Liverpool FC Forum

[66-1112520797]

Well as there was a thread dedicated to Mark Gonzalez as to whether the young lad has been a failure or not and whether he can really kick start his career. I thought the same about Dirk Kuyt what have people made of him ?

His transfer fee was of a much higher price than Gonzalez', 10 million pounds or there abouts. A bucket load of goals and a consistent goal scorer in Holland for a few years. Surely the expectancy of Kuyt producing the goods on a regular basis is a lot higher or more so than Gonzalez and is only natural considering the value of the player and his known abilitiy to score goals.

Kuyt has been given a fair crack at the whip and has played the majority of games unlike Mark Gonzalez. People have been quick to knock the Chiliean, while the Dutchmans lack of end products and performances of late have been quietly observed but nothing brought up, well on these boards anyway. I noted a while back his industrious hard work for the team, but said at the time ' his lack of goals, or even getting into scoring positions' was a slight cause for concern. That was when we played Watford away in the season and Kuyt for me so far hasnt proved me wrong in my opinion.

I am dissapointed slightly with his goals return, and I think thats fair enough for a Liverpool fan to be slightly dissapointed considering the strikers we've had in the past. But like Gonzalez it is his first season so we shall see what next season will bring.
But I dont know who or what to be dissapointed in concerning Kuyts game. Is the player himself, or is Rafa who is asking him to play the role almost in between midfield and his strike partner. Although I'm not convinced yet that Kuyt is a truly top class performer I do feel he has more to offer the team and Rafa isnt getting the best out of him.
My feeling is that its mostly down to Rafa who seems happy with what he is doing. To be honest though its not enough for me and more often than not, not that effective. He could ask Gerrad to play that role in a five-man midfield and you'd be sure Gerrard would make himslef and others around more goalscoring opportunities than Kut does.
I actually dont know if that is Kuyts position, I wouldnt of thought so considering the amount of goals he scored in Holland, and yes I know the league there is probably easier to find the onion bag. So I'd like to see Kuyt being played up further with his strike partner than rather dropping deep all the time.

So in saying all that, I cant be dissapointed with Kuyt himself, if he's only doing what the managers asking. And also if it isnt his natural game. If this is true then I'm probably a little more dissapointed in Rafa for not using his striker as an out and out one, and content with Kuyt himself. 

Your thoughts

[babu]

Well as there was a thread dedicated to Mark Gonzalez as to whether the young lad has been a failure or not and whether he can really kick start his career. I thought the same about Dirk Kuyt what have people made of him ?

His transfer fee was of a much higher price than Gonzalez', 10 million pounds or there abouts. A bucket load of goals and a consistent goal scorer in Holland for a few years. Surely the expectancy of Kuyt producing the goods on a regular basis is a lot higher or more so than Gonzalez and is only natural considering the value of the player and his known abilitiy to score goals.

Kuyt has been given a fair crack at the whip and has played the majority of games unlike Mark Gonzalez. People have been quick to knock the Chiliean, while the Dutchmans lack of end products and performances of late have been quietly observed but nothing brought up, well on these boards anyway. I noted a while back his industrious hard work for the team, but said at the time ' his lack of goals, or even getting into scoring positions' was a slight cause for concern. That was when we played Watford away in the season and Kuyt for me so far hasnt proved me wrong in my opinion.

I am dissapointed slightly with his goals return, and I think thats fair enough for a Liverpool fan to be slightly dissapointed considering the strikers we've had in the past. But like Gonzalez it is his first season so we shall see what next season will bring.
But I dont know who or what to be dissapointed in concerning Kuyts game. Is the player himself, or is Rafa who is asking him to play the role almost in between midfield and his strike partner. Although I'm not convinced yet that Kuyt is a truly top class performer I do feel he has more to offer the team and Rafa isnt getting the best out of him.
My feeling is that its mostly down to Rafa who seems happy with what he is doing. To be honest though its not enough for me and more often than not, not that effective. He could ask Gerrad to play that role in a five-man midfield and you'd be sure Gerrard would make himslef and others around more goalscoring opportunities than Kut does.
I actually dont know if that is Kuyts position, I wouldnt of thought so considering the amount of goals he scored in Holland, and yes I know the league there is probably easier to find the onion bag. So I'd like to see Kuyt being played up further with his strike partner than rather dropping deep all the time.

So in saying all that, I cant be dissapointed with Kuyt himself, if he's only doing what the managers asking. And also if it isnt his natural game. If this is true then I'm probably a little more dissapointed in Rafa for not using his striker as an out and out one, and content with Kuyt himself. 

Your thoughts

that's the key to his relatively low returns, especially since december, IMO. (in bold  )

[EddieC]

I think the combination of playing in the world cup, coming to a new team, playing in a new league & having to adapt to a different role means we haven't seen the best of Kuyt in a Liverpool shirt yet. He needs to start justifying his price tag next season though. Despite the fact that he does seem to drop deeper than our other strikers he's still had more shots per game than Crouch or Bellamy, 73 shots in 24 starts (domestic competitions only, couldn't get European stats). Of these though, only 34 have been on target. As far as I'm concerned a £10m striker needs to be hitting the target more often than one in two.

