IN the underwhelming, uninspiring and lacklustre affair that was last weekend’s Merseyside derby, the cracks papered over by the 6-0 demolition of Newcastle at St. James’ Park the previous week were so simply exposed.
A select few players were singled out for their particularly poorer performances as per – Lucas Leiva in particular was singled out for his what was viewed as an exceptionally poor performance. By the Brazilian’s standards, he was below-par – being careless in possession, giving the ball away cheaply with what quite simply put was mediocre distribution of the ball.
However, he was by no means as abysmal as it was made out to be by supporters. Put it bluntly, being the easy target that he is, he was as so often made the scapegoat to what was a collectively poor performance.
One player who escaped with little to no criticism however was left-back José Enrique.
At the earlier stages of the campaign, the 27 year-old’s future at Liverpool looked bleak, with him being singled out as one of a select few players who needed to clean up their act or face a possible exit from the club. Several months on and Enrique has re-established himself as a key member of Rodgers’ squad, following a series of stellar performances for the Reds from full-back, effectively cementing his place as the club’s first-choice left-back.
In watching the Spaniard in his extended run in the team and his most recent performance at the weekend, one thing has been made clear to me – José Enrique is simply not good enough.
His flamboyant long balls and sometimes awesome displays of strength in shepherding the ball out of play may stand out but what most fans don’t see are his, when pin-pointed, quite crucial flaws. His tendency to stray out of position for one is something that is of great concern as he is often seen wandering a good 20 yards out of position only to fail to get back on time.
Yet another critical shortcoming of José’s is his ‘weakness’ in the challenge, making half-hearted, subdued and even lazy attempts to dispossess the opponent. A prime example would be in last season’s FA Cup final against Roberto Di Matteo’s Chelsea, where Enrique quite literally gifted them the opener, opting for a withdrawn, sluggish challenge on Ramires in a sorry attempt to nick the ball off his feet. Needless to say he was shrugged off with ease, allowing Ramires through on goal – and the rest is history.
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Another thing that became evident in Sunday’s clash with David Moyes’ men was Enrique’s ineffectiveness. So often was he brought into the game, only to give the ball straight back to the opposition in the final third with a poorly executed cross, inaccurate pass or lapse in concentration on his part. He just seemed to run out of ideas as he approached the business end of the pitch.
Ultimately, finding a replacement would be, in my opinion, the best course of action for the club. So, where do we look? The answer quite literally is sitting in our backyard it being young Jack Robinson, currently on-loan at now relegated Wolverhampton Wanderers.
Having been thrown straight into the first-team at Molineux, following a, in hindsight, rather fortunate injury to Ward, Robinson has since established himself as Wolves’ first-choice left-back and made himself a fan-favourite in the West Midlands.
The 19 year-old has impressed greatly in his time with (what is now formerly) Dean Saunders’ men, showing an almost monstrous amount of space, robustness in the tackle and consistent effectiveness.
Despite his relative inexperience and comparably small physique, Robinson gives what the Reds have missed from their left flank ever since the departure of John Arne Riise – directness. Robinson has displayed his ability to run at defenders at force his way into the box, more often than not finding a teammate with a pinpoint pull-back rather than an aimless, floated ball over the top.
His composure on the ball coupled with his direct, unrelenting style of play would be a valuable asset to the team, much more so than José Enrique possibly could.
If ever there was a time to step up, now, more so than ever would be it for young Jack Robinson, quite simply Liverpool’s best left-back.
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How is everyone arguing about LFC’s manager. Look at Alex ferguson, it took him a while to win his first title and he just retired a legend. I hate Man U and ferguson but his record is ridiculously good. Give BR a chance one season is not enough for him to change everything all at once. He doesn’t have the money that the other big clubs do so he has to build the players. All you so called LFC fans need to pull your heads in and stop living in the past.
Check your facts and history or you will look silly
Comparing Ferguson to Rodgers is silly
Ferguson was a proven world class manager before utd and improved utd immediately. So he deserved time
Rodgers is a 2nd rate no mark whose best achievement is 11th
Stop with the ridiculous comparisond
Vheck your history fergie was on verge of sack and was also under preasure from no mark fans like your self goon
You dont have the knowledge or the brains to debate football
Do you really want me to explain the history of Ferguson again?
