Liverpool FC Forum

[stmichael]

when he arrived i said it was the most exciting signing liverpool had made in their recent history. forget the price, he appeared unruffled by all the controversy that followed Leeds’ revelation they had to pay his representatives £2million of the £5m transfer fee. he claimed it was his boyhood dream to play for the club he supported as a boy. all the signs appeared good.

after grabbing 11 goals in his first 34 appearances, despite playing on the left, on the right, and behind the strikers, kewell was producing the kind of performances every liverpool fan knew he was capable of. but just after christmas he was hit by an ankle injury and failed to hit the target in his last 16 outings. whether the injury had something to do with this only he knows. however his body language and level of interest for the second half of the season was not acceptable.

hopefully, under a new manager we will see the harry kewell who terrorised defeences all over europe in 2001. if he can find that sort of form he is one of the best left wingers in europe and could contribute 15 goals+. i have every faith that we will see the best of him next season on a more consistent basis.

will the real harry kewell please stand up?

[115-1073096938]

Lets be honest, you only posted that so you could use a new smiley didn't you?

Nar seriously, fair point. He's a class act who only shown glimpses of what he's capable of, i think we'll see the best of him this season.

[stapo1000]

agreed last game he played well in was against boro and b4 that- cant remember.
But kewell is one of the many players who said they are optimistic about arrival of rafa-
From shanklygates.co.uk:
"It's very exciting to be working with a manager who has the track record he has. What he did at Valencia was massive and hopefully he can bring that kind of success here."

"There's definitely a new buzz around the place. When new people arrive it means it's a new start for everyone and we all start from scratch. It's still very early days but so far I'm really enjoying it."

Meanwhile, Kewell added that he was disappointed with his own form towards the end of last season but is determined to show Liverpool supporters even more of what he is capable of.

"It's not a case of me being desperate to get back to my top form because I know what I'm capable of and I know what I can produce," he added

[banana]

Good offensive technical players suffered because Foolier favoured defensive crappy football. I expect some of our best players to shine next year when we start playing like a true Liverpool team once more. I think Kewell and Diouf will be exceptional next year. + Gerrard and Cisse. Only concern is our pathetic defense.

[115-1073096938]

a pathetic defence containg Hyypia, Riise, Carragher and Henchoz? Are you bloody stupid or what?

Great players can play in all systems. Houllier's systems worked better for central players in General.

Your lack of knowledge of the game is quite tedious at times.

[supersub]

Football is all about opinions,stu .I find your insults to other members tedious and stupid because they see things you fail to see.

[adayinthelife]

a pathetic defence containg Hyypia, Riise, Carragher and Henchoz? Are you bloody stupid or what?

Great players can play in all systems. Houllier's systems worked better for central players in General.

Your lack of knowledge of the game is quite tedious at times.

You are right in that great players can play in any system but under houllier our attacking players were increasingly less effective and became stifled.

Why do you persist in defending houllier and his failings

[supersub]

Even the players have failed to defend GH.Some of them couldn't wait to have a go and others were contemplating leaving......Talk about taking us backwards over the last 2 years,cor blimey!!!

[mynameisred]

Why did Kewell or nobody at Liverpool reply to Farinas comment about Kewells injury. He claimed that kewells ankle injury is similar to the one that ended Van Bastens career, it was obvious he was playing with a knock towards the end of the season but is there anything in this? They may not have replied because it was c.rap but its strange coming from his international manager.

[mynameisred]

Regarding our defence I feel all we need is a strong pacy centre back to compliment Sami and Kirkland to remain injury free to get us back to being the tight back four we were. Rafa will get the best outta Risse, finnan etc, NO WORRIES.

[banana]

I said our defence is bad and i meant it. The H H combination suffer because they both lack pace and creativity. The partnership worked when Houllier played defensive counter attacking football and H H could defend deep. But when he wanted to play offensively and push H H up and leave a lot of space behind them, our opponents broke us down with early through balls and pacy strikers. Houllier saw this and he tried to solve the problem by introducing a player with more pace to remedy some of these problems. Biscan. This also backfired, because the lad did not know how to play in defence. After all he was a midfielder who liked to go forward and attack. So the crisis just continued.

