Liverpool FC Forum

[Cool Hand Luke]

Don't think Rafa will have the balls to do it but when Torres is back Keane should be dropped to the bench.

[LFC2007]

I think we should rest him, that'll help his confidence 

[Number 9]

I think we should rest him, that'll help his confidence 

Exactly!
Its fuc'king mad to suggest dropping him.Theres a good player in their,its not gonna come out sitting on the bench!

[GYBS]

yeah but how long do you persist waiting for the footballer to come out ?

[Igor Zidane]

When crouch first came , remember the run he had before he scored his first goal , i think it was 14 games . People were screaming for him to be dropped and Rafa stuck by him . IMO Rafa will do exactly the same with Keane . It will come i'm sure of it.

[Number 9]

yeah but how long do you persist waiting for the footballer to come out ?

As long as it takes within reason!Cause it will happen,hes a quality player and has not just become a bad one cause he's wearing a different shirt!
He needs more games alongside Nando and they will both benefit.I still think the lad will come good.To try and answer your question.IF in the very unlikely event that Keane does not improve,I'd hope Rafa holds his hands up and says its not working and sells him on as soon as the end of season if need be!
I doubt very much this will happen though as I feel Keane will prove his worth soon!

[bigmick]

I'm all for giving keane time too, but if we are going to go down that road, we need to fully commit to the policy I think. Leaving him out in midweek in a Home game in which he could very likely have scored was silly, as was pulling him off with half an hour to go while playing against his old team away. I seem to remember he also suffered from the "score a goal and sit on yer erse" syndrome in the next game after he opened his account.

We do seem to be quite adept at getting players into a state of mind, whereby they have little or no chance of playing to their optimum it seems to me somethimes.

[Igor Zidane]

I'm all for giving keane time too, but if we are going to go down that road, we need to fully commit to the policy I think. Leaving him out in midweek in a Home game in which he could very likely have scored was silly, as was pulling him off with half an hour to go while playing against his old team away. I seem to remember he also suffered from the "score a goal and sit on yer erse" syndrome in the next game after he opened his account.

We do seem to be quite adept at getting players into a state of mind, whereby they have little or no chance of playing to their optimum it seems to me somethimes.

Ithink that's fair enough mick , but the only thing i can think of and it's purley speculation ,is that rafa is protecting him with the niggle in the groin he has . When Torres does come back i think we will see how serious this niggle is ,we might see him rested for a few games to properly get over it.

[Raffmaker]

Not sure about Robbie keane on the whole. I don't think he is going to be a 20  a season striker. I thik Rafa made a mistake paying 20m for him , when you can get Michael Owen for 5m.

He often disapears for long periods of games, and last night V Spurs told me that we need another striker if Gerrard is virtually playing as a striker.

Owen 5m in Jan Rafa. he will cut a suede through the top division once more wearing red.

[account deleted by request]

When crouch first came , remember the run he had before he scored his first goal , i think it was 14 games . People were screaming for him to be dropped and Rafa stuck by him . IMO Rafa will do exactly the same with Keane . It will come i'm sure of it.

The problem is by the time Crouch started scoring, we had lost any chance we had of making a challenge for the league. We could be in the same position again if we continue to play an underperforming Keane.

Sometimes you have to make a hard decision and leave someone out, not for their own good ...... but for the good of the team.

I can't see how bringing him on as a sub can be much more damaging to his confidence than to keep bringing him off every game anyway. (Especially against Spurs!)

I would drop him, some people would play him through his "bad spell". I have no real problem with either option, I just don't think that we can afford to keep playing another misfiring striker if we are to mount a title challenge this season.

[aCe']

When crouch first came , remember the run he had before he scored his first goal , i think it was 14 games . People were screaming for him to be dropped and Rafa stuck by him . IMO Rafa will do exactly the same with Keane . It will come i'm sure of it.

The problem is by the time Crouch started scoring, we had lost any chance we had of making a challenge for the league. We could be in the same position again if we continue to play an underperforming Keane.

Sometimes you have to make a hard decision and leave someone out, not for their own good ...... but for the good of the team.

I can't see how bringing him on as a sub can be much more damaging to his confidence than to keep bringing him off every game anyway. (Especially against Spurs!)

I would drop him, some people would play him through his "bad spell". I have no real problem with either option, I just don't think that we can afford to keep playing another misfiring striker if we are to mount a title challenge this season.

when torres isnt available i dont think that we have many other options but to play him up there and hope for the best...
Agree about bringing him off every game not doing his confidence any good...
He's obviously got talent and while he's been struggling to prove his abilities in a red shirt, i dont think its the time to be leaving out another attacking option (limited as he may be - in any sense of the word) only to bring on another midfielder and look to change our shape and tactics...etc etc
We need as many attacking options as we can get in pretty much every game and from where im sitting, scoring or not he seems to be better than what we got bar Torres when we'r going forward.
I dont know about the stats but it sure would be interesting to compare the number of goals we'v scored when having two strikers on the pitch withe numbers when we'v only playedd one... i know it worked against chelsea and to some extent against ManUtd but still...
I think we need to start playing 2 upfront more often ..

