When all is said and done, footballers, like everyone else, are human beings and when they get pilloried from the stands by their own fans it is never a nice thing. In some respects, both Christian Poulsen and Paul Konchesky were victims of guilt by association with previous manager Roy Hodgson, with fans believing the two signings summed up the mediocrity that Roy represented. It was determined, quite justly in my opinion, that neither player were of a high enough quality to play for Liverpool Football Club. It meant then that it was always going to be an uphill struggle for either player to be embraced by the Anfield faithful, and neither have managed to demonstrate that the criticism of them was wide of the mark. The departure of Hodgson may help and new manager Kenny Dalglish stated on his arrival that he would make it one of his priorities to rehabilitate some of the players who had not performed to the required standard:
“We’ve got a couple of senior players who the supporters haven’t exactly seen eye to eye with. We’ve got to try to rebuild them. If we can get Christian Poulsen and Paul Konchesky back on side then that makes the squad that bit deeper. Christian played very well at Blackpool.”
For Paul Konchesky, it maybe too late. Kenny has not picked the left back in any of his games in charge either starting Fabio Aurelio or Glen Johnson out of position on the left hand side. For Christian Poulsen, the fat lady has yet to sing. The Danish international midfielder has started two of King Kenny’s four games in charge against Blackpool and Wolves, and while he was part of the side who were on the wrong end of a 2-1 defeat against the Tangerines, he played his part in the impressive 3-0 victory at Molineux on Saturday afternoon. It will take a hell of a lot more to convince Reds fans he has what it takes to succeed on Merseyside but the 30 year old did make an important contribution to the victory over Wolves. He made the slide-rule pass for Raul Meireles who squared the ball to Fernando Torres to open the scoring in the first half.
Most Liverpool fans would be justified in thinking when Poulsen came to the club that he was a direct replacement for Javier Mascherano. After all, the Argentinean left for Barcelona in the summer and the Dane was the only defensive midfielder who came in to replace him. The facts are though; Poulsen has never had the pace or the tackling ability of the Argentine even in the early stages of his career. At Copenhagen under Hodgson, he started as an attacking midfielder and gradually made his way back into central midfield until his time at Sevilla when he became a holding midfielder. He wasn’t ever a classical defensive midfielder in the Claude Makelele sense though and this was held against him. Poulsen can pass a bit (demonstrated against Wolves) and tackle a bit, but never really excels at either. He is more of a holding midfielder and adept at filling space, intercepting and offloading the ball forward, rather than chasing down counter attacks like Mascherano or a distributor of the ball like Xabi Alonso.
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just get rid of the pair of them and let wilson and shelvey take teir places on the bench
YNWA
Poulsen doesn’t have the pace of Mascherano and can’t make up the ground with superior positional sense, like Didi Haman.
He does have good ball control, but the pace of the game in the Premiership makes him a liaibility when he defends (Lucas is the same).
We need a proper defensive midfield player, preferably with the football acumen of Didi.
Anything else will be leaving the Reds short.
But I’m sure Kenny’s teams will cope in the near term.
But PLEASE get rid of BABEL FIRTS – must never again train with first team
Koncheski is way beyond rehabilitation, just send him back to Fulham and get our money back.
agree with rob.
on a side note. so glad that Keys/Gray have been exposed for the tw#ts that they really are. especially Keys. what a numptie! everytime he’s been on, the mute button comes into play! he knows nowt about football.
ASK EVERTON DO THEY WANT THEM BOTH IF NOT ITS DEATH ROW FOR THEM
OK I’m not a big fan of Christian Poulsen but I have to admit that he’s not as bad as some fans seem to suggest. He does not deserve the abuse some fans are giving him. He has good positional sense in midfield and is able to cover the back four well. He hasn’t got the pace like Masch and his tackling ability isn’t as good as Masch’s either but we can’t expect him to replace a 25 million Argentinian captain. Poulsen’s passing and distribution of the ball is not spectacular but it’s not that bad. He showed earlier this season against Manutd that he’s able to stop opposition attacks and intercept passes well. He was poor in the first half of the season but against Blackpool and Wolves I thought he did a good job in midfield. With Kenny now in charge, I expect Poulsen to show what he’s capable of doing.