Liverpool FC Forum

by **The Kid Torres** » Mon Mar 31, 2008 1:07 pm

I think Babel has the potential to be a fantastic player.

He's frustrated me at times this season as I think he's capable of much more but his goal return for his first season in the Premiership isn't bad and it's important to remember that he's playing out of his favoured position, and you can tell that he's uncomfortable at the moment playing as a left-winger.

He has tremendous pace and hopefully the final ball will come as he gets more and more experience, as it did with the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo and Joe Cole (although to a lesser extent).

by **stmichael** » Mon Mar 31, 2008 1:20 pm

Lee Dixon made an excellent point on MOTD2 last night about Babel's improved intelligence in terms of his movement and coming off his line to find space and link play. He still needs to work big style on his end product though. At the moment his crossing is relatively poor and he has no left foot. Get that sorted and we'll have a real player on our hands though.

by **Toffeehater** » Wed Apr 02, 2008 5:24 pm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5OxMLG-GChs

great vid abt babel

by **Dutchsky** » Wed Apr 02, 2008 10:30 pm

Once again, it shows he is just poor class.

by **Judge** » Thu Apr 03, 2008 1:01 pm

Ciggy wrote:Persie, Robben, Sjnieder, Drenthe, Vaart and Huntelaar are all potentially great players but in Ryan Babel, Liverpool have the one Dutch player who will without a shadow of a doubt take the world by storm.

Described as the next Thierry Henry by Van Basten and still only 20 years of age, the Liverpool winger is the youngest ranking member (no:17) on the list of the 20 most commercially valuable players in the world (ahead of Andrei Shevchencko) last year and the fourth youngest player to ever score for the senior national team, there will be no stopping him.

Consistently players are labeled as bargains of the season such as Pizzaro, Santa Cruz, Voronin, McCarthy etc. but Babel really is a snip for Liverpool at £11.5m. Man of the Match in the final of the 2007 Euro U-21 Championships, Babel really can be the best player in the world for a long time to come. He can play on either wing, up front or as a second striker. He is very direct, skillful, fast, electric and explosive.

Combined with his aggressiveness and strength Babel has already taken to the Premiership like a duck to water. Mark Lawrenson has already been quoted in the Liverpool Echo that Babel is very reminiscent of the great John Barnes. This was clearly seen with the goal he scored against Derby. Babel has class, guile, flair, movement and close control in abundance.

The big advantage he has over Robben is that he is not injury prone and at Liverpool under Benitez post 06/07 he will be able to play to a system based on attack.

Each Dutch player aforementioned have certain assets, for example while Persie has skill, pace and guile he doesn’t have the strength and aggression to go with it. In Ryan Babel Liverpool have a player who has all these features to his make up, which in turn gives him the greatest potential to realise over the next few years. In the future there will not be a weakness to his game.

Ryan Babel wasn’t being over confident when he said he would be better than Henry one day and all that’s left to say is that we’re already seeing the signs.

Arsenal were interested in Babel for quite a while but their loss will be Liverpool’s gain.

http://soccerlens.com/why-liv....011

What a player we could have on our hands he was something else in the under 21s comp this year, he has seemed a bit scared since playing for us bit of a rabbit caught in the headlights being at such a big club.

He will probably take a while to settle but if he can show the form he showed in the euro games I am prepared to wait.
Maybe breaking his duck at Anfield on saturday will have taken a lot of pressure off his shoulders.

not so sure now ciggy

described as a boy wonder!, i think he is streets behind rent boy ronaldo and fibreglass of the gooners in class and skill

i just wish that our dutch contingent would play a little better and have better vision.

by **Yari7** » Thu Apr 03, 2008 1:43 pm

Judge wrote:described as a boy wonder!, i think he is streets behind rent boy ronaldo and fibreglass of the gooners in class and skill

i just wish that our dutch contingent would play a little better and have better vision.

