Ryan Babel

[Red Chilli]

Got to give him at least a season to settle in FFS.

[thesilverfoxlfc]

Form goes out the window with local derbies. Limerick have the better form but it would be just like Clare to beat us. Very strange for one of us to be in a semi-final though. But at least Tipp are out as you say

Yup they'll be pucking the **** out of each other tomorrow!!

I hope Cork get fecked out too cant stand them, pity Galway didnt dump the cats, pretty boring if its a KK and Cork final every year and you can see it happening wont be good for the game......

[El Jefecito]

Got to give him at least a season to settle in FFS.

[kurtangle01]

Got to give him at least a season to settle in FFS.

[akjs123]

Give him time!

From the context of your post, I thought you were talking about him scoring 10 goals this season.

[El Jefecito]

From the context of your post, I thought you were talking about him scoring 10 goals this season.

No, just give him time!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[The Glove]

Pre season doesnt mean **** all. Last season we got ****ed 5-0 by Mainz who then got relegated while we went on to the Champions League final. I wonder how many players who played ****e that day went on to have a decent season.

[akjs123]

No, just give him time!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You need to slow down speedyg, I am not slagging him off or anything

[dww]

Remember he scored 23 from RM. Consider that we have also signed Lucas who promises 10 from midfield then I'm pretty sure that Rafa has decided that Gerrard is one of the 3 in the 4231.

Right or wrong, deal with it, and work out how to make it optimal. Thats what Rafa is doing.

I tend to agree with the point that Gerrard is effective on the right but quoting 23 goals from RM is misleading. He did score 23 in a season he predominantly playing on the right but a lot of the goals came when playing centrally.

I think in the centre he often benefited from us playing Cisse on the right who forced teams back. I'm hopeful that Torres, Benayoun and Babel can have a similar effect.

I really think that people who pigeon hole Gerrard to any particular position miss out on a lot that he can offer to the team, depending on who else is in our team and the style and quality of the opposition.

[kev776]

Arsenal fans sang "What a waste of money" to Henry for the first few months of his Arsenal career as he couldn't hit a bull's backside with a banjo.

They only started to accept him after christmas.

So ****ing be patient

****s sake people, read the text.

Give the guy a chance

[El Jefecito]

You need to slow down speedyg, I am not slagging him off or anything

Knew you weren't didn't mean to imply you were. Just saying he can play on the right and contribute to our game!!!!!!!!!!

[bigfooty]

Pre season doesnt mean **** all. Last season we got ****ed 5-0 by Mainz who then got relegated while we went on to the Champions League final. I wonder how many players who played ****e that day went on to have a decent season.

Less than you would think. The squad that day was Carson, Bambi, Carra, Sami, KromKamp, Zenden, Alonso, Gerrard, Pennant, Bellamy, Crouch, Anderson, Diao, Dudek, Garcia, Hobbs, Paletta, Peltier, Riise and Momo. How many of them do you think had outstanding seasons? Carra and Carson, and one of those wasn't even at LFC last season.

Perhaps it doesn't mean a great deal long term but our patchy early-season form mirrored those pre-season efforts because we had to use "squad" players and they weren't up to it. Because of the after effects of the World Cup we needed the likes of Zenden, Gonzalez, Aurelio, Bellamy, Pennant and Momo to perform and they pretty much all failed to do so in those early months of the campaign. Kuyt was the only new signing to show genuine promise from his debut onwards but perhaps his over-exertions cost him as the season went on, leading to a slump where he scored something like 3 times in nearly 3 months.

The plus point this time around is that we have no World Cup to contend with so players like Kewell, Alonso and Gerrard should be able to produce more from the first day of the season.

Those people mentioning Henry as an example to support the money spent on Babel I think are missing the point completely. Wenger knew Henry before he joined Arsenal having MANAGED HIM at Monaco. Wenger also bought Henry having won the title. Had Rafa won #19 last season I don't think anyone would have cared about him spending the money on Babel but the fact is we're building a side that should be challenging for the title this season or next, not 3 or 4 years from now.

Babel may indeed turn out to be the next Henry a couple of seasons down the line. He may equally turn out to be the next Cisse or Diouf. The fact is though that he clearly doesn't look ready to be part of a title-challenging side and it's an awfully big chunk of our transfer kitty to have spent on long-term talent like Lucas and Babel when what we need a genuine first-team players to help us fight for the title from the moment we kick off against Villa.

[Howard_lfc]

Nice post Bigfooty.

[carrsim]

of course, naming a world class left winger that we could have signed and how much more that would have cost, and then guarenteeing that he would be good enough at liverpool to challenge instantly is another matter

[spider-neil]

we have to be patient with him (babel) to be fair he has just finished an U21 competition and he is only 20 so may well be exhausted, add to this new club, new country, new team mates.

we are always looking with at at players like henry and ronaldo but they didn't come to their clubs the finished article they were played again and again despite inconsistancy and then their clubs reaped the benifits.

babel needs time and patience from the fans so he can (hopefully) realise is obvious talents, here's hoping kewell remains fit or babel will get thrown in at the deep and and such expectation can make or break seasoned pros never mind 20 year old kids.