Sorry to write this fella off, but he is absolutely hopeless.

Obviously, I never posted here during the summer so most don't know my feelings on some of our signings; however, this signing I hated as much as the Carroll signing.

Stewart Downing is a hopeless player, if you look through his entire career, the same problems have continually plagued him; inconsistency, lack of quality final ball and, above all, a real lack in attitude to get the best from himself. I have never seen somebody so happy to do nothing during a game.

He has ability, he CAN cross, he CAN dribble and he CAN shoot, but he chooses not to. He does this move when he's on the right where he stops flat on his heels, stands the defender up, knocks it to his left foot and just shoots at the defender, it absolutely drives me to the verge of insanity.

IMO, this experiment of wasting money on alleged proven talent won't work out in the long run. I can't stand watching Downing and Carroll at the moment, it truly is hopeless.

when I was in England in August i went to the Liverpool v Sunderland match, I have to say he wasn't BAD. its just that there is definitely room for improvement.

I personally like downing, but his work rate compared to the rest of the squad is a thing that gets to me, you can put Kuyt on the wing and he'll run forever.
Henderson is also a pretty hard worker down the wing, as is Bellamy.

i can't comment on Carroll as he hasn't actually been given a first team chance, with Buying him while injured and his lack of match fitness a month or two ago. Hoping to see him on the pitch soon tho.

downing is hopeless but carrol is class

Carroll is a decent player. He doesn't fit in with us though and we don't fit in with him. Also, the price was the biggest disgrace in history. Ever.

^ Though Chelsea spent 50m on a *bleep*, so hey we're not as much money wasters... Carroll is worth around 13m in my eyes.

Well blimey, looks like Liverpool supporters quantity in here has increased by some 30% overnight :bball:

Redondo's nickname sounds familiar, though.


Anyway, I'd say Downing is certainly an improvement to our wing options. He has been quiet in the past couple of games, but I'm happy to have him with us. Okay, I would have preferred Ashley Young, but we're not bad off with Downing, imo.

it is our very own, JavierRedondo

NO WAY....JAVEIR is THAT U?

Downing had a very bright start, but has gone down massively ever since thee game vs Wolves. That's 3.5 poor games in a row for him.

I have no idea why Maxi isn't getting playing time. Maxi was one of the few players who helped Kenny get the job, and he can't buy a minute where his direct competition is in a horrible form ?

Downing's decision making drove my nuts on saturday...but not as much as this. How the hell didn't Kuyt pass it to Carroll or Suarez here? No wonder we drew.




Carragher, Downing and Kuyt really don't deserve to start games based on their current form, and should be replaced by players in my sig.

JAVIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEER!



*Ahem*

With that out of the way... I can see what the thought process was behind Downing's signing and while I wasn't happy with the decision at the time I was and still am willing to give it time and hopeful that he will settle and perform for us as he did for Villa in his last two seasons. That said, given the other options available in the summer I do feel we signed the wrong player. And I love how Sepi has taken a thread about Downing and turned it into a chance to criticise Kuyt... again. Mr. Defender of the English Player may be taking his self-proclaimed duty a bit too seriously.

Well if it ever comes down to a choice between Kuyt and Downing the Downing will need to STFD.

Kuyt has proven himself more than enough.

I said this all along ,Downing is like the Simeone Pepe of England , why we spent 20 million pounds on him is a question I will forever ask myself.

I'm pretty sure we could get Adam Johnson for around the same price.........I may be wrong........If these guys had just taken over 6 months earlier.

I think we missed a beat on Vicente, alot of you think he's injury prone and past it , but one thing that guy will never lose is his cross, and we could really use that to our advantage with Caroll.

I think most of us here were crying to sign Mata instead of Downing

Chelsea got him fro 3.5mil more pounds....SMH

Messiakanino wrote:I think most of us here were crying to sign Mata instead of Downing

Chelsea got him fro 3.5mil more pounds....SMH

I think the English factor had a lot to do with the downing signing but Johnson would have been an inifinitely better signing.

Mata would not have left a CL team to come to a EL team.

Kenny dominated the league with an all British Liverpool side in his first term.....He wants to do the same again, but only thing he doesn't know yet is how shitty most British players are nowadays.

