IT was barely a couple of weeks ago when Brendan Rodgers was quoted in a press conference as saying of Jay Spearing that:
“He’s a player who has come through the system here, and I’ve known him since he was a young player, he has great qualities, and a player who has the soul of the club in his heart”.
Strong words indeed from the new manager, but I’m sure I’m not alone in thinking that having ‘the soul of the club in his heart’ is Spearing’s strongest quality and is, unfortunately, not enough.
Before Rodgers came to the club, before Dalglish returned to the club and even before Hodgson took over from Benitez in 2010, I was always of the opinion that Spearing wasn’t going to cut it.
I wanted him to prove me wrong, just as I did with Carragher, Thompson, Mellor, Partridge and numerous other young, promising academy lads that have come through and got a chance in the first team over the years but Carragher is, thus far, the only one that started off slowly and went from strength to strength.
One thing that all of those player I’ve mentioned had in common was an unquenchable desire to do well at their local club. They wanted nothing more than to succeed and showed pride in the shirt, effort, willingness and… passion. We’re English, so that’s an important trait. Sadly, it means nothing if it’s not backed up by a Premier League standard ability.
At the age of 23 (he turns 24 in November), Spearing has made little over 50 first team appearances for Liverpool. Last season was his most successful, if you look purely at appearances, but that was primarily down to Lucas’s untimely injury. I wrote over the weekend that one of the reasons that last season was a failure was because we failed to replace Lucas in January. Surely the biggest indictment of Spearing’s ability is that he failed to adequately stand-in for the player he is – still – effectively the understudy to.
A brief look at his performances last season shows a number of things about Spearing’s attributes: he’s always willing, he’ll run himself into the ground for the Red shirt and he is always available to receive the ball from a team-mate. But at times, he’ll drift away from his position to receive that ball, leaving his team-mates exposed, and he’ll often lose that same ball because he demanded it from a player when he wasn’t in an area to give the team an advantage. Basically, what I’m saying is, is that for all his willing running and effort, his range of passing is limited and he lacks game intelligence.
Having watched the game on Saturday, though it is still early days, it was noticeable how much Jay often looked lost. He tried and his passing had improved on last season, but he seemed adrift in the midfield that was expected to retain possession for long periods of the match. Rodger’s style generally relies heavily on patience and possession. Both of these often go hand-in-hand. If a team just passes and passes without any direction, the ball will usually be lost before long but Rodgers employs an intricate passing game that requires his players to show patience and intelligence; only picking out the passes that make sense and reducing the amount of ‘speculative’ passes that often are the mark of the ‘long-ball’ game.
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As we saw with Swansea, his idea is to retain possession, to keep the opposition constantly under pressure, which requires 11 players that all know their role and all understand what is expected of them for this to work. We saw a similar ideology under Benitez, with a high-energy, high pressure game requiring all 11 players to be on the same page. Both styles have one thing in common: they need all players to concentrate 100% for the entire game, as slips in concentration can often lead to mistakes and disrupt the rhythm of the team and we saw numerous times last season that Spearing will often attempt a stupid pass or show a lapse in concentration to allow the opposition past him. All of these things might not matter so much if he was in a different position, but his role is pivotal to any team.
It’s clear though, that if Spearing is anything, he’s a direct understudy to Lucas and perhaps it is the comparison between the two that means things reflect more unfavourably on Spearing. Last season (prior to injury), Lucas had a pass-completion rate of just over 85%, whereas Spearing was almost 10 percent short of this on 76% for the season overall. Similarly, Lucas hit 76% tackle success-rate, compared to 66% for Jay by the season’s end.
But it is generally accepted that Lucas and Gerrard are the first-choice pair and with Joe Allen looking likely to sign at some point this week, it would look more likely to become a triumvirate, so really Spearing is up against the remaining central midfielder’s in the squad: Aquilani, Shelvey, Cole, Adam, Henderson, so he really does have his work cut out for him if he is to even get a place on the bench.
Saturday, though, showed that there is a possibility for Spearing to improve under Rodgers, finishing his 45 minutes against Toronto with 46 of 49 passes completed successfully. Given what I’ve already said, it would seem to indicate that Spearing is maybe capable of adapting to Rodger’s high-brow concepts of how football should be played but in the end, it was just 45 minutes, and a season is a long time, so only time will tell really.
I suspect that Spearing will be given a full season under Rodgers, and maybe he deserves to show what he can do. Sadly for Jay, I can’t see him getting many opportunities next season, unless one or two midfielders are shipped out and even then, there’ll still be a long line of others waiting for their chance; a queue of talent that all appear to possess the technical attributes that Rodgers looks for. But, despite the vague praise from Rodgers for Spearing, whether it’s this summer, January or in a year’s time, I see him being moved on before too long.
