Liverpool v Arsenal part deux

[Mumpo]

Liverpool v Arsenal part deux

Yeah, it's fucking disgusting

I think it's a thing of great beauty. And very apt.

and also very work-unfriendly

Yes, yes, alright.

[EIM]

Liverpool v Arsenal part deux

Was The Hof talking about your picture, or Liverpool getting to the final?

[Ray de Galles]

Liverpool v Arsenal part deux

The picture of Crouch, I think.

[garcia]

Liverpool v Arsenal part deux

Kuyt is honest and brave and energetic, and really, really shit. He is one of life's triers but he cannot play football... It's the "do it better than most" bit of this sentence that jumps out at me. Kuyt is a total plodder and his lack of finishing ability is absolutely chronic.

rooney CL goals: 4
kuyt CL goals: 4

and kuyt's played right wing for many of those games. nobody is saying kuyt has got rooney's all-round skill and touch, but in terms of pure finishing and goalscoring ability there's little to choose between them.

[Guest]

Liverpool v Arsenal part deux

I don't think anyone on here would try to argue that Wayne Rooney is one of the planet's most ruthless finishers. In all other aspects of the game, he and Kuyt might as well be playing different sports.

Benitez giving up on Kuyt as a centre-forward and pushing him out wide to hassle opposition wingers is a bit like buying a motorbike, discovering that it doesn't go, and then bringing it into the house and using its handlebars to hang your coats on.

[Spearmint Rhino]

Liverpool v Arsenal part deux

No it isn't.

[dalliance]

Liverpool v Arsenal part deux

I don't think that Wayne Rooney is one of the planet's most ruthless finishers at all.

In striking terms he's like Mark Hughes, he's more a scorer of spectacular goals than a spectacular goal scorer.

Still, Dirk Kuyt has become an embarrassment.

[Guest]

Liverpool v Arsenal part deux

No it isn't.

When Benitez spent ten million pounds on Kuyt, the idea was that he was going to be for Liverpool what Drogba was for Mourinho's Chelsea -- the big, powerful, all-rounder target man who would score 20+ goals a season and set up a similar number for others. Now he's reduced to running up and down the flank trying to win throw-ins off opposition midfielders. That's a flopped signing in any man's language, no matter who you support.

Houllier did a similar thing with El Hadji Diouf a few years ago, pushing him out wide to the margins in an attempt to conceal the fact that he wasn't scoring.

[Er Liquidatore]

Liverpool v Arsenal part deux

Whichever way you want to toss it, Kuyt has been pants for Liverpool. It's really quite that simple.

This also means he will score the only goal of the tie at Stamford Bridge at the end of the month.

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

Liverpool v Arsenal part deux

Benitez said when he signed kuyt that he had signed a striker that would not only score 20 goals a season, but would create another 20 as well.

[dalliance]

Liverpool v Arsenal part deux

No he didn't. Martin Jol said that.

[garcia]

Liverpool v Arsenal part deux

correct - "kuyt is a 20/20 player".

kuyt is not a bad player for £9m - infinitely better, for instance, than a comparable ferguson signing, alan smith. torres is obviously a fairer comparison with drogba, and i'd say he matches up pretty well.

[meregreen]

Liverpool v Arsenal part deux

garcia wrote:

correct - "kuyt is a 20/20 player".

kuyt is not a bad player for £9m - infinitely better, for instance, than a comparable ferguson signing, alan smith. torres is obviously a fairer comparison with drogba, and i'd say he matches up pretty well.

Smith cost £7m and according to their official site Liverpool spent "in the region of £10million" on Kuyt. So, if you're looking for a comparable Ferguson signing you might as well have picked Cristiano Ronaldo who cost £12.5m. All of which just goes to show that such comparisons are pretty ridiculous; though not quite as ridiculous as comparing Kuyt to Rooney, which sets a new bench mark in absurd comparisons.

[Guest]

Liverpool v Arsenal part deux

kuyt is not a bad player for £9m - infinitely better, for instance, than a comparable ferguson signing, alan smith.

"DIRK KUYT -- HE'S BETTER THAN ALAN SMITH"

What a ringing vote of confidence . . .

[Sixmartletsandaseagull]

Liverpool v Arsenal part deux

I wouldn't agree that Kuyt is better than Alan Smith

[Nico Rijnders]

Liverpool v Arsenal part deux

What, even these days?

[Sixmartletsandaseagull]

Liverpool v Arsenal part deux

Good point. I do think Kuyt is performing well on the right, though I have always liked Smith and thought, pre Anfield injury, that he had done ok at Utd.

When he was leaving Leeds it was reported that Juventus were interested in Smith at £8 million, and I was quite excited by the prospect.

Very good at Leeds I thought, too.

[dalliance]

Liverpool v Arsenal part deux

I'm curious as to why people think Kuyt is playing well on the right, it's something I have seen in the media as well. Let's overlook the reason why he's there in the first place for the moment.

He has no control to beat players via sleight of foot, he has no pace to surge past them and his interplay with teammates is erratic. He's playing because he's better than Jermaine Pennant - another one for the mantlepiece alongside the I'm Better Than Alan Smith Award.

Kuyt is there essentially to stop opposition left backs from playing. Now fine with someone like Clichy or Evra, but there's not that many teams from where left back is usually an especially threatening position.

Left backs are there habitually to stop attacking right sided players, not the other way round. It's such a waste and it puts more onus on the rest of the team to create for Torres. Why not just play Steve Finnan there if we're deeming right midfield to be a wholly defensive position, he can at least cross a ball better than Kuyt.