While Downing has been disappointing since the game vs Stoke...I believe he's been a little unlucky too.

Had Kuyt/Henderson converted one of those chances he created vs United in the end......or had Kuyt connecteed with his cross when we were 1-0 up against Norwich ...or had Carroll scored instead of hitting the bar when Downing crossed it to his head, he would have been much more confident and got a lot of assists.

again. clinicality....I feel His confidence is really down after himself fluffing 2-3 1 vs 1s and people not converting his crosses, that now he is trying way too hard and it's affecting his game.

He needs benching for now and Maxi deserves a start...Downing was really frustrating against Wolves, His confidence is down and he is trying too hard.

The problem with Downing are the same problems that plagued him five+ years ago. When he came through at 'Boro, people put his inconsistency down to playing for a poor side or being young. Then he went to Villa, had some good games but still never put it together consistently. He has days where you look at him and it's like watching a watered down version of Giggs in his pomp. Pace, a good cross and runs at players all day, but there are others where he simply has no effect, times where he simply refuses to carry the ball and looks to offload at every opportunity.

Apparently he was one of the leading 'chance creators' in the league last year, which is a fantastic statistic, but statistics never ever tell the true story of anything. They are great for assisting points, but with Downing, there simply isn't a statistic to prove that he goes in and out of games so often.

Me personally, I didn't want him in the summer as I've never rated him, I didn't even see the logic in signing him to work with Carroll, either. Carroll's type of 'crosser' was clear, somebody like Joey Barton who'll float the ball in and play it 'diagonally', Downing's game clearly isn't about finesse crossing, it's about getting to the byline and cutting it back or drilling it across goal, or, even more regularly, shooting directly at the only player trying to block the ball.

As for what we need to do in January, well, our best player was signed from a foreign league. People may laud the alleged premier league experience but it's a myth. All of the best players in the PL at the moment (van Persie, Nani, Silva, Suarez, etc. etc.) never came here with PL experience and now look at them. What we need to do is go out and bring in a player with that 'extra level' that you simply can't purchase for good value in England. I'm not sure who the budding stars are in South America, but we definitely need to import our next first team signing.

I don't think we're going to signing much in January.

The message was quite clear from Comolli in August, "we have achieved (most) of our transfer targets". We had money, we had time, we bought some players and now we should be set for this season.

give the team time to gel, im sure there will be big improvements once they play a few months together.

we should maybe consider buying another Center back as a precautionary measure, as agger is always injured.

Harsh.

But welcome back all the same Javier.

Assuming Johnson can stay fit, what are everyone's thoughts on giving Kelly a run at CB? It would certainly save us money in the window, as we wouldn't need to sign a CB (assuming Kelly did well there) and Kelly could potentially be a long term solution at CB for either Carra or Agger.

@ red:

We do not need a new defender. Skrtel Agger should be the two starting centre backs with Coates as the back up. Carragher should be fourth.

Jamie is clearly passed his peak and doesn't bring anything in the game anymore defensive wise. He's been a factor to most of the goals conceded this season and I'm really dissapointed at his attitude of "I should always start" attitude.

@ OP:

Drop Downing. Play Bellamy instead. We have to show Downing he's not a guaranteed starter. Bellamy to me, is also the superior player. (I've said it before the Everton game. This is not a knee jerk.)

Bellamy is 32, though, and hasn't got the best knees xD
We might just burn his fitness out if we start him too often, I dunno.
Plus he's a very good impact player to be brought on from the bench.

But I would like a(nother) dribbling winger in the team, other than that we're good and would have to spend stupid sums of money to significantly improve any position.

@red

Agree with ynwa on CB situation.We should give opportunities to Skrtel and Coates alongside Agger before thinking about Kelly at CB.

As for Downing i dont think we should drop him yet.We should give him a couple more chances since Carroll will thrive on his deliveries if both click together.

I'm not sure where you all are getting this sudden surge of confidence in Agger's fitness, but history shows us that it's only a matter of weeks before he's sidelined again. I for one prefer consistency in the CB role and I'd like to have one CB who is consistent, fit, and experienced. Please show me which CB of ours ticks all of those boxes currently.

In Skrtel I place my faith <3