Liverpool FC Forum

[Cool Hand Luke]

I’m not Keane’s biggest fan but to say he needs a kick up the backside is wrong. He is a player who is committed, loves to play the game and always gives it his all. I think Keane was the wrong signing at a ridiculous price and he has had little impact since he has been here but I don’t think there is a problem with his attitude.

I think he has something to offer as a striker when we play a 4-4-2 but he isn’t the ideal partner for Torres. He will certainly play better than he has so far but he won’t be a £20 mil player, not even close, and the blame for that lies at Rafa’s doorstep, not Keane’s.

[Sabre]

I agree what CHL and John Craig say.

It's fair enough to say he's too expensive, but the stick and responsability of that must starts and ends in Rafa, not the player.

[Alex G.]

The ironic situation is the same with Berbatov at United. 

[neil]

I believe Robbie Keane will do fantastic stuff for us, how many did Crouch score in his first 15 games? 0? I am delighted we signed him.

[neil]

The ironic situation is the same with Berbatov at United. 

I think thats actually coincidence rather than irony bro.

[Simari]

Truly felt sorry for him tonight.  He was gutted when his number went up on the board and he was feeding on scraps all night.  I'll tell you coming off for Ngog is not going to help the confidence nor help the team turn one point into three.  A think it was a very poor substitution.

Look at his face before he got substituted, he was saying ''no, not me'' to someone, then he looked at the board, and he just put his head down.

Yes definetly, very very poor substitution, if it was for Torres, then I would understand it, because Torres can change the game, but for ngog?!

Mate, I'm not stalking you....
Replied to your comment in the match thread...
I think Keane is being made a scapegoat to be honest. I mean, every game he starts he must surely be counting down the clock until he's subbed with 20 mins to go....Can't help his morale....

Perhaps, he should focus on showing his intent in the first 70 minutes then.

It may be a vicious circle that he is caught up with, wrt his morale and being subbed, BUT - he really needs to start delivering early. Rafa has no choice but to make the substitution if Keane was not part of the game for 60 odd minutes.

Was surprised that it was Ngog upfront though, as that would have really off Babel.

Keane needs to standup and become a leader in these lean times for him. He has the ability and desire to motivate himself and those around him. At this point, he's looking for hope - when in reality he needs to understand the implications of his Price Tag and step up to lead, rather than fear about the oft-mentioned "70th minute".

He has had his fair share of starts in Torres's absence, but has yet to prove that he will deliver, atleast not this year.

The entire team performed poorly today, and there really wasn't someone to single out. But Keane was brought in for goals that we were missing in the past few years, and if we have to wait till past the 70th minute every game to wish for one, then he definitely is not cutting the mustard.

Do you mean like against West Brom where he scored a couple of goals and...

... Oh yes got brought off again...

Stu - that was the only league game where he scored ... really stop talking .

I respect your posts but at times, you really need to sort out these baseless comments.

I;m sure if someone else made a comment based on one game, you'd rip them one ....

[Simari]

I am quite shocked with some fundamental concepts that a lot of you don't get.

This is not a game. This is a business, and while players play for the love of the game - they are EMPLOYED to perform. Football is no different from any other business, if you do not deliver, you will face a lengthy spell on the outside.

GET OVER IT.

It happens in every facet of business.

Robbie Keane is not delivering at the moment. He needs some time on the bench to look through his performances and decide how he wants to make an impact. He is a smart, talented player who has lost his way on the football pitch. The number of times he has simply gone anonymous on the pitch is shocking.

His confidence will pick up once he starts scoring goals EARLY in games. Rafa is the boss and any boss would do the same. Time spans in a game of football are far more constrained. If your ace striker (in the absence of Nando), cannot deliver CONSISTENTLY, Rafa has no choice but to look for options.

We won at Blackburn without him. The rest of the team stood up to the task. Yossi stepped up 2 gears.

However, Robbie must realise this much. Rafa starts him every game for a reason. He has faith in Keane. If he had no faith, we'd have seen more of Ngog.

Keane just needs to dig in and get through this rough patch and not look to Rafa for sympathy cos he won't be getting any. This situation will resolve itself once Keane starts contributing regularly with goals - and the only person who help Keane start scoring, is Keane himself.

[devaney]

Personally I do not believe that Keane is up to the pressure of a title chase and that is my main problem with Robbie. Any player that chooses to go to Wolves instead of Liverpool, the team he supported, clearly has some confidence issues. John Craig reckons that some of the negative comments aimed at Robbie are over the top. Well Benayoun, and understandably, get's all the cr.p in the world thrown at him for some of his dismal performances but when has Keane even looked like scoring the sort of goal that Yossi scored against Blackburn and at a critical time in the game. I do not share the belief that Robbie will be an outstanding success at the level Liverpool are aiming at. Let's face it Rafa's buying record is about three bad to every good player he signs and that being generous.

[akumaface]

Keane to go back To spurs to exchange for Lennon and O'hara

http://www.soccervoice.com/n081229.htm

Not sure where to put this but I wouldn't mind this to happen if true. Not sure about O'hara but Lennon would be add more depth on the right side.

