No surprises with the two I have gone for here but it was clear from the off that neither player was up to the task of playing for Liverpool Football Club. Although I must admit I expected more from Poulsen, a player who had played in three of Europe’s top five leagues, the signing of Konchesky was in my view even more obvious that it wouldn’t work out:
Christian Poulsen – Roy Hodgson gave the understatement of the year when he said this about the 30 year old Dane after the draw against Wigan back in November:
“He’s not that bad on the ball, but let’s not beat about the bush and try to disguise the fact – he’s had a bad start.”
A bad start? More like a disastrous one as it has become plainly apparent that the Dane could not cope with the pace of the Premier League. The one thing I expected when he arrived from Juventus in the summer was that he would break up play and allow others to deal with the more creative parts of the game, but he hasn’t even done that. His lack of pace means he is never in the right place at the right time to break up a dangerous opposition attack. Earlier in his career, he may have been able to cope a bit better, but now at 30 years of age, there is no prospect of him improving. If he can’t close down opponents and protect the back four, what use is he?
He was bought for £4.5million basically because Roy knew the player. He had given the player his professional debut at FC Copenhagen 10 years before and had seen the player develop during his time at Schalke and Sevilla, where he helped the Spanish side win a UEFA Cup. European leagues are different to England though and the writing should have been on the wall when he failed to impress during his spell at Juventus. The pace of Serie A is significantly lower than the Premier League but he didn’t convince even there. Roy will no doubt have to sell the player in January.
Paul Konchesky – The left back was another player who was bought because Roy knew what he was getting. A player who had played for Charlton Athletic, West Ham and Fulham was never going to be up to playing for Liverpool though. Konchesky had played an important role in Roy’s miserly defence at Fulham and was effectively bought as he could implement Roy’s system without a problem.
The big problem id though; he hasn’t got enough quality to really help secure Liverpool’s backline. His error against Tottenham, where he was caught ball watching for Aaron Lennon’s winner, has simply summed up his time so far on Merseyside, and I hope Damien Comolli brings in a class left back in January so Konchesky is not automatically first choice.
There was no doubt that we needed another left back last summer as we were desperately short of options in the position but to spend £3.5million of a transfer budget, which was severely limited anyway, on a player who had no real proven top level ability, was unforgivable in my opinion. Konchesky’s replacement at Fulham, Carlos Salcido, would even have been a better option, and he was available for a third of the price too.
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I will say this much Rafa is 50 years old and Roy is 63.By implication Roy has had about at least 13 years more in which to put his record of titles under scrutiny .Let’s see
RAFA 2 Spanish titles
1 Euro champions league
1 Uefa cup
1 Italian super cup
1 World club champs
1 FA cup
1 Other Euro champs league Final(lost)
ROY 2 Scandinavian titles
1 One Europa league final(lost)
Any arguments? Rafa also made LIVERPOOL number 1 in Europe.FACT! feared by anyone beating Barcelona @ Nou Camp 2-1 Thrashing 4-0 Real Madrid countless European nights @Anfield never to be forgotten fans went home purring with delight.Sky voted Anfield in European nights number 1 ask Martin Tyler.86 points in the league BEST ever.Most goals scored in a season 127.4-1 @Old Trafford BLISS.All of this pales into nothing.We shall always be thankful for the way he took on The Previous owners and exposed them to be fly by night frauds.Left us a mediocre squad?HMMMMMMMM!!!!!!!! 14 internationals……The Academy is now performing in a proper way Pepe Segura and his team Kenny himself has waxed lyrical about it.
Did he make MISTAKES? YES and he took responsability for it.Did he buy rubbish He DID!
1 Bad season and Christian Purslow agrees to part ways because the Cockney press wouldn’t let go.Senior Sources constantly feeding rubbish all just because the top 4 were being managed by foreign managers YES Fergie is a Scot.Now we hired a Journeyman that has the guts to DEFEND his record in football as if any proper LIVERPOOL manager ever needed to do so.He is an unmitigated disaster.Check TIA for a run of quotes that beggars belief from not defending his own players to constantly changing the goal posts as far as judging him on his performance so far.WE have had this nonsense before of course Graeme Souness!!We see rubbish a mile away and we are not putting up with it ANYMORE.I would furthermore caution about the new owners I just have a gut feeling that all might not turn up as we expected.Slick they seem to be but so far only words COMMOLY?????Tricky times ahead.YNWA
Lets get something straight. INSUA was & still is a piss poor left back. The problem is, instead of buying a world class one, woy bought KONCHESKEY.
AGGER is a terrible centre half. Can’t win a ball in the air & marginally worse the SKIRTEL.
So, 1st job. New centre half & left back of world class.
Midfield. 2 decent wigers required. YOUNG of A Vlla & N’ZOGBIA from Wigan.
1 world class forward. I keep hearing talk of the bloke from Wolfsburg, but I’ve never heard of him before. We’d be much better breaking the bank for CARROL from Newcastle.
Outgoing players should include Babel, Poulsen, Koncheskey, Jovanovic & even J Cole to name a few.
I’ve been saying for years that we should not get player here on a free transfer, as they will always be crap & that’s why the clubs they’ve come from haven’t offered them decent contracts to try & keep them
Totally Agree. My initial reaction is to say go for carrol, but he had a poor first 6 months last season so he has only really had 12 months as a decent player….and if they are quoting £20m I’d be nervous, that has to be the majority of our transfer budget. But he is a young guy I guess just starting to flourish. Fully agree with the rest too! We need players who can outlive managers, unless we plan on having one for 20 years! Each manager brings in “their own players”… maybe we need a team to recruit players so we can go back to the glory years of managers coming in and “adding to” not replacing the team every few years.