[Bam]

When crouch first came , remember the run he had before he scored his first goal , i think it was 14 games . People were screaming for him to be dropped and Rafa stuck by him . IMO Rafa will do exactly the same with Keane . It will come i'm sure of it.

The problem is by the time Crouch started scoring, we had lost any chance we had of making a challenge for the league. We could be in the same position again if we continue to play an underperforming Keane.

Sometimes you have to make a hard decision and leave someone out, not for their own good ...... but for the good of the team.

I can't see how bringing him on as a sub can be much more damaging to his confidence than to keep bringing him off every game anyway. (Especially against Spurs!)

I would drop him, some people would play him through his "bad spell". I have no real problem with either option, I just don't think that we can afford to keep playing another misfiring striker if we are to mount a title challenge this season.

Just to note S@int that when Crouch did start scoring and finding form infront of goal he was then rotated out of form.

On the subject of dropping Keane for a few games, well I'd probably agree if we went back to a 4-2-31 formation, meaning Nando starts upfront on his own.

But when we're playing teams like Hull, WBA and Bolton etc away or at home I'd play two upfront, Keane and Torres.

[account deleted by request]

When crouch first came , remember the run he had before he scored his first goal , i think it was 14 games . People were screaming for him to be dropped and Rafa stuck by him . IMO Rafa will do exactly the same with Keane . It will come i'm sure of it.

The problem is by the time Crouch started scoring, we had lost any chance we had of making a challenge for the league. We could be in the same position again if we continue to play an underperforming Keane.

Sometimes you have to make a hard decision and leave someone out, not for their own good ...... but for the good of the team.

I can't see how bringing him on as a sub can be much more damaging to his confidence than to keep bringing him off every game anyway. (Especially against Spurs!)

I would drop him, some people would play him through his "bad spell". I have no real problem with either option, I just don't think that we can afford to keep playing another misfiring striker if we are to mount a title challenge this season.

when torres isnt available i dont think that we have many other options but to play him up there and hope for the best...
Agree about bringing him off every game not doing his confidence any good...
He's obviously got talent and while he's been struggling to prove his abilities in a red shirt, i dont think its the time to be leaving out another attacking option (limited as he may be - in any sense of the word) only to bring on another midfielder and look to change our shape and tactics...etc etc
We need as many attacking options as we can get in pretty much every game and from where im sitting, scoring or not he seems to be better than what we got bar Torres when we'r going forward.
I dont know about the stats but it sure would be interesting to compare the number of goals we'v scored when having two strikers on the pitch withe numbers when we'v only playedd one... i know it worked against chelsea and to some extent against ManUtd but still...
I think we need to start playing 2 upfront more often ..

Yeah, I was meaning now Torres is back (or supposedly back), while he is injured we havent much in the way of alternatives.

Surprisingly all 3 games in which we have FAILED to score this season have been with 2 strikers. However I feel even when we have been playing 4-2-3-1 this season we have not really got the balance between attack and defence right, and have been caught out too many times for comfort. Maybe this has had more to do with Torres being injured than anything else? Perhaps we have had to commit too many players forward in order to get the goals, than we would if Torres was rattling the goals in.

I have always preferred 2 strikers, but they BOTH need to be firing on all cylinders, or its probably better to have an extra midfielder in there instead and Gerrard played further forward.

Unfortunately as a team we don't seem to get goals from all areas. We tend to rely on 2 or 3 players supplying almost all our goals, and if one of them has a bad spell (as Kuyt did last season) we either struggle or bring someone else in to score them.

If Keane doesn't start scoring and playing better soon, I think we will need to solve the problem by either bringing in a player who can (Owen for example) or by change of formation as we did last season. 

I do believe that Keane's lack of goals will cost us points sooner rather than later if the issue is not addressed one way or the other very quickly.

[Toffeehater]

Keane is creating goals so whats the problem . Before nando went off injured , they were showing real signs of working together , when he comes back stick with two upfront and we will see what keane can do . He can pick out a player , seen him put in a couple of good passes , had a huge hand in both goals in the everton game , crossed in a terrific ball to kuyt in the wigan game where kirkland saved and of cos against spurs with a great turn and let it go for kuyt to finish off .

As for scoring , keane has not had many chances while playing upfront on his own , 1 against 4 is always going to be difficult . Give it 5 more games and he will come good .

[Sabre]

Keane is creating goals so whats the problem . Before nando went off injured , they were showing real signs of working together , when he comes back stick with two upfront and we will see what keane can do . He can pick out a player , seen him put in a couple of good passes , had a huge hand in both goals in the everton game , crossed in a terrific ball to kuyt in the wigan game where kirkland saved and of cos against spurs with a great turn and let it go for kuyt to finish off .

As for scoring , keane has not had many chances while playing upfront on his own , 1 against 4 is always going to be difficult . Give it 5 more games and he will come good .

I quite agree this, and I also ask, what are the alternatives to Keane?