Your embarrassing yourself . Get a grip kid
I’m surprised paul has cop to turn his computer on
SAF was managing Aberdeen and won the Cup Winners Cup & European Super Cup 1983, 4 scottish cups, 3 scottish titles, 1 league cup and manage scottish national team in the World Cup of Mexico 1986, before his MAN U appointment!!! Rodgers WHO???
Get your head out of your ass Kelly and wake up. Comparing AF to BR is simply idiotic
good article, i agree with all of the opinions here pretty much. id say though you’re slightly over critical of enrique, he’s not a world beater but he’s up there in the top 10 left backs in the league, could be worse. Robinson looks like a real talent though and should maybe be given a chance in these last two games YNWA
Am I the only one who thinks Enrique is a class player ?
He is s class player but all our defenders look poor in Rodgers naive system which has no organization
Skrtel Agger Johnson Enrique and even Lucas are struggling under Bodgers system
Spot on mate. Cannot understand where all this talk of Enrique being a poor defender is coming from. Under Rodgers we lack defensive organisation, that’s why some players have looked poor, they havnt just become poor players over night
I have to say that calling for a lad who’s just been relegated from the Championship to be our starting left back seems totally stupid. Or is this a symbol of how far we’ve fallen? I don’t know but one thing stands out to me Robbo wasn’t good enough at Oldham, he’s far from alone there, but he hasn’t ever looked like cementing his place in our team long term. Is Enrique good enough for Liverpool? I have my doubts but surely we should be looking for someone to come in and do us a job there if Enrique is surplus to requirements, and by that I mean an expierenced full back older than 25 (* Ian Ayre’s not signing anyone over 24. That * should keep his gob shut and sign cheques). Robbo should be loaned out again, preferably to a Premier League club, but if not a Championship club and assess him at the end of next season.
Get Enrique back playin left midfield . He was awesome the two games he played there !
As for Brendan ? flipping useless and then some . Cut our losses now
Some of you lot amaze me. Ferguson took 4 years to win the League cup and 7 to win the league. You would have been standing with the idiots who made the ‘3 years and it’s still crap- Ta-Ra Fergie’ posters
Maybe you would swap a league Cup win but only 52 points total and 8th, only 47 goals scored, losing 14 games in a season for our current position, but I wouldn’t. We need to improve year on year in the League, and we have scored 20 more goals, even if we lose the last two games we will have a massively better goal difference, + 25 vs +7 more clean sheets, and won as many games as under Kenny.
We will have a young side rather than aging players like Kuyt, Bellers, Maxi Cole etc – remember, they only scored 47 goals when they last played a season for us. We will have recruited players like Coutinho and Sturridge, and even got performances from Downing and Henderson. Reduced the wage bill , which would allow at least 1 marquee signing the chance to be on top dollar, and properly blooded the likes of Sterling, Kelly, Wisdom and Suso.
For God’s sake, put the cup runs into perpective- Birmingham won the League Cup the year they were relegated. This year, Wigan are in the final of the FA cup like we were- and they might be relegated the same year even if they go one better than us and win it!
One year is too soon. the progress isn’t as much as we’d like but it IS there.
As for transfer spend, Chelsea finished 6th last year after all the money they’ve spent, and a host of so called ‘top’ managers, even a World Cup winning one.
Rafa? won NOTHING, NO trophies at all after 2006. And blew it by playing for draws the one year we did contend. Love him for 2005, but he had his time- finished 7th in his last year too by the way. And that was with the likes of Masch and Alonso and Torres in his prime in the team.
I’m not knocking KK and Rafa. Just saying we need to be a bit more objective. Maybe Rodgers won’t be the right guy. But to go on about sacking him after 1 season is ridiculous, it’s hardly been a season yet
Mindless idiotic and total lacking any football knowledge as usual
All your points are wrong and you have shown again hoe you don’t know football
Has rafa won no trophies since 2006 ? Lol
2 trophies with inter you fool
Chelsea won champions league last season or did forget you fool
And any Muppet who thinks 7th with no cup runs and only 1 win against any decent team all season is better than 8 th , a trophy , 2 cup finals and beating all the top sides is a deluded fool
And the old Ferguson compraison nonsense….are you really thst stupid you don’t know how much Ferguson improved utd IMMEDIATELY ?
Kop on kid. I know most of Rodgers supporters are young but if you don’t get any facts right you look even more immature
Fergie didn’t improve united immediately!
One year they where 4th bottom…lookit up.