1: KRYGIAKOS CB 2: INSUA LB 3: KONCHESKEY LB
4:POULSEN DM/CM 5: JOVANOVIC LW/RW
6: RODRIGUEZ LW/RW/AM 7: KUYT RW/FD
8: BABEL LW/RW/FD 9: J COLE RW/LW/AM
10: Aquilani?
Those are the players who need to need to be sold, cleared out of club.
Krygiakos is a standard CB who does not deserve to be playing for our Club and everytime he comes against a big target man, he shows us how poor he is: Crouch’s flick on for Lennon, Krygiakos barely jumped with Crouch, then away to Newcastle didn’t think Krygiakos won 1 header against Carroll, he’s got to be sold.
Insua cannot defend, he’s judgement is poor and against quick, fast tricky wingers he is always exposed and anielated.
Koncheskey: Is an average Fullback, who is playing for the best club in the world, he simply cannot handle the pressure and should not be at the club, he is experienced in the premiership but is regularly exposed to fast,quick, speedy skillful wingers and a weakness in side.
POULSEN: Is pathetically poor, laboured, not mobile, slow, old and cannot protect back 4, Came to the premiership 7 years to late.
Jovanovic: Descent player, Just has not been given a fair shot of games but when played as a winger offers very little threat.
Rodriguez: Tricky individual, But came to the Premiership 4 years too late, the premiership is the fastest,quickest, toughest league in World and Rafa brings him to club after he could not get into Athletico Madrid 1st 11 anymore.
Kuyt: Hard working, being a fighter , a loyal servant, score a few goals here and there, Kuyt offers very little out wide, he lacks pace, speed, skill and creativity to be playing 90% of the clubs games season in season out, he should be sold so we can actually get an out and out quick, pacey, young skillful, creative right winger to offer us width on right hand side.
Babel: The guys confidence has been shot, great player, alot of potential but think he needs to be sold so we can get an out and out Left footed left winger, who will stay out wide beat players, the deliver quality crosses for the striker/s.
J Cole: He’s on £90,000 a week and has simply done nothing since he has come to the club to Justify he’s worth that at all, he’s great player but he’s past his best due to Injuries and will struggle to get the form that made him a regular England International, so he should be sold to West Ham.
Aquilani: Great player was not given chance, But if he does not want to come back now he has found his feet back in Italy with Juventus, then we should sell him and bring in a player as creative, more skill than he has: Valbuena Of Marseille, should be brought if Aquilani is sold.
As he is similar type player to : Modric, Van Der Vaart, Snejder, Iniesta, Nasri and Rosicky, a player with skill, vision, creativity, quick, mobile, eye for goal.
Eric you’re spot on!
In response to LFC4life and Eric, you mentioned Rafa had us matching it with the big boys (sounds like a small club supporter attitude to me). When will fans realise that a club is a business and cannot be throwing money away like Benitez did on the likes of Dossena (7 million) and Keane (20 million). Fans go on about his net spend, but yet fans like you two forget all the wages his transfer flops took from the club’s coffers. Liverpool lost the FA Cup final to Man Utd in 1996, would you two call that an achievement as well? Remember in 2007, Benitez virtually gave up before the game started by admitting he wished it was not Milan he was playing and showed this in the Final by playing a 6 man midfield.
It’s funny how you always talk about Rafa’s mistakes in the transfer market while completely ignoring his achievements where he got to 2 Champions League Finals, winning once, winning the European Super Cup, the FA Cup, highest ever Premier League finish and point tally and winning away at places like the San Siro, Bernabeu, Nou Camp, Old Trafford and Stamford Bridge. It’s true he made some poor signings but what’s that compared to his achievements on the pitch?
Also, you seem happy with our current manager who’s leading the club to 10th place, 6 points above the relegation zone, 15 points behind leaders Manutd. Not in a million years will Rafa let that happen if he was still manager.
we did finish 37 points behind Chelsea though in 2004-05 season and 23 points behind Man Utd in 2006-07 so maybe Rafa would let that happen?
Rafa may or may not be the man, we are blinded by how bad roy is doing. Someone fresh is needed! And it;s not all about what his previous record is, but what he can bring to the team. Owen Coyle worked wonders at Bolton in no time whatsoever, without internationals. Doesn’t always have to be someone who has won all the titles in the world, as with “experience” may come single minded bloody arrogance….Benitez anyone?
Eric, hard work and no end product needs to be replaced by skill and composure.
In reply to Mart, the same Benitez that you praise finished 37 points behind Chelsea in his first season. Losing a Champions League Final is not an achievement. You forgot to mention that he lost the World Club Final to a team of nobodies from South America. The European Super Cup and Charity Shield trophies are no better than winning preseason friendlies. He needed penalties to beat the might of West Ham. Finishing anywhere other than first in the Premier League is nowhere. Maybe in that 86 points season, if Rafa the genius could have masterminded victories against the might of Hull at Anfield and against Stoke than Liverpool would have won the title. The same Rafa couldn’t even hack it at Inter Milan, the same Inter that are the current European Cup holders, VERY IMPRESSIVE MANAGER.
The two players need to be removed A.S.A.P but there are a few others that need to be moved out in favor of younger players.
The appointment of these two made me wonder what the hell is Roy thinking well we all know he wasn’t.
Comolli must have control over the money as Roy has no idea not that i completely trust Comolli either.