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Spreading can’t survive at Liverpool two many
suicidal passes at the wrong time I would put Connor coady in before him and Lucas is billion miles in front of him wich makes a mockery of aldridge comments that spearing is better than Lucas
Spearing should not be at this club. I am desperate for a local boy to do well but not at the expense of this club.
At 24 he is simply not in the “promising” category anymore. Shiped him out and maybe he could do well elsewhere, just ask Danny Murphy.
LFC is in a mess owing to us relying on players like Jay, and we have a good number of them. This no hoper can not even make it to the reserve team of the teams that finished in the top seven in EPL, yet he makes it in the LFC’s first team, pathetic really! Get rid of the garbage, scouser or not scouser. If u are terrible u r terrible, simples, no need to be sentimental! He is absolutely rubbish!!!!!
If Spearing plays a lot of games this season then it will be sure to be lots and lots of misery ahead.
He’s not good enough, never has been, never will be, its embaressing, move him out.
I wish above were wrong but fear they are not – Cup Final was a prime example but Stevie Heighway rates him ???????/
Sadly being a local lad is not enough. I think he will be moved on at the end of the season. It made some good passes against Spurs and then cancelled out by his errors. I dont enjoy watching him play either. Sorry 🙁
OOps – *it = *He!!
Jay is sh** unfortunately
Spearing should leave Liverpool before they kick him out! Go try out basketball!
Spearing makes Darren fletcher look world class.
Yes he really is that bad.
That’s the best comment ever about jay he makes darren fletcher look good well done sob
I remember all the exact comments regarding a certain Lucas Leiva.I am not saying that Jay is world class but the last comment about making Steve fletcher look world class is a complete load of garbage.Jay is a good squad player and if we get offered 4-5 million for him then yes maybe we could let him go and give connor coady a chance but if we do the same will happen to him people will be expecting connor coady to be world class right away and he will soon be the subject of peoples anger and get blamed for our medicority.
last season,he had done a lot of mistake in midfield.we must sell to have some money.
I would like nothing more. Than the academy players making it in the first team but spearing isn’t going to get any better. 50 first team apps at 24 isn’t proof of any signs of him being able to command a first team place. Owen broke through at 18. Gerrard 20. We are looking to cut wage bill so I really hope we can sell Bellamy, downing, aqualani, cole, spearing and Adam. These players wont get us up the league. I really wish I am wrong, but im sure I’m not. They lack discipline – especially Adam. Tackling is poor and wreckless. Usually gives away free kicks in ridiculously dangerous positions to us. His set pieces are average at best. Lacks pace. Ponderous on the ball. It’s like he is 2 yards slower in his head before he reacts to situations, opponents runs etc. spearing is a squad player. He started off admirably but I think the pressure of replacing Lucas was too much. Did a lot of mistakes. Giving away possession like Adam. Ball distribution is average. Downing seems too scared to just run at the full backs take them in and whip it in for Carroll. His shooting was wayward. Simply not worth £20m! Aqualani has never wanted to play for lfc. He has to agree for loan moves as well as the clubs involved. He could have rejected it and fought for his spot at lfc but he hasn’t. Cole is too inconsistent to produce the goods for us. Not as quick as he was. Not all that skilful. These players and maybe even Bellamy need to be moved on. Get the £25m for the lot or thereabouts, and put it towards some quality players like Christian Eriksen, jovetic, Ramirez, gaitan, Willian, giovani dos santos ( does the business for Mexico regularly), ander Herrera, iker muniain, Dempsey- if he forces the move his end, it will help as it will lower the fee, boudebouz, Tello, Cuenca, Sergio canales. Loads of better players and I’m sure lfc can still attract some of that list.
spearing is the worst player for liverpool .. i do hope that rodgers do sell him out as fast as he can.. he is totally not fit to be a liverpool player.. just get rid of him.
Spearing is our worst player. It’s as simple as that, he can’t pass can’t tackle can’t shoot can’t dribble can’t even follow simple instructions like play the simple pass.
Maybe on FIFA 12 he’s alright but that’s about it
Spearing is not good enough for liverpool…but Adam and Downing are crap also! Brendan rodgers needs to get shut off pretty quick and bring some
class in like Allen and maybe a couple of wingers.
His pass completion rate was 86% last year, for what it’s worth. And I still think he has so much more to offer us personally. He’s been extremely unlucky not to score at least a few for us so far and there has been games when he’s been exceptional in midfield. I really believe with more time he could be a great midfielder, but unfortunately, it looks like he might not get it.