by anfieldadorer » Mon Jul 12, 2004 10:23 am
Ian rush says:
(june 29)
IT'S not often the bookies get it wrong. But a price of 40-1 against Milan Baros to be top scorer at Euro 2004 now looks generous in the extreme. And it's not as if Milan has suddenly exploded into life. His goalscoring record at international level going into the tournament was excellent - and ever since he arrived at Anfield three years ago he has steadily improved. His performances in Portugal have shown, I think, how much he has learned from playing and training with Michael Owen, particuarly that first goal against the Danes on Sunday night. He showed against Denmark how much composure he has developed and, coupled with his pace, his busyness and the intelligence of his runs, that makes him a very potent player.
The prospect of Milan, Michael and Djibril Cisse all competing for striking berths in the Liverpool first team next season, pushed by Florent Sinama Pongolle and Anthony Le Tallec, is a mouth-watering one. The reasons why we haven't seen Milan produce the kind of form at Anfield that he has done in Portugal are fairly obvious. For one, he never enjoyed a run of consistent appearances all that often because Gerard Houllier preferred a more powerful target-man in Emile Heskey alongside Michael Owen. But also, whenever Milan did play alongside Michael, he found himself having to take up a slightly different role than the one he enjoys for the Czechs because they both like to make the same kind of runs. That doesn't mean they can't forge a very exciting partnership together in the future.
What his form and the signing of Cisse does mean, however, is that whatever forward line Rafael Benitez selects next season should be a real handful for opposing defences to handle.
