Liverpool FC Forum

oakton wrote:

dawson99 wrote:its just funny that all 4 strikers are struggling... thats all im saying. yes, i do think torres is struggling. veronin, now he is not good enough. crouch hasnt got the right attitude, but id keep kuyt, but im the ying to your yang(??) i like the lad

Let's just say Rafa's game plan/tactics are not striker-friendly.  All of our strikers played under Rafa struggled, fowler, cisse, morientes, bellamy etc, and now with these 4 current strikers.
What do you expect any strikers to do when the ball is hoof up to their chest or above head level at around 20-30 yards out with an direct opponent right behind you.  It's way too far out to do a header for a goal so they have to pass back. 
I hate this game plan and it doesn't work.

puroresu wrote:

oakton wrote:

dawson99 wrote:its just funny that all 4 strikers are struggling... thats all im saying. yes, i do think torres is struggling. veronin, now he is not good enough. crouch hasnt got the right attitude, but id keep kuyt, but im the ying to your yang(??) i like the lad

Let's just say Rafa's game plan/tactics are not striker-friendly.  All of our strikers played under Rafa struggled, fowler, cisse, morientes, bellamy etc, and now with these 4 current strikers.
What do you expect any strikers to do when the ball is hoof up to their chest or above head level at around 20-30 yards out with an direct opponent right behind you.  It's way too far out to do a header for a goal so they have to pass back. 
I hate this game plan and it doesn't work.

Kuyt isnt good enough regardless of how we play.  He offers very little and hasnt justified his price tag at all.

god_bless_john_houlding wrote:In the last 10 years the top four in England have all brought Dutch strikers to the Premiership. Arsenal brought Bergkamp, Chelsea Hasselbaink, and United obviously Van Nistlerooy. We ended up with Kuyt. I know which one out of the four I wouldn't want on my team sheet.

Obviously the other 3 are different type of strikers and all came to the English game a while before Kuyt, but I can't see why these 3 were able to find the stars (even though Hasselbaink played for Leeds before Chelsea) and we ended up with Kuyt. So I'll try and put in more realistic prespective, four teams all gunning for a top four finish at the start of the year, Liverpool, Newcastle, Blackburn and Spurs, all bought strikers in the summer of 2005. Liverpool-Kuyt, Newcastle-Martins, Blackburn-McCarthy and Spurs got Berbatov. So again how come we end up with the worst out the lot? Is our scouting system that poor or doesn't Benitez rate strikers who can score and that's why Crouch has been the one to miss out this year.

The first part of your post is neither here nor there for me but the second part--comparing Kuyt, Martins, McCarthy and Berbatov--is a very interesting point: how did we manage to get the poorest finisher of the bunch?

Bad Bob wrote:

god_bless_john_houlding wrote:In the last 10 years the top four in England have all brought Dutch strikers to the Premiership. Arsenal brought Bergkamp, Chelsea Hasselbaink, and United obviously Van Nistlerooy. We ended up with Kuyt. I know which one out of the four I wouldn't want on my team sheet.

Obviously the other 3 are different type of strikers and all came to the English game a while before Kuyt, but I can't see why these 3 were able to find the stars (even though Hasselbaink played for Leeds before Chelsea) and we ended up with Kuyt. So I'll try and put in more realistic prespective, four teams all gunning for a top four finish at the start of the year, Liverpool, Newcastle, Blackburn and Spurs, all bought strikers in the summer of 2005. Liverpool-Kuyt, Newcastle-Martins, Blackburn-McCarthy and Spurs got Berbatov. So again how come we end up with the worst out the lot? Is our scouting system that poor or doesn't Benitez rate strikers who can score and that's why Crouch has been the one to miss out this year.

The first part of your post is neither here nor there for me but the second part--comparing Kuyt, Martins, McCarthy and Berbatov--is a very interesting point: how did we manage to get the poorest finisher of the bunch?

Kharhaz wrote:

Bad Bob wrote:

god_bless_john_houlding wrote:In the last 10 years the top four in England have all brought Dutch strikers to the Premiership. Arsenal brought Bergkamp, Chelsea Hasselbaink, and United obviously Van Nistlerooy. We ended up with Kuyt. I know which one out of the four I wouldn't want on my team sheet.

