of this club. Sky Sports have just revealed that Man City are in talks with Edin Dzeko while Comolli and Hodgson are scraping the bottom of the barrel again with a 9 million pound move for Carlton Cole. If Liverpool fans are serious about the club, they should start a twitter campaign to NESV owners demanding that no more rubbish signings are made, with the same ferocity that was used against Hicks and Gillette.
I second you on that about NESV not being pro-active.
They give examples of what they have done with REd Sox while not doing any of that with Liverpool at the moment. They seem to be ready to let the season burn and regroup for next season but seem to discount every other team including our direct riivals are consolidating now and will also improve when we try to therefore negating any progress we may make.
Totenham have spent a lot of money this decade and only managed to challenge as this decade ends, same story could happen with us. If we fail to qualify for Europe, we will not attract players of the calibre to take us back into Europe for 2012 while losing decent ones we have to other teams and old age.
So more in-action while NESV say they are learning is actually strong action given they are letting the present status quo go on without any changes.
Many people do say NESV(FSG)are saying the right things but so did Hicks and Gillete when they took over and went on to sign Torres and Babel but that was a s good as it got.
Nesv are simply avoiding making any promises and keeping an unpopular management team and I fail to see that as progress.
If anything they know the lessons from Hicks and Gillette administration and are simply avoiding making the same mistakes and commitments which is not progress because the competition is with other teams who are quickly leaving us behind while the new owners procrastinate.
I sincerely wish they prove me wrong but am getting more nervous by the day if this is not a repeat of the previous ownership who came in to maximise their investment. even the ownership structure is the same with Henry and Werner splitting ownership 50% each.
Carragher’s God of the City was a false dawn, I bet he wishes he never said those words as it has not been remotely close to a second coming.
Joe Cole is the one guy who can claim to be more underwhelming than both Paulsen and Konchesky at the moment.
Most of our play break down with him and he seems to lack the game intelligence to be an effective link when played as the second striker behind Torres because most of the time his passes go backwards rather than towards opposition goal and Torres.
He needs a spell in the reserves to bring him up to game speed while his confidence recovers than to just keep him on the bench or throw him in when he seems not up to speed.
Cole isn’t enough of a goal threat to be our secondary attack with the rest of the midfield hanging behind him, as we have seen so frequently this season.
Cole (and the entire team, barring Maxi) would be best served from a switch to a 433, or some variant of that formation. Cole picking up the ball from a deeper position facing the opposition goal, with a number of options ahead of him. This would be in stark contrast to what happens now; Cole receives the ball upfield with just one man ahead of him, holds onto it for too long while waiting for an opportunity to open up and ends up just being easily dispossessed time after time…
Oh come on! Joe Cole was a has-been before he even came near the club. What do you expect from an over-the-hill second liner?
And where is yossi benayoun, alberto aquillani. I guess you don’t value some players until you lose them.
Simcerely, it’s not only joe cole who has failed to impress. Virtually all our attacking players has either failed to impress or perform below expectation. Does it have anything to do with tactics?
Roy Hodgson signing of Joe Cole could easily be looked at in the same light as Alberto Aquilani’s signing by Rafa, but the vitriol with which Rafa (for my sins I’m a huge Rafa fan, who should still be our manager) was accused by the media of buying an injured flop has yet to come to the fore with regards Roy’s signing of Joe Cole. It won’t be though in the media’s endeavour to protect Roy Hodgson.
“Rafa’s poor signings” preceded by “flop Aquilani’s signing” appeared on many occasion in the xenophobic press usually in the same sentence. I have yet to see that happen with Roy Hodgson or Joe Cole in the newspapers even though Joe has been very poor since he arrived at LFC.
I am prepared to be patient with Joe as I was with Aquilani (wrongly loaned to Juventus in my opinion), but I bet Joe’s signing fee and salary equates to more than Aquilani’s total cost (i.e. signing, salary and resale). Something never really questioned unless it’s with reference to a foreign player. Strange, English players are worth it but the foreign players are not.
We as Lfc fans are at this moment in time suffering the media’s agenda or experiment to prove everything English is best. This clearly gives a smokescreen to the likes of Roy Hodgson, Martin O’Neil and Sam Allerdyce by trying to prove they are equivalent to their foreign Counterparts. That’s why we currently have a manager that has yet in his 35 years in football to do anything of note.
The media’s scientific analysis of everything Liverpool FC along with our foreign players is disgusting. When players like Steven Gerrard, Joe Cole, Paul Konchesky and Jamie Carragher are routinely overlooked and given a free ride. Torres is ridiculed as not even trying and Lucas Leiva who has been better than most this season and arguably better than Gerrard last season is continually criticised. How can any technically gifted player play in Roy Hodgsons Tactical setup?
With the antiquated tactical system Roy Hodgson employs we have no chance. Roy Hodgsons ideas will only marginalise our technically gifted overseas players, and will eventually drive them away. Sad times for LFC.