by Cool Hand Luke » Wed Jul 26, 2006 3:15 pm
A few years ago I was fan of Pennant, when he was sitting in the reserves at Arsenal I said he would be a good signing for Liverpool, we have needed a right winger for a while and he would have been worth it at a low price round 3 Mil. The boy clearly had some potential but that had never been tested playing regularly in the Premiership.
Now I have had the chance to watch him regularly at Leeds and Birmingham I can see that he is a decent player but is limited. He clearly has pace, decent technique, a decent passer. But he is very one footed, is limited to going on the outside, is predictable and offers very little goal threat. Any reasonably good full back could minimalism his threat, and at the higher level he will struggle to be as effective, when either faced with teams sitting deep or teams playing high lines but with high quality intelligent defenders. For me he is a big fish in a small pond.
Saying that, he does give us options that we so badly need. I think he can “do a job” for us, but I cant see him securing a long term first team place at Liverpool unless he can make massive improvement in his game, but I doubt he will be able to because he is now 23 and his weaknesses come from his natural game more than anything else. A good player to have in the squad, and the fact that we have no other natural right sided midfielder in the first team squad means he will get plenty of games, especially since Rafa likes to rotate.
In my opinion the prices of 6-8 Million that being talked about are too high, his real value is more between 3-5 Mil, only the fact that Arsenal will take 25% of the fee is driving the price up.
In terms of him as a person, I don’t think he is the sort to cause trouble on the field or in the dressing room, on the pitch he is as committed and driven as most. But I watched that documentary on football agents and Pennant featured heavily, he seemed like a right d1ckhead, a real immature brat, maybe it was because he was out on loan at Leeds at the time and lacked focus in his professional career, but one thing is for sure, he is going to have to grow up quickly if he wants to survive at Liverpool, he seems to have an unhealthy social life and no self discipline.
In conclusion, it is a bit of sad situation that Rafa has had to go to his back up plan of a cheaper option who is nowhere near the finished article and is likely never to be, but that’s the situation we have found ourselves in. He is a decent player who will do O.K for us, but I expect us to buy a new right sided midfielder in the next 2 years to come in to the first team, or maybe even the young and talented Paul Anderson will eventually displace him over the next couple of years.
i think yes what about you