[devaney]

Kuyt has played like for a while now, I don't even bother talking about Kuyt anymore though.  I've learned that we have to just live with him being out there.  Also I know Kuyt can't offer much more than what he does now, but Keane CAN in my opinion and several others on these forums so I believe he should be getting more time on the pitch until he sorts himself out out there.  He comes in and tries too hard to do well because he knows if he doesn't he will be subbed/benched and it takes him out of his natural game.

Bottom line is this, it's not good for his form the way he has been treated and is continuing to be treated.  Change it up Rafa, please, we are all desperate for Keane to start doing well.

I'd hardly say that Kuyt has been playing sh*t. He's bailed us out of a lot of situations already this season, and if anyone has been on form for us this season, it's Dirk Kuyt. If you ask me, only now is he starting to feel the effects of his work rate. He's absolutely burnt out at the minute and Rafa would do well to give the fella a rest for a few games. Last season, the Euros and the qualifiers have taken its toll.

Don't know why you bothered responding mate! Zidane clearly has a problem with Kuyt that is massively out of date and in the next breath he is supportive of Keane which is simply risible !!

[Zidane]

Kuyt has played like for a while now, I don't even bother talking about Kuyt anymore though.  I've learned that we have to just live with him being out there.  Also I know Kuyt can't offer much more than what he does now, but Keane CAN in my opinion and several others on these forums so I believe he should be getting more time on the pitch until he sorts himself out out there.  He comes in and tries too hard to do well because he knows if he doesn't he will be subbed/benched and it takes him out of his natural game.

Bottom line is this, it's not good for his form the way he has been treated and is continuing to be treated.  Change it up Rafa, please, we are all desperate for Keane to start doing well.

I'd hardly say that Kuyt has been playing sh*t. He's bailed us out of a lot of situations already this season, and if anyone has been on form for us this season, it's Dirk Kuyt. If you ask me, only now is he starting to feel the effects of his work rate. He's absolutely burnt out at the minute and Rafa would do well to give the fella a rest for a few games. Last season, the Euros and the qualifiers have taken its toll.

Don't know why you bothered responding mate! Zidane clearly has a problem with Kuyt that is massively out of date and in the next breath he is supportive of Keane which is simply risible !!

Sorry didn't check this out till now, Kuyt was pretty bad for about 4 games before this last one where he did a decent amount after fumbling a chance which turned into Xabi's goal.

I by no means meant he has been the entire season but after that brief stint of goals he had he fell off and so did the team, which may or may not have been the cause of that.

Anyway, Kuyt is a strange player it irks me watching him at times cause he'll mess up so many small, easy things in a game with his lack of skill but he has to be the luckiest guy on our team.  I appreciate his work ethic and support him I just felt he had been just as bad as Keane for a while now but he has been given ample playing time to eventually do something positive for us while Keane has not been given nearly enough. 

As for me supporting Keane, yeah I am.  I STRONGLY believe if Keane had played as much as Kuyt he would produce more than Kuyt has.  This is why I bring both up in that post.  Yet people give Keane a ton of c.rap over not scoring while Kuyt in this last game looked lost and kept losing the ball then by luck was part of the goal that put us up 1-0 at guess what, the 69th minute.  He then went on to set up Yossi's goal and in the end people(including me) felt he did his part and had a decent game.

I'm not the biggest Kuyt fan nor am I a big Keane fan, but I feel that Keane is more talented and believe he can be more productive than anyone other than Torres and Gerrard.  Maybe I'm wrongly blasting Kuyt as an example to get my point across that Keane should get more playing time but oh well.

[we all dream...]

Good post Zidane you ripped devaney apart with your mature attitude to kuyt/keane rather than being petulent or however you spell it.

Kuyt frustrates me also, i want him to do well, but when he does it is often with good fortune rather than great football. keane has had a lot of time, he has played decent minutes but not shown what he can do properly. The difference with kuyt and keane is that when kuyt is maximising his potential he will not score 20 a season where as keane can and hopefully will. Not only that but keane plays for the shirt and creates chances just as much as kuyt.

I hope we get them both firing on all cylinders over the xmas period... hopefully torres will be fit and banging them in and we will be able to carry on with our title challenge.

This has been heavily edited as it made no sense what so ever as I was a little intoxicated in some form when i wrote the original post.

[Ciggy]

Whoa what a loonatic he is, off his head.

[Fo Dne]

Stu - that was the only league game where he scored ... really stop talking .

I respect your posts but at times, you really need to sort out these baseless comments.

I;m sure if someone else made a comment based on one game, you'd rip them one ....

He scored his first goal away at PSV and was dropped the game after lad.

[BrownBomber]

Keane is a class player, and quality players need to play through their bad spell, it is only a matter of time before they come out of it.

I don't come on here as much as I should - for a reason, no doubt there are proper football men here but the amount of keyboard warriors who are so quick to criticise just put me off.

Keane can play a vital role for the Reds, he is no lone forward and never will be, people are so quick to judge, he might be a proven premiership player but he is playing for us now and that is a totally different ball game - we need to get the best out of him and not put him somewhere he is not going to any damage for us.

Ideally we get Heskey as cover in the new Year, this way we will see the best out of Keane when the main man is injured.