by Owzat » Fri Apr 24, 2009 3:28 pm
I see one or two names suggested, but in all honesty some have not really played enough to say they've improved - although some seem completely incapable of distinguishing between between form and improvement. Kuyt has had some poor form, not helped by Rafa seemingly changing his position every time Gerrard or Torres is absent, but he has improved in his role. But on players like Insua, how do you judge if they've improved when they play so infrequently and even then have the odd bad game? You also have to judge improvement based on the starting point of the player in question, is very good to brilliant a bigger or better improvement than godawful to decent? I think too many of our players have stood still, made worse by the fact that a number of them are young.
Most Premiership appearances in a row (selected players)
8 - Lucas (but no more than two starts in a row)
4 - Agger (all starts, currently in another run of four but not all starts)
4 - Dossena
4 - El Zhar (all as sub)
3 - Insua (all starts)
3 - N'Gog (all as sub)
I'm guessing if I asked people on here to vote most improved of the above most would say Insua without a second thought, despite him not playing that much. You could argue N'Gog has shown signs of improvement despite his limited opportunity
David N'Gog (all competitions)
Apps : 16
Goals : 3
Most apps in a row : 3 apps, 39 mins
31/08/08-12/11/08 : 4 apps, 238 mins, 0 goals
01/12/08-28/12/08 : 5 apps, 154 mins, 1 goal
01/02/09-14/04/09 : 7 apps, 182 mins, 2 goals
So in his last seven appearances, five of which were sub cameos of less than 25 mins, he's scored a goal every 91 mins. Sometimes he looks awful, sometimes he looks decent, but to start with I think most were thinking he looked awful without ever looking worth even what we paid for him. I think three goals in a Liverpool shirt is an improvement on his PSG record, for someone playing as infrequently and as few minutes as he does, he does ok. Still Rafa doesn't seem to think he's a good option to bring on when we need goals, Torres may be our most potent goalthreat but even goal machines like Torres perform better when they are fresher and haven't been running about 90 mins. And they don't break down as often if you give them 20+ mins rests in games, 20 less mins for the defenders to foul and kick lumps out of our biggest assets.
Never buy from PC World, product quality is poor and their 'customer service' is even poorer
, disagree with Rafa?
I think Agger's the better CB and a more natural partner to Carragher when he's fit. Skrtel has proven to be good enough to wear the shirt, don't get me wrong (he's not distinctly sh!t or anything 
