The Soccer Blog: When Quality is Obvious

Monday, 21 March 2011

When Quality is Obvious

By: Noel | March 21st, 2011
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Moving to a new club, a different league, one universally considered to be both much more physical and of a much higher quality. Coming off the six week absence of a ban for nibbling at an opponent, and having since his arrival played sparingly on account of his ineligibility in the Europa League and the continuing magic of the FA Cup that seems to come around every second weekend now. Coming in with high expectations where so many other have failed.

It would be easy to make excuses; easy to take time to settle in. After all, Joe Cole, Liverpool’s big signing from six months previous, the toast of the London media who was talked up in some quarters as the savior of Liverpool–and a man on a more than 30% larger wage packet–still hasn’t come anywhere close to making a difference for the club. Beyond the obvious statistics, there exists an obviously contrasting pair of players: one who scores goals, creates chances, shows a phenomenal workrate, and can be surprisingly unselfish for a man third behind Lionel Messi and Christiano Ronaldo in total goals scored in the 2010 calendar year. The other often appears selfish and lazy, determined to beat the same man from a standing start with flashy footwork until he finally loses out through his lack of pace, and unwilling to pass to open teammates in better positions.

That Joe Cole continues to get chances to find his mystical form one imagines can only be due to his massive wages and a need to make him at least desirable for next year’s borderline Premier League sides. Clubs such as West Ham or QPR, so the theory goes, might be willing to take a flyer on Joe Cole as some kind of prestige signing over the summer if he could just manage a few good showings on the bounce. If you do try to look at it as anything but putting an overpriced bauble up in the shop window, you’re faced with the relative lack of opportunity for another player largely looking in from the outside in Milan Jovanovic, another player brought in on a free and paid far more per week–he’s reported to be in the same £70k range that Suarez is–than his return so far would suggest he’s worth. On at least somewhat lower wages and with less hype he’s been largely left to rot, but even then he has still received a handful of chances–and while he has appeared to have a decent workrate, he hasn’t shown a whole lot more than that.

People can say about the likes of Jovanovic and Cole, “Well, they need minutes; they need game time; they need the chance to find form and fitness.” However, the question made stark by Suarez’ class is what possible good would come of these players actually finding something like their maximum potential? Suarez hadn’t played a game in six weeks, was coming to an unfamiliar league, and after playing as much as Joe Cole since his arrival has scored goals like yesterday’s against Sunderland and put on dominating performances like that of two weeks ago against Manchester United.

Sometimes, then, quality is obvious. Readily apparent. Sometimes you either just have it, or you don’t. And if you subscribe to the idea that players need long runs of consistent minutes to find their top form, then the potential for Suarez when he currently has as many excuses for rustiness and lack of form as Joe Cole does–or as Milan Jovanovic did at times earlier in the season when he was getting at least occasional playing time–is downright frightening. Of course, the converse is that if Suarez can do what he does now, with all those built in excuses and reasons why he maybe shouldn’t look anywhere near as good as he does, then it’s hard to imagine Joe Cole or Milan Jovanovic could ever be anywhere near his level as a player, no matter how many matches in a row they started.

All of that isn’t to say that players don’t need time to find top form, because they quite often do. It is simply to say that if some of Liverpool’s underperforming and overpaid fringe players had anything like the ability to make a major impact at the top level, they would have shown something more than they have by now. They may not have had a tonne of chances, but they have still had chances, and while it would be unfair to assume we had seen their best, it probably isn’t unfair to assume that if they were capable of making a real difference and controlling a match we would have seen clear signs of that.

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What does that leave for some of the current dross drifting around the edges of the squad? Well, even if based on past performances one assumes that the best of a player like Cole or Jovanovic is nowhere near the worst you could reasonably expect from Suarez week in and week out, there’s still room for water carriers–not every role and position needs a superstar with attacking flair filling it, and in fact a team likely couldn’t operate with only those sorts of players on it. Every team needs graft and hard work, and different roles can at times demand less obvious skill-sets. Certainly on the graft and hard work front, players like Dirk Kuyt have made careers out of being solid, diligent professionals with enough skill that on form–and on a team managing decent form as a whole–they can be valuable members of a starting eleven. Perhaps that’s even the kind of level one might hope for of Jovanovic if he got some decent minutes, that he might make a quality addition to the teamsheet alongside the likes of Kuyt and Maxi Rodriguez. It’s hard to imagine seeing much more than that, though, which makes one wonder why on earth a manager actually would choose give Jovanovic the minutes to get to that point when players fit and on relatively solid form filling those roles are already on the squad.

It’s hard to imagine where that leaves a player like Cole, too, since he seems to still fancy himself a superstar, or else simply is incapable of playing a game that doesn’t involve him dwelling on the ball like a geriatric version of Ryan Babel. In his case, even finding something like form and fitness doesn’t seem as though it would do an awful lot of good for Liverpool. After all, even a slightly better version of today’s Joe Cole is still a largely ineffective flair player, a foolish luxury for any struggling side and a surplus spare part for anybody else.