I'm always willing to give more time to a player that tries his hardest though, and you can't fault Kuyt for his workrate. I hope he will come good for us as he seems like a good lad, I'll wait & see what happens next season when hopefully he'll have a world class strike partner.

[RedBlood]

KUYT HAS MUCH MORE TO HIS GAMES THEN MOST GOALSCORERS THAT IS WHY HE'S ASK TO PLAY AS A FITH MIDFEILDER IF YOU LIKE, HE HAS BEEN A BIG PLUS FOR US AND I HOPE TO SEE HIM WEARING OUR SHIRT FOR A LONG TIME, PLUS LETS NOT FORGET HE HAS HIT THE WOODWORK ON ABOUT 10 OCCASIONS THIS SEASON SO HE HASNT HAD ALOT OF LUCK INFRONT OF GOAL

IN THIS POSITION HE WILL GET US 15 GOALS A SEASON WHITCH ISNT BAD BUT IF HE IS TO GET 20+ HE WILL HAVE TO PLAY IN A MORE FORWARD POSITION AND HE COULD DO IT

ITS THAT SIMPLE REALLY

[kunilson]

i wanted him to be a 20+ goal a season striker and he looked the part in the beginning......lately his game seems to be slipping, some would say he is being asked to drop into midfield and be less of a goal threat but the things he was doing well at the back end of last year he's not doing so well at the moment.

Saying that, he's been the most impressive of our signings this year, and it will take me  a while to be fed up with him because of the positive impact he first made.....next season he has to be more consistent.
Its a shame all the players we have brought in have suffered from injuries and/or settling-in troubles....

[Ace Ventura]

I was arguining with a blue nose about Kuyt the other week,and he was slagging him saying he doesnt score enough.
I said to him, its rafas tactics, in the majority of games when he is played with a partner he is the second striker and asked to drop deep to link things, also when we lose the ball he is told to drop into midfield to help the team.
If he was allowed to play on the shoulder he would be far more effective as would his goal return.
The point is, rafa sacrifices his strikers to accomadate the team, and in no season that i am aware of has a striker scored shedloads of goals in a benitez team.
It annoys me at times but you cant argue with the bosses record really.

[lakes10]

you would be hard pushed to find another player wil a work rate like his.

[destro]

Bearing in mind all the points about sacrificing for the team , what kind of striker is he going to bring in ? Who fits that description aswell as being a prolific goalscorer which is what we need, and if we get an out an out goalscorer how will he adapt to the new system and remain prolific ?

[Leonmc0708]

rafa likes the goals to come from all over the park, so I doubt we will ever see a player score 30 goals in a season as long as he is here.

[Sabre]

rafa likes the goals to come from all over the park, so I doubt we will ever see a player score 30 goals in a season as long as he is here.

I agree.

Rafa achieved a 4-1 playing a 4-4-1-1 against Arsenal. I saw Valencia playing with this under Rafa and it worked. I'm not sure why he hasn't used that formation more often this season. Under that formation you can get a striker score a lot of goals.

If Rafa plays 2 strikers, he'll make them work, he'll make them help a lot in the build up and will keep them out of the box. Under that circunstances it's difficult to be prolific. A Spanish international failed to be prolific, An international of the Orange failed to be prolific. We cannot get much more than that, perhaps we can try with a French international or Brazilian.

IMHO the goals a striker achieves depends on a lot on the instructions of the manager, and when we play 2 strikers and we do that often our strikers have been very sacrificed. So were last season, and the season before.

Kuyt? I like that striker a lot. 

[bigmick]

I've said it before but as thers a dedicated Kuyt thread I'll say it again. I think he's a superb player who has the capacity to become a legend at Liverpool. I have absolutely no concerns about him whatsoever and am extremely confident those who doubt him now will reconsider before too much longer. Don't worry about kuyt, he'll be fine.

[J*o*n*D*o*e]

pretty much agree with what BigM said except im not sure about him gaining legend status, needs to hitting the onion bag a bit more but like others have said sometimes this can be effected by the role the manager gives you, always gives a 100% so cant knock him there.

for me next season would be the time to judge him.

[Bad Bob]

In fairness, he looked better today.  A few of his passes didn't come off but the intent was there to link up with Gerrard.  I particularly liked his move on the Sissoko ball (the one where he let it run in the box)--shame he couldn't have put the ball away or played in Gerrard.  He got into much more dangerous positions today in addition to doing the usual hard running in deeper positions.  Nice composure shown for the goal as well.

For me, he's looked a bit jaded of late but, ultimately, I think he has the guile, awareness and work rate to be a big contributor for us.  I doubt he'll ever lead the league in scoring but he'll bang his share in and set up more.  He's a good addition to the squad.

[The Manhattan Project]

Works hard, good player. Needs more time.

[RichardLFC1]

Scored his 11th for us today. Works extremely hard no problems from where im standing