Yeah, because Ronaldo and Fabregas set the world on fire in their first season in the premiership. Man Utd fans were moaning about Ronaldo, saying he wasn't good enough for 2 years. He is now probably the best player in the world.

by **DonnieDarko** » Thu Apr 03, 2008 8:37 pm

One thing that bothers me about Babel is that he kills our offensive flow. There will 3 or 4 quick passes to him in space and he will slow the ball down and a). give it away or b) put the next person who gets the ball under extreme pressure. Right now he is just not a very clever player. He's too predictable. Perhaps that will change we will see, but imo i don't think he will ever touch thierry henry, not even close.

by **azhan00** » Fri Apr 04, 2008 5:26 am

i agree with you

he is not clever enough.... even the movement that resulted the goal against arsenal almost ruined when he got the ball......

i think he doesnt deserve a starting place against arsenal this saturday....

by **Judge** » Fri Apr 04, 2008 9:16 am

Yari7 wrote:
Judge wrote:described as a boy wonder!, i think he is streets behind rent boy ronaldo and fibreglass of the gooners in class and skill

i just wish that our dutch contingent would play a little better and have better vision.

Yeah, because Ronaldo and Fabregas set the world on fire in their first season in the premiership. Man Utd fans were moaning about Ronaldo, saying he wasn't good enough for 2 years. He is now probably the best player in the world.

and you think babel will do that!!

by **Yari7** » Fri Apr 04, 2008 10:29 am

Judge wrote:
Yari7 wrote:
Judge wrote:described as a boy wonder!, i think he is streets behind rent boy ronaldo and fibreglass of the gooners in class and skill

i just wish that our dutch contingent would play a little better and have better vision.

Yeah, because Ronaldo and Fabregas set the world on fire in their first season in the premiership. Man Utd fans were moaning about Ronaldo, saying he wasn't good enough for 2 years. He is now probably the best player in the world.

and you think babel will do that!!

Who beleived Ronaldo would become what he has become today.

Babel is showing all the signs. People are saying he played poorly in the Arsenal, and then they go praise Torres. It doesn't make sense. Some people just don't understand football.

When the whole team is not playing well, attacking players don't see much of the ball. Babel didn't play poor, he was average. But really, he was well handled by Arsenal as they doubled up on him every time he got the ball.

Just like Torres was handled and kept quite and made to look like an ordinary player. They didn't play bad, but it's just that they were well handled by Arsenal.

by **Judge** » Fri Apr 04, 2008 12:13 pm

ronaldo, sad to say, is a brilliant footballer and has been since his teens

by **LFC2007** » Fri Apr 04, 2008 3:28 pm

Yari7 wrote:
Judge wrote:
Yari7 wrote:
Judge wrote:described as a boy wonder!, i think he is streets behind rent boy ronaldo and fibreglass of the gooners in class and skill

i just wish that our dutch contingent would play a little better and have better vision.

Yeah, because Ronaldo and Fabregas set the world on fire in their first season in the premiership. Man Utd fans were moaning about Ronaldo, saying he wasn't good enough for 2 years. He is now probably the best player in the world.

and you think babel will do that!!

Who beleived Ronaldo would become what he has become today.

Babel is showing all the signs. People are saying he played poorly in the Arsenal, and then they go praise Torres. It doesn't make sense. Some people just don't understand football.

When the whole team is not playing well, attacking players don't see much of the ball. Babel didn't play poor, he was average. But really, he was well handled by Arsenal as they doubled up on him every time he got the ball.

Just like Torres was handled and kept quite and made to look like an ordinary player. They didn't play bad, but it's just that they were well handled by Arsenal.

Babel was by far our worst player against Arsenal, he was our greatest liability. You're right - in games like this you don't see much of the ball - you have to defend, work hard, show fight, spirit, determintion, cohones. Unfortunately, he didn't show any of these qualities.

by **Toffeehater** » Fri Apr 04, 2008 5:26 pm

Judge wrote:ronaldo, sad to say, is a brilliant footballer and has been since his teens

Doing stepovers in your first two seasons does not make u a great player . He has been a good player for the past 2 season and will continue to mature . No 1 knew that ronaldo would be this good now , time will tell whether babel will improve and to be honest he has done better then ronaldo or fabregas in terms of assits and goals for his debut season

by **Bad Bob** » Fri Apr 04, 2008 5:37 pm

Toffeehater wrote:
Judge wrote:ronaldo, sad to say, is a brilliant footballer and has been since his teens

