Liverpool FC Forum

redbeergoggles wrote:How many posters on this forum honestly believe ,that pairing Keane with a world class talent like Torres will ever flourish,Lets be truthful here, I would have been disappointed with Keane on a free let alone 20 million  ,his misses against Preston reeked of ineptitude, and he was inititially responsible for Alonso's injury when Gerrard gave him a chance on a proverbial plate ,and he cut it back into a crammed penalty box.
His constant harping about his form not bothering him is slightly distasteful ,because its worrying the hell out of the fans that travel to places like Deepdale .
Keane's goals against Bolton smacked of the chances Owen used to convert on a regular basis ,but unlike Owen, Keane is playing in a side that provides ample amount of service ,and should be in double figures now with the opportunities he's been presented with.

Lando_Griffin wrote:

redbeergoggles wrote:How many posters on this forum honestly believe ,that pairing Keane with a world class talent like Torres will ever flourish,Lets be truthful here, I would have been disappointed with Keane on a free let alone 20 million  ,his misses against Preston reeked of ineptitude, and he was inititially responsible for Alonso's injury when Gerrard gave him a chance on a proverbial plate ,and he cut it back into a crammed penalty box.
His constant harping about his form not bothering him is slightly distasteful ,because its worrying the hell out of the fans that travel to places like Deepdale .
Keane's goals against Bolton smacked of the chances Owen used to convert on a regular basis ,but unlike Owen, Keane is playing in a side that provides ample amount of service ,and should be in double figures now with the opportunities he's been presented with.

Sounds about right, that.

Keane is the proverbial "big fish" in a paddling pool.

Unfortunately, he struggles when chucked in the lake...

Bam wrote:I'm starting to wonder about him now. I like Robbie Keane and was glad we landed him during the summer, although the price we paid for him was a hefty one. Never the less I still maintained it was a good signing by Rafa giving the fact he's tried and tested in the Prem.

I know its still early for Keane of course as it is for Dossena, who has rightly or wrongly been judged on a few suspicious performances. Although the Italian has had a change in culture, football and everything else thats part and parcel of uplifing your life and moving abroad, while the other has got in his car and driven up the M1.

But TBH Robbie Keanes performances havent hit the adequate heights I'd of expected from a player of his quality. There is no doubt he is a good player in my mind anyway, but at the moment he looks like another Kuyt. He is becoming more Workman like, scurrying defences and what not, but the individualness of his game doesnt seem to be there at the moment. Its as if he's also wearing the same shooting boots as Kuyt, you know the ones ... the non-exsistant ones. He's hardly taking up the scoring opportunities as much as I'd like him to, and he's hardly playing as this "creative second striker", the one I thought he'd be, and the perfect foil for Torres.

Class is permanent form is temporary I know, but what really has me wondering about the Irishman is similar to what has happened with Kuyt. Kuyt came here as a good striker in the Dutch league (albeit Dutch league). For the want of a better word I feel the English game found Kuyt out, he isnt as prolific as we thought. Looking at Kuyt he may well know that hes never going to be the striker a club like Liverpool need, and in some ways I think he may of excepted this. Whether it be Rafa's tactics or ideas on how the Dutchman should play his game or Dirk himself. It nows seems to me rather than striving to be this undroppable striker who has goal scoring in abundance, he's opted to change his game somewhat ? I think he's added huge amounts of energy and endevour to his game to compensate for the fact he wasnt this prolific striker we all thought he'd be. Of course he was always a hardworker, but this seems to be his best attribute now, but when he first signed from Feyenord his main attributes were his finnishing and scoring a shed load of goals.

My worry is Keane may take this option (the easier option imo). Bearing in mind that Rafa's partial to a "grafter" on the field, it'll probably becomes easier for a player with this kind of pressure to shy away from his natural game. The skillful jinky runs, taking the onus on and scoring a few goals along the way because its not coming off in during games, and compensate that with more hard work which is what it looks like at the mo.

Thats a slight fear I have for him, and I dont know if Rafa is the kind of manager to bring out the individual-ness in a player like Keane who can express himself really well as an individual. As Rafa's more of a pragmatist he'd rather (imo) his players and teams work as a unit more so than that as individuals. I could and probably am wide of the mark here but I dont know if Rafa is the kind of bloke who'd really try and get players to really express themselves on a field and to get them to show their individual abilities. Surely he wouldnt of brough Keane if that were the case but when Keane was at Spurs he was part of a team that had a different ethic amongst their players, there was more individual players who were allowed to play a more expansive game. Their football down at the lane was always supposed to be nice on the eye to watch and with managers like Martin Jol who IMO did like an expansive game Keane  was able to do things and change matches with his individual abilities. But we havent yet seen any of that here and I'm just wondering how his career here will end up.

Will he be another Kuyt all work and graft as his main attributes ?

Or will he finally become the player we've all seen before and presumably the reason Rafa brought him ?

Kuyt for all his industry and running has one major flaw, he is like the Exorcist- he always gets rid of possession. Luis Garcia was the same. I could never understand Benitez's persistent faith, especially in Kuyt.  If he had played for United and lost the ball as often as he did, Fergie would be rid of him full stop.

