Liverpool FC Forum

[LFCFan4Life]

I've been reading and paying attention a lot of  what fellow Reds had to say on players such as Antonio Nunez,Luis Garcia,Neil Mellor,Milan Baros,etc..... What I have noticed the most is that when a player plays poorely or is in poor form then he's automatically rubbish overall. I disagree to a certain extent.

Obiviously a player like Salif Diao is in fact rubbish, no matter how much time you give him he will never show an quality on the pitch. He's not a naturaly talented footballer in my opinion, I am still wondering what Gerrard Houllier saw in him because I can't see it and neither can anybody else.

Neil Mellor
Mellor doesn't have the pace or the crossovers to show for and he's not a world class player neither is he a high quality player however he is a natural goalscorer. Despite that he's overweight a bit and that he does not have the pace and everything that a top striker should have, he has the ability to scoregoals. He is a natural goalscorer as he has scored vital vital goals for us this season. Now he has not scored 20 goals but he has scored when we need the goal. i.e. vs. Arsenal

Mellor is not Michael Owen, Wayne Rooney, Thierry Henry however he is the type of player we need for vital times. This year we've had a lot of injuries and we lost our main strikers so when Mellor came off the bench he made a difference. Therefore I do not think we should sell Mellor because we never know when our strikers may be injured.

Luis Garcia
Garcia has played for Benitez before and some fans have said that he's awful and others that he is brilliant at times. I'd like to believe that Benitez sign Garcia for no reason, he knows Garcia fairly well as Garcia has played for him before in Spain. I am sure Benitez knows that Garcia gives the ball away easily but I am pretty sure that he knows what a creative player Garcia is. He is inconsistent but that he can improve like so many others such as Robert Pires, Reyes,etc... You give him space and he will create something you might remember him by despite that he might had just given the ball away five mintues ago and he has scored some brilliant goals. Because he's such a creative player he chooses to attempt to score a cracker when a simple tap in would do and the ball blazes over the goal but that's the type of player Garcia is.

We all agree that Benitez is a good manager, a type of manager who can take us back to our glory days so he must know that while Garcia has his weaknesses as all footballers that Garcia also has strengths that can be vital in a game. If Garcia was to put on some weight as in muscle by working out a bit more, he wouldn't be such a lightweight player so he wouldn't get knocked off the ball so easily. That's something he will have to work on and I think that he can improve as I am an optimist.

Antonio Nunez
Benitez said that Nunez was good in the air and that he is a good crosser of the ball. We also know that Nunez has played for Real Madrid reserves more than he has for the starting team however he's not a poor player imo as some have said. With time he will become an essential player. He has already shown that he can improve in every game he plays in. I've noticed that when Nunez crosses the ball and nobody gets at the end of it some feel that he's a poor crosser but that's not always true. We have no player that can get on the end of that ball in the air so because of that you can not blame Nunez however since we have sign Morientes that might change. Once again I think that he will become a good player for us if he is given time, he has the talent and the skill and the ability. Players like Diao can't be given time because they posses no talent, no skill and are not gifted at football imo.

Milan Baros
A lot of drama concerning Baros. I would like to remind all that Baros has spent a lot of time on the Liverpool bench while Houllier is in charge so those who are angered that Baros didn't score 20 goals when Houllier was here, well doing such a thing from the bench is very hard. As all players he has weaknesses and bad habbits. He likes to run with his head down but thats a bad habbit and that's being worked on as Benitez has pointed that to him and he is improving. He's showing better awareness and is linking up with players better than he did when he first started playing. He makes a difference on the pitch and with Morientes I think he will become a superb player and continue to improve. 11 goals scored, 8 in the Premiership, he can only score from this point on.

Those are just some of the players that we have talked about most. A lot of players have improved this year such as Carragher,Finnan,Pongolle,etc.... and I think we should not write off players such as Nunez,Garcia until the end of the season. Not all players adapt the same way or adapt in the same amount of time. While it took Alonso a short period of time to adapt, it might take another player more time. All good players are different.

If Morientes does play against Man Utd and has a stinker I hope I don't hear or read that he's "poor". If you can't see that Morientes will change our firepower up front than go to the eye doctor for a check up. Feel free to post your thoughts on what I have said,etc...

[ToTinho]

that is a great , mature and reasonable post mate . nice on man .
YNWA

[stapo1000]

mellor- we should sell him
garcia- a bit lightweight but worth keeping
nunez- has improved a bit since coming. needs time. i wont judge him yet.
baros- quality striker. must hold onto him

[LFCFan4Life]

If we buy Anelka which we may and may not then it would be wise to sell Mellor if not then I would keep him until the end of the season.

[welsh wizzard]

good post this is something i mentioned on another post likes of garcia,nunez,josemi they need time to settle likes of diao and diouf are a waste of time what houllier seen in them i will never know,nunez is getting better with every game and with his crosses from the right morientes will bury them with his head garcia will just get better and better as time goes on,but i think mellor will go at the end of season he won't stay as 5th choice striker,he will want to play and when all our front men are fit he will be spending more time in the reserves i could see him going to west brom or may be a team that comes up like ipswich etc,baros just needs a good run of games with a consistant partner playing with him and we have finally got him in el'moro these two will bang them in its exciting times ahead and next season with an in form kewell rid of his injury and alonso with a confident nunez on the right we will have some team thats without a couple more additions in the summer may be,we all have exciting times ahead this team under raffa is going back to the good old days and i can't wait.

[A.B.]

When you look at some of the world class players today in the Premier League that came from a foreign country, they were quite garbage at first.

Best example is Robert Pires. I'm sure you all know how poor Pires was in his first season at Arsenal. Today he's a world class player. What does that tell you? Those footballers with creativity,talent and skill are worth waiting on imo. Luis Garcia has shown brilliance but he has also showed his flaws however it is not fair to compare him with Smicer.

Like Pires, in my opinion Garcia will become a good player for us. He's a creative players and we need creativity on the pitch which is something that we didn't have a year,two years ago,etc...

Like I've said before, Benitez knows Garcia well so why would he sign a player if he was total garbage? He wouldn't. He sees  what Garcia can bring to his squad that is why he bought him.  Yes Garcia is inconcistant but that can be worked on.

It seems that we have to have a player we can pick on. It was Harry Kewell and Igor Biscan but now that Kewell showed signs of improvement and is injured, which same goes with Biscan we have found two new targets: Nunez and Garcia.

Nunez could hardly start for Real Madrid because of he wasn't a "galactico". He will improve, he has shown that. He can cross the ball good and poor at times but no player is perfect. He has the mentality and the ability to become a good solid squad player.

I wish some of the critisizing fans could see that.

Nunez and Garcia are not like Diao and Smicer. Form is temporary but class is pernament. Diao was in good form for his country but as soon he got here he showed that he was no class player. Garcia is in bad form and he will need to pick himself up and get on with it, score more goals and boost his confidence.

This is a big thing for Nunez, in Madrid he could hardly start and now he is playing more games than he has before. He has something to prove, something to show for and Benitez knows that.

[Alonso_Rulz]

come on.. if anelka comes... and with cisse healthy.. how are we goin to keep all the strikers happy..
baros, moro, anelka , cisse, pongolle.. that will be 5 strikers , excluding mellor, who i think will leave at the end of the season.. i seriously think that with the squad liverpool have with injuries, it is a big enough squad to compete for the championship.. however , not enough class and skilled players to win it.. that's my view...