Liverpool FC Forum

[red_guy]

Not saying he is gonna turn into Henry or nothing just I think you see a consistent improvement. 

Do you honestly believe he can improve 

Well I dont!!!

[bigmick]

You can definitely see a Thierry Henry type quality in him.

 

Tell you what, the thread is long and Babel has done some good stuff so I supose you'd be able to find a post of mine where i embarrassed myself (there's one in most threads).

Say one thing for old Stu the Red though, he never rated Babel even 1%. Turned out to be a good call in the end. He annoyed the feck out of people, but he did know his football you gotta give him that.

[Dazzer]

Not saying he is gonna turn into Henry or nothing just I think you see a consistent improvement. 

Do you honestly believe he can improve 

Yeah I do I am sure in 2 years time if he gets some games he will improve but I don't have a magic mirror or nothing , can't be 100% sure but I would have a punt on it if I was given 10-1 odds. 

[Dazzer]

Babel is just not the finished product and never will be, simple as that. On his day he can take someone on but then cant give a good delivery or shot.

Loaning him may be a good idea because it may bring up his pricetag but I wouldn't mind if we just got rid of him.

That commant is funny I feel his best areas are crossing (on right foot) and shooting/heading but we never see him do these things(much) because he always out on left on his left foot.Now if Rafa gave him 3-5 games on right wing or as striker I think we would see a different player. 

Not saying he is gonna turn into Henry or nothing just I think you see a consistent improvement. 

In his first year rafa played him first on the left. Then rafa tried him on the right. He was worse than when he played on the left. That's why rafa put him back on the left or a late substitute up front to run down defenders who were tired. It's as simple as that... he was given enough chances.

Sorry but only game I remember him playing on right was in CL game few seasons ago and he setup 2 goals from corners both was headers.

I do remeber I think he had avg game in prem playing on right once but 2 games is not really a chance to let him shine is it ?

I think he is being played out of posistion and abuse he gets from our fans is unjust.If we signed Torres and played him on left and he did fook all would you all still be singing the same tunes ?

[DrPepe]

I think he is being played out of posistion and abuse he gets from our fans is unjust

these recent comments follow similar ones last year, so he needs to shut the frick up and get on with it, instead of flip-flopping between "i need to work hard and take my chances" and "i think my future could be elsewhere"

[red_guy]

If we signed Torres and played him on left and he did fook all would you all still be singing the same tunes ?

Babel , before Liverpool , playing in a wide left position. and now he's still playing on the left. Different from Torres, he's got limited skills, awful touches, no footballing brain, lazy, etc. IMHO, you can get better results playing Torres on the left than putting Babel upfront. well, that's my 2 cents.

[stmichael]

Kuyt expects Babel to stay:

http://www.skysports.com/video/clips/0,23791,12602_5536471,00.html

[Sir Roger]

I think it's fairly clear though that if he is ever going to make a footballer (and it's by no means a certainty that he will) it will be as an out and out front player. We haven't in all honesty given him "enough chances" there, infact we've barely given him an opportunity at all.

Many posters say we should just sell him, and aside from the fact nobody wants to buy him I broadly agree. If and when someone does stump up a few million to take him off our hands though, where does anyone think they'll play him? They'll obviously bung him up top and see what they've got on their hands. If he from there finds a way to utilise his undoubted pace, good shot, ability to beat a man etc and scores regularly, we will end up looking a bit daft. Similarly, if and when Torres gets a tweak or a strain and we suddenly realise "feck me, we haven't got anybody else who can play there" we might then look at Babel and think we might have been better advised giving him a go a bit earlier.

Before anyone starts foaming at the mouth, I am simply making the point that as we haven't got anybody else who's any good we might as well try him out. At least he has pace (none of the others do), at least he can beat a man (none of the others can) and at least he has a decent shot from range (only one of the others, Kuyt, has). Kuyt has more awareness marginally, and probably a similar level of control, but we could do with him playing on the right and worrying about putting in a decent performance there right now. 

If Torres gets injured it's Voronin, Egg Nog, Babel or Kuyt (who we need on the right) . That is the painful reality, and for me it's an absolute no brainer that for all his faults we've got to at some stage between now and then, give Babel a decent go up top.

Im not even going to mention Keane (doh!)

No matter where he plays or how long hes on for you get much of the same shift from Babel
Potentially a world beater all we get is a lethargic headless chicken
Can he change? Maybe
Will he change? Probably not

[redhayesy]

Unless he changes his mentality, otherwise, it would be hard for him to realize what is needed to become successful. It is true that he underperforms but teases the fans with excellent pace and power. This is why it is so frustrated as he clearly does have some natural ability (unlike his counterpart Lucas ). Someone please straighten his head as we need all the helps that we can get....

good post mate, i mainly agree with you here but for me it's also about consistancy & realising that because of our financial situation he will never get a better chance in his career to not only prove himself once an for all but to give raffa a selection headache,make it hard for the boss to drop him etc.

the reason why he is rotated,dropped or subed during a game is simple -he isn't consistant enough. if he hasn't realised by now that he isn't going to play every week because of this,then he does have an attitude problem which only he can sort out,as i'm sure he's been given enough coaching since he joined the club,that his mindset needs changing & give 100% when picked where ever he plays,to show adapability, show what a good pro he is an finally prove his so called raw talent cause for me he hasn't shown any of these quality's to date.

the spuds game really showed & proved that to me. fwiw i really hope he pulls his socks up & finally delivers,but won't hold my breath on this.

