Liverpool forward Milan Jovanovic expressed his regret yesterday over opting for the Reds when he signed on a Bosman free transfer last summer:
“In Belgium I was living in an area where there were so many people from Serbia and my life was different, more dynamic. Liverpool is such a different place. I’m here alone, without anybody. I’m just a very lonely stranger. In my months here I haven’t met anybody from my country. If I wouldn’t have my wife and my kids I just couldn’t speak Serbian with anybody. But Liverpool is of course a club which you can’t refuse. My only regret is, that the coach, who brought me at Anfield, left the club even before my arrival. If Rafa Benitez would have stayed in Liverpool I believe everything would be different for me. There were 15 other clubs which followed me but I chose Liverpool and make a mistake.”
The Serbian international has had a very difficult time to say the least since he arrived from Belgian side Standard Liege in the summer. Already signed by Rafa Benitez before his departure, he came into a club which had been ravaged by owners only looking to sell the club, while he was placed under a new manager, who seemed to know little about him, and disregarded him after the first few months of the season.
Never played in his favoured forward position, Jovanovic was played out wide on the left by Roy Hodgson, but he never really impressed in his performances. He always worked hard and looked to be very direct running at defenders with the ball, but he lacked an end product from crosses, and he seemed to fall out of favour with Maxi Rodriguez taking his place in the side.
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Milan Jovanovic is quality player as he proved during last summer’s World Cup and during his time with Standard Liege. His goalscoring record in Belgium speaks for itself and I’m very surprised that he has not played one single match for Liverpool in his preferred and most effective role up front.
He was playing on the left for Serbia during the World Cup and even managed to score the winner against Germany. His pace and strength also makes him a decent winger and I’m sure he’s a much better option on the left than the likes of Maxi and Cole. He can at least run at defenders and whip in some crosses from the left, something which no Liverpool player can do.
Roy also opted to snub Jovanovic in order to play Ngog up front with Torres. Surely a proven Serbian international goalscorer Jovanovic could no worse than the weak and ineffective Ngog up front? What’s worse, Roy did not even once think about playing him up front, preferring to use the rubbish Ngog.
I’m surprised that Jovanovic has not been given a proper chance given his record in Belgium and his performances at the World Cup as has so far played only 10 times in the league, numerous times as a substitute. He has, however, delivered in cup games where he has scored twice in 8 games. Recently, however, Jovanovic has not even been named on the bench despite the team’s injury problems which I find rather strange. Kenny should now give him a proper chance and a run of games on the left to see how he fares but I can’t see the manager doing that. Kenny should try to play him on the left to get him to deliver crosses to Carroll. With no other natural wide player, Jovanovic should be given a chance out wide to whip in crosses. If he does leave at the end of the season having played only 10 league games then it would be a pity but I agree that if Rafa would have made the difference.
the lad could have been given more chances ngog got plenty, unfortunately for jovanovic we could not arrange for a few thousand poeople from his native land to come over and keep him company, or teach half of liverpool to speak serbian.
i can’t help but feel sorry for him…he has hardly played in the league this season and has instead been told to play in the europa league.
I certainly think he’s got some quality and I don’t see why dalglish nor hodgson gave him opportunities to play. this makes me think that perhaps he has a problem understanding english and .’. perhaps he can’t understand the tactics.
it’ll be interesting to see how dalglish responds to this because he will obviously have heard of what jova has said. I hope dalglish will give him a chance because i think that he hasn’t been given enough (unlike n’gog).
I watched his press conference when he signed and the guy speaks pretty decent English so it can’t be because he has a problem understanding the language. And even if he doesn’t speak English, is that a justified enough reason for him to not be given a chance? If that’s the case then why are players like Maxi (who can hardly speak English) playing?
fair do’s. yeah i agree. the whole situation is a bit of enigma, maybe hodgson and dalglish just think he lacks the quality to play for liverpool. However, i do believe that he hasn’t been given a fair chance and i maintain that dalglish should give him another chance.
As i said, it’ll be interesting how dalglish responds to this…
Jova, Degen, Voronin etc.. were bad signings. Liverpool is one of the biggest clubs in the world. Just because they do alright at mediocre clubs or national teams doesn’t mean they can make the grade at a world class club. None of the above players are good enough for Liverpool or any serious team. .
Hes was n
He hasn’t been given a fair chance..simple!