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| GUEST COLUMN : PAUL TOMKINS |
TOMKINS: SUMMER SIGNINGS AND SEASONAL INSANITY
Paul Tomkins
21 May 2008
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Last summer I had quite a few emails about Fernando Torres, mainly from concerned fans feeling he was overrated and not the prolific striker the Reds needed. A big mistake, they said.
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So in response I wrote about Thierry Henry and Alan Shearer, and how, by the age of 22/23, they had been scoring at a rate of only one goal every five games. They then moved to the right club for them, and before long were averaging a goal every game and a half. While a player may be a natural finisher, he still needs the right setting to flourish.
To be honest, I didn't expect Torres to succeed to quite as much as he has. But I agree with John Aldridge –– I can't see him suffering Second Season Syndrome. Some have said that Torres will struggle next season because defenders will know him better. If anything, he will know them better. He has no apparent weaknesses; most defenders do. And he will find them.
Chelsea and Arsenal had plenty of chances to see him this season, and yet he scored in his 4th game against Arsenal and his 1st and 4th games against Chelsea. He has scored far more goals in the second fixtures against Premiership teams than he did in his first.
His first and last goals of the season –– against Chelsea and Spurs –– sum up his unpredictability. He gets defenders square on, then can take it past them either way. In these occasions he went left; on others, he'll go right. With his pace, he can go past entire defences. Add to that that he can score from 30 yards or from headers or from volleys or with poached finishes (though he can improve here), and you have a player who is never going to be easy to stop.
To score 33 goals without a single penalty is remarkable. Shearer, Owen, Van Nistelrooy, Ronaldo and Henry all boosted their tallies with spot-kicks.
The one problem Torres does face is increased expectation. Now fans expect him to score every time he pulls on a red shirt. What he's yet to experience is the dry spell every striker encounters, while the sheer unexpected euphoria of this season may be lacking next time around. But having only just turned 24, and only having adjusted fully to the Premiership in the last five months, he can get better and score even more goals.
I tend to defend most signings as a matter of course; I can usually see the picture of what the manager is trying to do. And he is the one utilising the player, not me. In the case of Torres, I was particularly confident of his quality, but you have to remain open-minded whoever it is.
Of course, any number of reasons can stop that vision coming to fruition –– loss of form; adapting to a new club and possibly a new league; serious injury, and so on.
But I'm always more interested in judging how someone does for Liverpool, while allowing for a period of adaptation, rather than damning someone for what they did previously and then turning on them after the first couple of games.
I work from the basis that the manager knows a lot more than me and pretty much every last fan out there. The scouts know a lot more, too. All of them have seen the player in question more than me, and will have extensively studied his game, and possibly his lifestyle, temperament, etc, as well.
The manager knows exactly how the player will be deployed, and may have an idea how to get the best of them (i.e. Wenger signing Henry who was playing poorly on the wing for Juventus and reverting him to a striker). He will be looking to see what he can bring out of a player, and how said player can adapt his game with better players around him.
Some players look infinitely better when surrounded by top players (see Torres) or when playing at the right club, or under the right manager.
Some players get better with age and experience, while others peak at a younger age and decline. Or some stagnate or almost disappear in the wrong environment, such as Mascherano at West Ham. Like many fans, I was distinctly underwhelmed by Frank Lampard until a few years ago, but then his game went up a couple of levels. Jamie Carragher was another whose game improved dramatically in his mid-twenties.
Not having heard of a player doesn't mean he's not good enough; Hyypia, Agger and Skrtel were not well-known to me. The same can be said of plenty of Arsene Wenger's best signings. Plenty of Liverpool's worst signings have been fairly high-profile.
Similarly, "he only cost a few million..." is another red herring. Yes, you're going to struggle to build a great team with £2m players, and yes, you'll get a few duds if you shop in the bargain basement. But there is always a good cheap option every now and then. Conversely, Shevchenko and Veron remain examples of how a stellar reputation and £30m fee ultimately provide no guarantees of quality and success.
Finally, and often most irritating, "he wouldn't get into United's/Chelsea's/Arsenal's side". Because, as excellent as they are, either Rooney or Tevez wouldn't get into Liverpool's side, given that Torres is more prolific and, given his extra pace and height, the more natural striker/target-man. But that didn't stop Rooney and Tevez helping United win the title. Hargreaves, Carrick, Park, Fletcher and numerous other United midfielders wouldn't get into Liverpool's best side. Nor would Van der Sar. And so on.