[heimdall]

Kuyt expects Babel to stay:

http://www.skysports.com/video/clips/0,23791,12602_5536471,00.html

Well that's a relief, phew 

[Dazzer]

I think he is being played out of posistion and abuse he gets from our fans is unjust

these recent comments follow similar ones last year, so he needs to shut the frick up and get on with it, instead of flip-flopping between "i need to work hard and take my chances" and "i think my future could be elsewhere"

Don't believe everything you read in papers As far as I know he never said he wanted to leave us. 

Also kuyts interview there seems to back that up.Even his agent come out and said Babel wants to earn his place in this liverpool team.

[bunglemark2]

Even his agent come out and said Babel wants to earn his place in this liverpool team.

Probably 'cos nobody would want to buy a lazy waster like him...he doesn't have a whole lot of choices...

[maguskwt]

I think it's fairly clear though that if he is ever going to make a footballer (and it's by no means a certainty that he will) it will be as an out and out front player. We haven't in all honesty given him "enough chances" there, infact we've barely given him an opportunity at all.

Many posters say we should just sell him, and aside from the fact nobody wants to buy him I broadly agree. If and when someone does stump up a few million to take him off our hands though, where does anyone think they'll play him? They'll obviously bung him up top and see what they've got on their hands. If he from there finds a way to utilise his undoubted pace, good shot, ability to beat a man etc and scores regularly, we will end up looking a bit daft. Similarly, if and when Torres gets a tweak or a strain and we suddenly realise "feck me, we haven't got anybody else who can play there" we might then look at Babel and think we might have been better advised giving him a go a bit earlier.

Before anyone starts foaming at the mouth, I am simply making the point that as we haven't got anybody else who's any good we might as well try him out. At least he has pace (none of the others do), at least he can beat a man (none of the others can) and at least he has a decent shot from range (only one of the others, Kuyt, has). Kuyt has more awareness marginally, and probably a similar level of control, but we could do with him playing on the right and worrying about putting in a decent performance there right now. 

If Torres gets injured it's Voronin, Egg Nog, Babel or Kuyt (who we need on the right) . That is the painful reality, and for me it's an absolute no brainer that for all his faults we've got to at some stage between now and then, give Babel a decent go up top.

you might have a point there bigmick, he's quite decent as a forward in Winning Eleven 09... in there he's just like what you described him... has pace, power and ability to beat a man... and a good shot on goal...

[kunilson]

game intelligence is his major problem. can be overcome by experience......if he keeps an open mind and a hard-working attitude to solve that. its down to him and our management....id stick him in every single reserve game and make him play as much football as possible. give him chances now and then in the 1st team, and wait till it pays off cos we're stuck with him...

[bigmick]

I think it's fairly clear though that if he is ever going to make a footballer (and it's by no means a certainty that he will) it will be as an out and out front player. We haven't in all honesty given him "enough chances" there, infact we've barely given him an opportunity at all.

Many posters say we should just sell him, and aside from the fact nobody wants to buy him I broadly agree. If and when someone does stump up a few million to take him off our hands though, where does anyone think they'll play him? They'll obviously bung him up top and see what they've got on their hands. If he from there finds a way to utilise his undoubted pace, good shot, ability to beat a man etc and scores regularly, we will end up looking a bit daft. Similarly, if and when Torres gets a tweak or a strain and we suddenly realise "feck me, we haven't got anybody else who can play there" we might then look at Babel and think we might have been better advised giving him a go a bit earlier.

Before anyone starts foaming at the mouth, I am simply making the point that as we haven't got anybody else who's any good we might as well try him out. At least he has pace (none of the others do), at least he can beat a man (none of the others can) and at least he has a decent shot from range (only one of the others, Kuyt, has). Kuyt has more awareness marginally, and probably a similar level of control, but we could do with him playing on the right and worrying about putting in a decent performance there right now. 

If Torres gets injured it's Voronin, Egg Nog, Babel or Kuyt (who we need on the right) . That is the painful reality, and for me it's an absolute no brainer that for all his faults we've got to at some stage between now and then, give Babel a decent go up top.

you might have a point there bigmick, he's quite decent as a forward in Winning Eleven 09... in there he's just like what you described him... has pace, power and ability to beat a man... and a good shot on goal...

That's where I got it from mate, I'm a bit of a winning eleven 2009 devotee or at least I was of the slightly older versions. I've got all three full albums of stickers, I think a company called Panini used to manufacture them. Curiously, about one sticker in every twenty seemingly was Colin Bell back in my day.

He wasn't a bad player if truth be known but his "swap value" was negligable given the proliferation of stickers with him in his Man City black and red striped kit, supply and demand you see. Looking back it must have been a fault with the print run, perhaps they let some apprentice loose and he got carried away. Pointless throwing them away after that I suppose, they figured they could just feed em back into the system and nobody would notice. It failed miserably as a policy though, everyone was onto it and you couldn't give him away, a bit like a latter day Dossena.

I'm glad to hear their still doing them though. Hopefully Ryan is a bit rarer than Colin Bell was.