Also have you never heard that cups paper over the cracks? This season Wigan and Swansea are in the cup finals (Swansea winning theirs) does that make them better than Liverpool ???
6 years before fergie won anything! SIX.
Get YOUR facts right lad and start moving out of the dark ages!
20+ years of no championship and you’re still harping on like the last 20 has been a riveting success! Wake up. We needed to change, be innovators and football trend setters again. However you think going backwards is the answer???
The author chats crap I totally agree however your reasoning is just as bad if not worse.
Naive and quite frankly ignorant.
Totally agree mate couldn’t have put it better. Maybe these donuts will want to go another 20 years without the title doing same thing!
Wow . Another kid who has no knowledge of football . Ok I’ll explain it once again
Ferguson had already won 10 trophies , including a European trophy with a rubbish club . He was a proven manager
He took over Man U , a club in disarray in 21st place in the league with all sorts of problems…he turned them around to finish 11th in first season
2nd season they came second !!!!
So …from 21st to challenging for ttitle in a season and half
Improvement ?????
He deserved patience after turning them around. Utd knew they had a great manager …we have a fool
Why are all the Rodgers lovers so uneducated ??
Get your facts right at least. The fool above thought rafa had won no trophies since 06
suared …your facts are ALL wrong
you come on here slagging others while you don’t know what your talkin about
1. utd never finished 4th bottom
2. as others have said fergie improved utd immediately
3. fergie won cup after 4 years NOT 6 like you said
really really really clueless.
I think kumber , k and Paul are sharing the same brain cell
These 3 are childish beyond belief
Ha ha the poster is obiviously talking about rafa’s time at the reds. But your only argument is based on word play. And you then credit rafa with Chelsea’s champions league win. Your some lad.
No one is comparing Rodgers with your beloved fergie. We are just saying if even he needed time to win with united we should at least give Rodgers a second season.
Then comes the fergie improved united immediately. What happend after that. They were poor the next couple of season.
By your logic a manager should be sacked if they have a bad season. Yes.
Enrique world class you say. Terry when we go 433 when Enrique plays LB we pretty much lose a player on attack. Why?
If you can not answer that. You can never post about Rodgers or and other poster not having a clue.
Bet you don’t know the answer. Clueless.
Word play ?
Rafa champions league ??
Are you another one who doesn’t know any facts ?
Kop on lad
Rafa won 2 trophies with inter
By my logic a good manager with someone of Fergusons track record deserves patience
A out of depth trophy less dope who spends 15m on someone like Allen deserves the sack before he does more damage
Clown I said THE POSTER WAS TALKING ABOUT RAFA’S TIME AT THE RED’S( people from Liverpool call lfc the red’s)
Roll out the facts that I am wrong about will ye. Just copy and paste.
I c you have avoided my question about Enrique. SHOWS JUST HOW CLUELESS YOU REALLY ARE.
The only thing you know about football is it there is 22 people on grass and for some reason 2 of them wear gloves.
You said I credit rafa with Chelsea champion league win ???
WTF ‘?? What kind of childish question is that about Enrique ??
You don’t make a bit of sense
Well said couldn’t agree more
Lol . No trophies for Rafa ???
Really dumb mikeyboy…really really dumb comment
Another load of delusional drivel from mikey
To conclude, this article is not worth commenting.
Jack Robinson? That English kid that can’t kick the ball??? U gotta be kidding me mate. Have u been watching any of Liverpools game at all this season?? Enrique is by far one of our best player this season & u suggest an English kid who can’t defend, who can’t kick the ball let alone trying crossing it to replace Enrique??? U call urself a sport writer??? U need schooling kiddo
Ahhh I see it, ur name. A Chinese boy who comes from a non football nation attempting to write a story about a great English football club. Perhaps Mr Lim u should stick to ur chosen career at a chef in a Chinese restaurants instead of wasting our time posting these rubbish
Glenn johnson has been poorer than enrique all season. Why not write an article about his poor performance too.
cos he is english…lo
pls kop is too earily to be chanting …if am 2 say Enrique is liverpool Alaba of bayern..jst luk @ it vividle Enrique is trying….He gat speed he also tackle very well left 2 me de only tin lacking in him dat nids tym is jst Idea…Alaba has gud Idea so am comparing him wit Alaba…as a fan u try 2 pick out de gud an wrongs…pls guys lets sa de truth Enrique has more speed dan robbinson oooo jst dat robbinson has idea dats all jst giv Enrique tym….all our players knwn are our plan B…4r our manager de guy is gud..if u consider wer we wer after 5matches in EPL we wer 19th an knwn wer ar we….? BR is gud lets give him jst 1more season…..YNWA.!!!