The aim is to add ingredients that will improve Liverpool, either in small increments or, with the rare über-gem like Torres, in bold strokes, and not to obsess on whether or not they'd get into a rival team, which will almost certainly have differing strengths and weaknesses.
There will always be the worry that any player moving up to a big club will be anxious and overawed. Beyond checking his character –– has he had to handle pressure, and perhaps captain a club? How did he take to international football? –– there's not a lot that can be done to know for sure, unless he's already done well at a big club; but of course, you don't often get to sign players direct from other big clubs.
Which is kind of why I get irritated by the "but he only plays for..." argument. To some people, it's almost as if we should only be signing Messi, Ronaldo or Kaka –– as if those players were a) available, and b) would cost less than £60m each. The aim has to be to find the Messi of Newell's Old Boys Youth, the Ronaldo of Sporting Lisbon and the Kaka of Sao Paulo. And even then, these are incredibly rare talents, and if Liverpool do spot them, they won't be the only club.
But if you can't find or secure such talents, it doesn't mean that someone playing in a UEFA Cup team at 27 is too inferior to play for Liverpool.
And even if a signing has failed after two years, while it may not bode well it needn't be the end either. Three of Arsenal's best players this season were Hleb, Adebayor and Flamini, none of whom were pulling up any trees in their previous two, two-and-a-half and four seasons respectively.
Ultimately it's up to a manager to decide if he must cut his losses after a year (ala Gonzalez, Bellamy) or persevere with a player who is not quite delivering. Again, much of it is down to what the manager sees at close quarters.
So what areas of the team will be addressed this summer?
Width and pace are important elements, and a lot of fans crave tricky wingers going down the line. But width can just as easily come from full-back positions. And this is one reason why the Swiss right-back Degen has been signed. He is quick, good on the ball and delivers quality into the box. His career had stalled a bit at Dortmund, but he's a talented lad at a good age.
Cristiano Ronaldo is often cited as the greatest example of what Liverpool lack out wide, but he spends most of his time wandering all over the pitch, while Evra provides the real, unceasing width on United's left. Equally, on the other flank, Ferguson, like a lot of managers, tends to often go for more ‘steady' options –– players like Wes Brown (hardly an attacking great), Neville, Fletcher and Park, who will hold their position a bit more.
I do think that Ryan Babel has the attributes to get close to rivalling Ronaldo. Andy Gray, not noted for his Liverpool bias, thinks Babel is a wonderful player in the making; Gray knows that the majority of overseas players take time to adapt, and that a young player's first season is a steep learning curve. It took Ronaldo two seasons before he really started making a mark; until then he was seen as all step-overs and no end-product. He scored 4, 5 and 9 league goals in his first three seasons –– then 17 and 31 in his next two.
I think some fans get it into their heads that a team must have two out-and-out wingers, two attacking full-backs and, at most, one defensive midfielder. When dreaming, it's easy to forget the realities of balance.
There's also the issue of two out-and-out strikers, an obsession that is so outdated it's amazing how it still gets incessantly mooted. Again if we must compare with our rivals, we can see that none of them utilise two up front.
These days, 4-4-2 is almost always 4-4-1-1 or other variations on the theme. To work, it needs to be like Rush and Dalglish -- and that was to all intents and purposes 4-4-1-1.
Benítez speaks often about playing between the lines, and at times, that's all United do, with Rooney, Tevez and Ronaldo dropping deep and then going forward en masse. Chelsea bought Nicolas Anelka, but only play him up front with Drogba in times of desperation; otherwise it's an either or situation, or with Anelka on the wing. And at Arsenal, Eduardo and Van Persie play behind Adebayor, while Bendtner is a last-gasp option.
Two out-and-out strikers also encourages long-ball tactics. Rather than play through teams, you look direct because the forwards are isolated from the midfield. For me, it's why Crouch and Torres rarely play together –– neither is as effective coming deep for the ball. Both are good at doing so, but you want Crouch using his height right up against centre-backs (and as he's not the quickest, he can't run from deep like Gerrard does), while Torres has to torment the last defender, and indeed, the entire back line.
The fact that Liverpool scored 31 goals from wingers/wide-midfielders this season suggests it's not an area in quite as desperate need of addressing as some think. But greater options in wide areas are clearly what the manager is looking at.
Whoever the manager signs, I will rest assured that there will be a very good reason behind it.
Details of Paul Tomkins' forthcoming book, and his previous books, can be found here. >>
The views expressed in this article are those of the author and are not necessarily shared by Liverpool FC or Liverpoolfc.tv.
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