But this is not the full story. Our preferred right back Carragher also lacks pace, creativity and general skills with the ball. He doesn't like to go forward at all. His passing and crosses are terrible. So our right midfielder never really got any support from him, and this is partly the reason why every player who has played in that position has failed. Houllier saw this and decided to buy Finnan. Finnan has been injured and out of form since his arrival, and has not yet made an impact at anfield.

Our left back Riise got off to a great start. He scored beautiful goals and provided quality crosses. After two years with Foolierism this came to an end. He started looking like Carragher and was soon dropped.


This is my version of the story. Maybe other people see it differently. This is also why I feel we need at least two new defenders to become a realistic challenger. So please Stu bring me your story and your conclusion since you seem to think our defence is so great.

[mynameisred]

No your right spot on actaully. The big problem was when we tried to be more attacking we did indeed push our defence further up the pitch and their lack of pace was exposed, and again with carragher your right on the ball he isnt the greatest. However who is to say that Rafa is going to employ the same tactics as Gh, I hope to God he doesnt play anything like what we have witnessed for the last few years. GH was tactically inept and playing Biscan at all let alone in central defence was one of his biggest blunders. From what I can make out of him Beni seems unlikely to makesuch mistakes. Lets be honest about things unless we sign a new right back we are going to have either Jamie or Finnan playing there carragher plays his heart out for the club and for every misplaced cross he makes he will get a block in here or there. Finnan can do everything you want in a full back and perhaps if he has a good run of fitness he can play that role if thats what rafa wants. To say that Carragher lacks general skills on the ball is a bit harsh though, he is versatile not that slow either and every club needs a player like him.

[Starbridge42]

Why did Kewell or nobody at Liverpool reply to Farinas comment about Kewells injury. He claimed that kewells ankle injury is similar to the one that ended Van Bastens career, it was obvious he was playing with a knock towards the end of the season but is there anything in this? They may not have replied because it was c.rap but its strange coming from his international manager.

I played under Frank Farina in 1994 when I was 12 and he was the junior coach of the Brisbane Strikers two years before he lead the senior team to the Australian NSL title (which subsequently earnt him the Australian managerial role) and I can assure you whatever he says is not ******.  He was the best blood yjudge of player and of the game I have ever met or spoken to.  He's also a fully trained medo so if he says Kewell's injury could end his career then it could.  Farina is a brilliant student of Football and you should take comments like that very, very seriously.  I know this because he was my coach for two years which is longer than Kewell's been at Liverpool.

[The_Rock]

Why did Kewell or nobody at Liverpool reply to Farinas comment about Kewells injury. He claimed that kewells ankle injury is similar to the one that ended Van Bastens career, it was obvious he was playing with a knock towards the end of the season but is there anything in this? They may not have replied because it was c.rap but its strange coming from his international manager.

I played under Frank Farina in 1994 when I was 12 and he was the junior coach of the Brisbane Strikers two years before he lead the senior team to the Australian NSL title (which subsequently earnt him the Australian managerial role) and I can assure you whatever he says is not ******.  He was the best blood yjudge of player and of the game I have ever met or spoken to.  He's also a fully trained medo so if he says Kewell's injury could end his career then it could.  Farina is a brilliant student of Football and you should take comments like that very, very seriously.  I know this because he was my coach for two years which is longer than Kewell's been at Liverpool.

Even if Kewell had that injury, why would Farina tell the whole world ? Shouldn't he be protecting his most prized asset ? I don't think there is another australian player in the same class as kewell.

[Starbridge42]

There isn't your right, in fact I doubt ther ever has been, but the reason Farina did is because of Kewell's attitude.  You don't live here, you're lucky.  You're in england, a country whose best players want to play for their country.  Kewell has no respect for anything or anyone.  You think he's ever going to listen to Frank anyway.  He did an interview on 'The World Game' where he was asked why he went public about Kewell's injury and he said the reasons were because
1. the Australian soccer public deserve to know why their most beloved star isn't playing and
2. because Kewell wouldn't listen to him and he hoped that Liverpool would force him to take some time to rest his ankle... which they didn't.

Its a real injury, Kewell's agent provided the medical details for the ASA which isn't available unfortunately.  The ASA needed the document to validate Kewell's excuse for missing a match for Australia.

With regards Australian soccer Kewell is the worst thing that ever happened to it.  A player with more ability than Jonny Warren and more potential than John Kosimona he could have been the shinning star of Australian football forever instead  he'll always be the black sheep.   But I'm talking now about things which don't belong on this forum so I'll take my leave.