please be realistic we need to get in two full backs who will play straight away my choice would be montoya of barca and ath bilbao left back with a centre half who is good in the air and a defensive midfieklder who is powerful and consistent ter stegan between sticks(if reina goes) and jackson martinez up front
THESE could be brought in with the sales of Johnson ,enrique skirtel reina,downing,JFT 96 YNWA
Well Rodgers will drag Liverpool down with his ego. People talk about Kennies flops like downing, enrique, Hendo, Carrol but if you look closely these players are doing ok compared to Allan and Borini. They were over priced thats all. Sadly Allan would be played ahead of Hendo even when injured. He should cut his losses then I will believe in him. Also the team is now lacking physical presence. I still don’t think leting carrol go was the right choice.
In the end more damage will be done.
Well said
But Hendo and Downing were not good under KD. For whatever reason, he was not able to get their best form from them but BR has so that cannot be ignored.
Skrtel Johnson Agger Lucas and more have been way worse under BR .
My fellow fans YNWA…even bayern munich sang our song YNWA..we jst nid a gud right back 2 replace carager…we ar gud jst say dat we picked up very late…lives of coutinho..agger..henderson sturigde.. and many more demer are gud on de ball…jst WALKON….YNWA.!
Enrique is a fantastic attacking left back- leave him alone!
I’d like to see him left centre a lot more,
You cant be serious that you think Jack Frigin Robinson is better, lol last time he played he was useless.
There are some seriously misguided dreamers on here
Some people think Rodgers whose highest achievement is finishing 12 th and who has never even won a trophy can turn LFC into a top team !
Wake up people. Rodgers is not a top manager FFS even Reading sacked him
If you had any idea about modern football you would realize that Rodgers is way out of his depth and has proved that with a very embarrassing first season
youre very funny man..you are rather a dreamer..all the greatest managers started from somewhere….youre talking about modern football and still talking trash…read about dortmund and how they built their team….YNWA
Lol . Kop on pal . You are confused
Anyone who thinks a useless manager like Rodgers can achieve anything other than more failure is mad
Honestly,what problem do we have here??? Is the problem about Rodgers not playing the kids or about Liverpool not moving forward. If it’s about playing the kids,forget it cos the kids will win you nothing,and Arsenal is a leaving testimony to that. The best you can do for them is to make them learn from the bench and see if they can get better. In fact I think the mistake Rodgers made was early in the season when we had more than enough kids starting matches, Sterling’s number of goals were meagre,his assists were also meagre despite the playing time he had that doesn’t mean he his poor though,it only meant that he his still learning and inexperienced which is why Coutinho benched him completely on his arrival at Anfield. Suso was also intelligent with the ball always but he just won’t score,it all goes down to inexperience I think. Maybe it’s not Rodgers fault completely that he was starting these lads,maybe it was because he was new,with little believe in the average players Dalglish wasted money on considering that Downing and Henderson were poor at the beginning of the season. Rodgers also wasted money,no doubt BUT HONESTLY this man has learnt his lessons I believe,with later buys in persons of Coutinho and Sturridge,Brendan to me will not be a disaster next season,he can only get better with time.
Rodgers didn’t buy coutinho and sturridge . Transfer committee did
very funny…
????? It’s true u clown ..read the news sometimes
still very funny…
Well….whoever signed them,the fact is: They were both signed in Rodger’s era, probably to favour his passing game style. Just like Konchesky and Poulsen were signed under Roy Hodgson, Carroll and Downing under Dalglish, Torres and Riera under Benitez.
there you go again..hyping english players…you did quite well revealing enriques flaws but didnt mention his positives…robinson has a long way to go, to reach where enrique is…youre been prejudice hear…enrique has been one of our best players this season…i think youre talking trash…robinson is good but is not and never better than enrique currently….robinson plays in a lower division, does well and you think he is better than enrique???? thats ridiculous…im really surprised at what youve written…please come again..YNWA
Robinson is not better than Enrique is like saying jay spearing is better than Gerard what a load bollcks is written on here
I’m quite happy with Enrique , I think Robbo could play in the future but should go on loan for another season at least
Rodgers though is a dreadful boss , must be sacked if we are to progress