If fitness and form was the only problem, it would at least already be clear that there was something there to polish into diamond through added minutes. Such was certainly the case with Alberto Aquilani in his limited playing time towards the end of last season when, lacking fitness and coming off a year-long injury rehabilitation odyssey, he still managed to make the side look better whenever he did get the chance. Such is quite obviously the case right now with Luis Suarez.

Already, after only five matches, it doesn’t seem crazy to think that in the current market–and in a January transfer window no less–Liverpool may have gotten a steal when many at the time were worried they might be overpaying. For the first time perhaps since Fernando Torres came along he’s shown fans what real, superstar quality in a newly arrived attacking player looks like, and much as it can be a cliche in sport, for certain roles and certain types of players sometimes it simply comes down to that you either have it or you don’t. And Luis Suarez certainly has it.

Some Related Liverpool Posts:Tom Hicks is Back, Lucas is Still Quality, and Other Thursday NotesLiverpool 1, Wigan 1: Not Good Enough to WinZone 14Liverpool 2, Sunderland 0: Getting Back to GoodLiverpool 2, Bolton 1: Feeling Something Again

Category: Match Recaps, Miscellaneous, Premier League

Tags: Alberto Aquilani, Cristiano Ronaldo, I'm Taking Up Cannibalism, Joe Cole, Lionel Messi, Lowered Expectations, Luis Suarez, Match Recaps, Milan Jovanovic, Miscellaneous, Premier League, Sports Cliches, The Last Chance Saloon, Video Killed the Radio Star
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Tropics RedI think you're right to point out that some players do or don't need time to settle in, but I think the question is whether they're showing signs that they are suited to the club, the system and the dynamic of the other players in the squad. I hate it when I hear or read people talk about 'this player' or 'that player' not being good enough for LFC - it is after all a squad game nowadays and whilst someone like Kuyt (who I think takes a lot of stick) may not be a Messi or Drogba, he gives us flexibility and adaptability in our squad - Centre Forward? Tick. Defensive right winger? Tick. Right Midfield? Tick. Foil for Centre forward? Tick. Krygiakos - not 1st team 'regular' quality, but for some of the physical games, he's perfect to wheel in to enable giving another player a 'rest'. At 1.5m, of course he's no Gerard Pique, but he has a benefit to the squad. Its the players who aren't quite good enough or don't offer enough that need to be shipped out. Babel was a good example. Didn't quite hit the mark as a centre forward nor a winger and doesn't have the work ethic of Kuyt to make up for some shortcomings, so was sold. Joe Cole, Phillip Degen, Paul Konchesky, Jovanovic, El Zhar all don't seem to fit either from a quality, attitude, effort or team dynamic perspective and with some youth pushing for places we are likley to see the majority of these guys leave in the summer.
paulWe're going to have trouble moving the rubbish on. They're on massive deals, no other club will offer them anything like what they're getting now. They don't care about getting games, they care about their income.Tropics RedFollowing on from the comment about the youth coming through, I;m based in Australia and don't get to see youth or reserve games. Is there a way you can do a post on the prospects we have coming through?

GK - Gulacsi, Hansen, Bouzanis, Chamberlain? Are any of them likley to emulate De Gea and come storming through the ranks at an early age?

RB - How is Darby doing out on loan? Will we have a glut of RB's with Mendy & Flanagan pushing through and joining Kelly?

LB - Are Mavinga and Robinson any good? Is there any chance that we might be able to bring Insua back to the fold? Might not be a world class LB , but a good squad player?

CB - Are Wilson and Ayala good enough to get a few solid games nextyear? Irwin, Wisdom - posibilities to be be promoted next year?

Wide Midfield - Sterling/Amoo/Ince - are any of these guys capable of stepping in to the 1st team squad, sell off Jovanovic and Cole and bring in 1 quality winger to compete with Kuyt and Maxi.

CM - Are Shelvey and Spearing serious contenders or are they just making up the English player numbers? Coady, Roberts, Cooper, Bruna and Kohlert are not players I know much about- anyone?

CF - the 1st choice forwards should be reasonably covered by Ngog and Pacheco, but how good are Eccleston, Saric and Suso?
NoelThe problem is that, outside of highlights and the occasional match that results in a big enough fuss that it's picked up on a stream site or two (and in both cases I know I've shared it when I've found something), there isn't a whole lot out there for anybody. I doubt you're actually at any greater disadvantage than most (well, aside from timezone difficulties, perhaps) when it comes to knowing about the reserves--it's mostly rumours and snippets, and it's often hard to know how even the most skilled looking prospect will develop.

I'll keep my eyes open, though, and post more in the future when news and/or clips pop up. Also, Ed might be a little more on the ball on some of them than I am, as he has the whole LFCtv subscription dealie.ChunkyAlas! Quality is in the eye of the beholder and there are beholders and beholders......blog comments powered by Disqus