Keane is an enigma, great pro, and a very brainy player. just watch his movement against Bolton when he pointed exactly where he wanted the ball and both times he netted, then he gets dropped ? ???  That I just can't fathom, Fergie would NOT have dropped him, and look where the Mancs are now!   We should have been 12 points clear by now but he is still tinkering

steviec wrote:

Bam wrote:I'm starting to wonder about him now. I like Robbie Keane and was glad we landed him during the summer, although the price we paid for him was a hefty one. Never the less I still maintained it was a good signing by Rafa giving the fact he's tried and tested in the Prem.

I know its still early for Keane of course as it is for Dossena, who has rightly or wrongly been judged on a few suspicious performances. Although the Italian has had a change in culture, football and everything else thats part and parcel of uplifing your life and moving abroad, while the other has got in his car and driven up the M1.

But TBH Robbie Keanes performances havent hit the adequate heights I'd of expected from a player of his quality. There is no doubt he is a good player in my mind anyway, but at the moment he looks like another Kuyt. He is becoming more Workman like, scurrying defences and what not, but the individualness of his game doesnt seem to be there at the moment. Its as if he's also wearing the same shooting boots as Kuyt, you know the ones ... the non-exsistant ones. He's hardly taking up the scoring opportunities as much as I'd like him to, and he's hardly playing as this "creative second striker", the one I thought he'd be, and the perfect foil for Torres.

Class is permanent form is temporary I know, but what really has me wondering about the Irishman is similar to what has happened with Kuyt. Kuyt came here as a good striker in the Dutch league (albeit Dutch league). For the want of a better word I feel the English game found Kuyt out, he isnt as prolific as we thought. Looking at Kuyt he may well know that hes never going to be the striker a club like Liverpool need, and in some ways I think he may of excepted this. Whether it be Rafa's tactics or ideas on how the Dutchman should play his game or Dirk himself. It nows seems to me rather than striving to be this undroppable striker who has goal scoring in abundance, he's opted to change his game somewhat ? I think he's added huge amounts of energy and endevour to his game to compensate for the fact he wasnt this prolific striker we all thought he'd be. Of course he was always a hardworker, but this seems to be his best attribute now, but when he first signed from Feyenord his main attributes were his finnishing and scoring a shed load of goals.

My worry is Keane may take this option (the easier option imo). Bearing in mind that Rafa's partial to a "grafter" on the field, it'll probably becomes easier for a player with this kind of pressure to shy away from his natural game. The skillful jinky runs, taking the onus on and scoring a few goals along the way because its not coming off in during games, and compensate that with more hard work which is what it looks like at the mo.

Thats a slight fear I have for him, and I dont know if Rafa is the kind of manager to bring out the individual-ness in a player like Keane who can express himself really well as an individual. As Rafa's more of a pragmatist he'd rather (imo) his players and teams work as a unit more so than that as individuals. I could and probably am wide of the mark here but I dont know if Rafa is the kind of bloke who'd really try and get players to really express themselves on a field and to get them to show their individual abilities. Surely he wouldnt of brough Keane if that were the case but when Keane was at Spurs he was part of a team that had a different ethic amongst their players, there was more individual players who were allowed to play a more expansive game. Their football down at the lane was always supposed to be nice on the eye to watch and with managers like Martin Jol who IMO did like an expansive game Keane  was able to do things and change matches with his individual abilities. But we havent yet seen any of that here and I'm just wondering how his career here will end up.

Will he be another Kuyt all work and graft as his main attributes ?

Or will he finally become the player we've all seen before and presumably the reason Rafa brought him ?

Kuyt for all his industry and running has one major flaw, he is like the Exorcist- he always gets rid of possession. Luis Garcia was the same. I could never understand Benitez's persistent faith, especially in Kuyt.  If he had played for United and lost the ball as often as he did, Fergie would be rid of him full stop.

Keane is an enigma, great pro, and a very brainy player. just watch his movement against Bolton when he pointed exactly where he wanted the ball and both times he netted, then he gets dropped ? ???  That I just can't fathom, Fergie would NOT have dropped him, and look where the Mancs are now!   We should have been 12 points clear by now but he is still tinkering

red_guy wrote:Seriously i feel for Keane. It's his dream to play for Liverpool. I don't think he has less commitment than any other players on this team. But ..being left out for unknown reasons, i feel sorry for him. I dont know why Rafa chose to stick for Kuyt no matter what, instead of using Keane. If i was the manager, we're in need of a goal and Kuyt wasn't helping, i would use Keane in a heartbeat. Rafa, please give this guy a chance.

sparkycc wrote:I know there are reasons for our 3 main forwards not scoring ie torres injury, kuyt on the wing and keane not playing or lack of form but i find it quite hard to take that there are 4 ex liverpool forwards way above our forwards with only gerrard getting in the top ten ( see below )

   Barclays Premier League Top Scorers
  Team TOT
Anelka Chelsea 14
Robinho Man City 11
Zaki Wigan 10
Agbonlahor Aston Villa 9
Cisse Sunderland 8
Crouch Portsmouth 8
Gerrard Liverpool 8
Lampard Chelsea 8
Owen Newcastle 8
Ronaldo Man Utd 8
Van Persie Arsenal 8
Adebayor Arsenal 7
Bent Tottenham 7
Defoe Tottenham 7
Ireland Man City 7
this must be addressed if we are to stay in the running for the title, i personally would like us to play keane and torres together till the end of the season, i dont know what has happened recentley but keane seemed to be getting his confidence back he scored a couple but instead of playing he found himself dropped this is not going to help any player.