Obviously the other 3 are different type of strikers and all came to the English game a while before Kuyt, but I can't see why these 3 were able to find the stars (even though Hasselbaink played for Leeds before Chelsea) and we ended up with Kuyt. So I'll try and put in more realistic prespective, four teams all gunning for a top four finish at the start of the year, Liverpool, Newcastle, Blackburn and Spurs, all bought strikers in the summer of 2005. Liverpool-Kuyt, Newcastle-Martins, Blackburn-McCarthy and Spurs got Berbatov. So again how come we end up with the worst out the lot? Is our scouting system that poor or doesn't Benitez rate strikers who can score and that's why Crouch has been the one to miss out this year.

The first part of your post is neither here nor there for me but the second part--comparing Kuyt, Martins, McCarthy and Berbatov--is a very interesting point: how did we manage to get the poorest finisher of the bunch?

If you look at the records of the players before they came to England then Kuyt had the best goals for record so anyone comparing back then would have said Kuyt. I dont think the system is helping him and also a lack of confidence.

god_bless_john_houlding wrote:

europian-kings wrote:i for one like kuyt. i understand why people dont like him as i had the same problem last season. but if you watch him on the pitch even when he is noway near the ball he is always using his brain and thinking ahead.
fair enough he cant shoot for peanuts lol and i know that he isnt world class or anything, but if every player in the team put in as much effort as kuyt did i would be chuffed.

Well that shows what a great manager Benitez is. Lets buy ourselves a forward (who's job it is to score) who can't shoot. 10 out of 10 for that one Rafa

And if want players to put in the effort Kuyt does our central midfielders should be Sissoko and Robbie Savage. 11 hard workers won't win you the league. Quality will and quality is something Kuyt lacks.

Kharhaz wrote:

god_bless_john_houlding wrote:

europian-kings wrote:i for one like kuyt. i understand why people dont like him as i had the same problem last season. but if you watch him on the pitch even when he is noway near the ball he is always using his brain and thinking ahead.
fair enough he cant shoot for peanuts lol and i know that he isnt world class or anything, but if every player in the team put in as much effort as kuyt did i would be chuffed.

Well that shows what a great manager Benitez is. Lets buy ourselves a forward (who's job it is to score) who can't shoot. 10 out of 10 for that one Rafa

And if want players to put in the effort Kuyt does our central midfielders should be Sissoko and Robbie Savage. 11 hard workers won't win you the league. Quality will and quality is something Kuyt lacks.

As opposed to 11 slackers who will. Kuyt has struggled to score in England without a doubt but his attitude is to continue to work in a match to get the ball, and create something for other players. Every striker has a knock in confidence, all the best players have had one. You knock rafa for buying him but like I said earlier he can score goals, his history proves that. Im not totally against what your saying, for me he isnt the most natural goalscorer we have and shouldnt be the first on the team sheet under current performances, but he does work hard for the team and never gives the opposition defence a rest.

god_bless_john_houlding wrote:

Kharhaz wrote:

god_bless_john_houlding wrote:

europian-kings wrote:i for one like kuyt. i understand why people dont like him as i had the same problem last season. but if you watch him on the pitch even when he is noway near the ball he is always using his brain and thinking ahead.
fair enough he cant shoot for peanuts lol and i know that he isnt world class or anything, but if every player in the team put in as much effort as kuyt did i would be chuffed.

Well that shows what a great manager Benitez is. Lets buy ourselves a forward (who's job it is to score) who can't shoot. 10 out of 10 for that one Rafa

And if want players to put in the effort Kuyt does our central midfielders should be Sissoko and Robbie Savage. 11 hard workers won't win you the league. Quality will and quality is something Kuyt lacks.

As opposed to 11 slackers who will. Kuyt has struggled to score in England without a doubt but his attitude is to continue to work in a match to get the ball, and create something for other players. Every striker has a knock in confidence, all the best players have had one. You knock rafa for buying him but like I said earlier he can score goals, his history proves that. Im not totally against what your saying, for me he isnt the most natural goalscorer we have and shouldnt be the first on the team sheet under current performances, but he does work hard for the team and never gives the opposition defence a rest.

It's all very well hassling defenders but when he's doing it on the half way line leaving us nobody in an attacking position he's no good to us. He should allow whoever is in the middle of the park to break play up in the middle and he can be the outlet ball, then we will see Kuyt at his best, but on the half way line he's more harm than good