Doing stepovers in your first two seasons does not make u a great player . He has been a good player for the past 2 season and will continue to mature . No 1 knew that ronaldo would be this good now , time will tell whether babel will improve and to be honest he has done better then ronaldo or fabregas in terms of assits and goals for his debut season

With Babel it always comes back to mentality for me. Perhaps his goal-scoring and assists this season compare favourably to Ronaldo's or Fabregas's first seasons. You might even be able to argue that his raw talent puts him near those players in their debutant season as well. The massive question mark for me, though, is whether he shows the same desire to succeed as those lads. Every time I read an interview with Babel, I get more worried. This was take from the offal today:

BABEL: I WASN'T MY BEST
Jimmy Rice 04 April 2008
Ryan Babel admits he was disappointed with his own performance during the 1-1 draw with Arsenal.
The flying Dutchman, who's been one of the Reds top performers since Christmas, was substituted after 57 minutes at the Emirates.

Babel told Liverpoolfc.tv: "I was maybe a little disappointed to come off because you want to play every minute but I was tired. It is new to me to play a lot of massive games in a week.

"We had Everton last weekend and now three games against Arsenal. We don't have this kind of thing in Holland, so it takes a lot of energy. Maybe it was better for the team (that I was brought off)."

The draw leaves both sides with a realistic chance of reaching the Champions League semi-finals going into next week's return leg at Anfield.

Babel admits he and his teammates were satisfied when the final whistle blew, particularly after heavy pressure applied by Arsene Wenger's side in the second half.

He said: "It was a good result for us, we can be satisfied because we got an away goal.

"After the goal from Arsenal I thought it would be difficult to get the equaliser but it came very soon. We had to work very hard, and maybe we had a little bit of luck with some of their chances.

"It was unbelievable when Bendtner kept the ball out but you know when you play Arsenal away that it is going to be difficult. They can play beautiful football.

"I know a lot of people want Arsenal to go through because I hear people say they play better football, but we will see after the second leg and the best team will go through.

"Arsenal have problems in defence and some other things. They play very good and are maybe one of the best sides in Europe but they have problems with direct football and set pieces.

"We can stop them scoring at Anfield. I think it will be a different game there. I am looking forward to it. I was not satisfied with my own performance against Arsenal and I had to defend a lot. I hope it will be a different game for me as well on Tuesday."

Fellow Dutchman Dirk Kuyt was Liverpool's Euro star once more, bagging his sixth goal of this season's Champion League.

"Stevie did really well with the dribble and Dirk arrived into the box at exactly the right time," said Babel. "Everyone knows he's had a difficult year but he's done very well in the last couple of games. He works very hard and when you do that you are going to get goals."

Next up for Babel and co is another trip to the Emirates, this time for Saturday's lunch-time kick off in the Premier League.

He added: "The boss will have to make decisions now on who to start and who to rest. It will be impossible to play with the same XI in three games against Arsenal. I think in this situation rotation is maybe good.

"We arrived back on Wednesday night and we go back on Friday. It's a hard few days! It's strange because you have a lot to do to get there. It's mentally difficult.

"On Thursday we had a lighter training and I think on Friday it will be tactical and about how we will play on Saturday.

"I think Rafa will have already seen the game back a couple of times to tell us what we did good and bad. He'll now tell us how we can do better."

The trilogy of games against the Gunners pits Babel against his good friend Robin van Persie.

The Liverpool man admits the pair shared a joke both before and after the final whistle on Wednesday night.

He said: "We have had a few conversations about the week and a few little jokes. He said afterwards that we were lucky and I said that we tried to give them the feeling that they were better. We'll see who was right after the second leg.

"When you play against friends it's even more special because you want to beat each other."

-----

There's just something in the way he talks that makes me think he's a bit soft, mentally and physically. he just seems prepared to thrown in the towel too easily rather than keep battling and looking to assert himself. Perhaps I'm reading too much into a few comments but I had similar doubts after reading his "ice bath" interview.

by **Toffeehater** » Fri Apr 04, 2008 6:17 pm

well at least he acknowledges the fact that no 1 is bigger then the team when he said that maybe it was better that he came off for the team , good lad babel , needs to improve his crossing and time will tell whether he will be a good player

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