The way Kuyt took his two goals...

[Marky]

was reminiscent to that of a natural golascorer so why the hell does he not do it more often???

The first one in particular was a goal you would associate with a Robbie Fowler or a Ruud Van Nistelrooy - sharp turn and getting the shot away quickly.
2nd was a lovely chip over the advancing keeper, another goal we'd see from a natural born goalscorer.

I've been a bit of a critic of Dirk's lately and i've not been the only one.
He's come with a big reputation from Holland as being a big goal-getter, one we've craved since Owen left us, expectations were high for him and initially he looked very nice and sharp scoring his fair share of goals.
However from around the new year onwards he didn't look anything like a goalscorer, he still chipped in with the odd goal here and there but he missed alot of chances aswell and overall didn't look like the striker that we originally thought we had bought.
I don't think it's a case of people not rating him, i just think we're more frustrated by him at times more than anything else as we know the guy can score goals when he's in and around the box as he showed tonight, in the champions league final etc.
That's my take on Kuyt at present.
Thanks for your time.

[Nic83]

Jury's still out for me. I'd go with Crouch and Torres more often than not.

Kuyt went missing for 2 months last season and that will not be forgotton quickly. He was a disgrace for long periods last season offering litle else but workrate which is (despite what the tards say) just not good enough.

He showed periods of class though too and has started this season quite well. I hope he makes me give him the nod of approval come the end of this season

[Morph]

I think Kuyt is very much usead to playing week in week out, it's taken him a little time to find his form, but the thing he has going for him is his workrate, even if he's not putting them in he's getting assists or making important passes, i think he;s going to be a very important part of our attack this season

[dww]

Kuyt has always tried and offered great link play. He is deservedly part of the first choice partnership with Torres. He has weaknesses to his game but I think that his critics fail to appreciate how much he improves those around him.

Last season we lacked people with pace and intelligence to allow us to counter attack, other than Pennant in the second half of the season. With the players we have now the fact that Kuyt lacks pace is less of a problem and his good points are coming to the fore.

[Kronenburg1892]

Confidence.

He'll thrive on it. Especially when everyone around him has it.

[Nic83]

Kuyt has always tried and offered great link play. He is deservedly part of the first choice partnership with Torres. He has weaknesses to his game but I think that his critics fail to appreciate how much he improves those around him.

Last season we lacked people with pace and intelligence to allow us to counter attack, other than Pennant in the second half of the season. With the players we have now the fact that Kuyt lacks pace is less of a problem and his good points are coming to the fore.

I don't think he lacks pace. He is not the fastest around but he is pretty quick.

For me what he lacks is skill.

[Morph]

In 3 starts he has 2 goals and 2 assists i think thats pretty decent so far

[MrMichael]

Kuyt was excellent tonight. The ball for the Crouch goal was as good a cross as you'll see, and he was very unlucky with a couple of smart shots. He also fluffed a couple of excellent chances, but he kept getting in the positions, which is something he's received a fair amount of stick for not doing so far this year. If he keeps up the way he played today his confidence and sharpness in front of goal can only improve, and nobody can fail to be impressed by the way he kept fighting for his goal tonight, despite looking knackered towards the end. A lot of players would have let their head go down after missing the chances he did but he fought on and got the reward he deserved.

I still think he'll be a major factor in any success we have this season

[RedReet]

He is a very unlucky player Kuyt. The ball seems to generate some sort of magnetic charge off his boot, attracting it to the woodwork more so than any other player I've ever seen. Even his first goal tonight had to hit the post first.

Like any striker, he needs confidence. His goals tonight will be a huge boost for both him and the club. You could see his frustration on his face every time he missed and I was fearing how this would affect him in future games. Now that he's got the goals he can relax again and I'm sure he'll go on to get many more as the season progresses.

I also like this greedy streak that so much competition has encouraged from our strikers. How often did our unselfish players waste good opportunities last year to try and set up other players?

[saj]

Jury's still out for me. I'd go with Crouch and Torres more often than not.

Kuyt went missing for 2 months last season and that will not be forgotton quickly. He was a disgrace for long periods last season offering litle else but workrate which is (despite what the tards say) just not good enough.

He showed periods of class though too and has started this season quite well. I hope he makes me give him the nod of approval come the end of this season

With all due respect, Crouch? No offence but he was wastful today. Yes he scored today but he missed 4 sitters. The worst thing was, he never even hit the target. Fact is, if he doesn't being more clinical then he's gonna get sold - it happened to Baros and Cisse all of whom are players who scored goals under benitez but missed too many chances. This led to them being politely asked to move on.

[cobain]

was reminiscent to that of a natural golascorer so why the hell does he not do it more often???

Because he rarely plays as a striker. He usually plays as a defensive striker/attacking midfielder/midfielder/defensive midfielder combination thingy.

Regarding Kuyt, f*** goals, it's the WORK RATE Rafa's after. Which is sometimes or

[Johnny]

Kuyt scored two goals against a demoralised Toulose,i`ll sing his praises when he starts scoring match winning goals worth 3 points.I`m not knocking him,i`m just still 50/50 on whether he should play for us.I like strikers who score goals.he just doesn`t get enough "Important " goals for me.

[bigfooty]

Kuyt's problem is that he needs structure in the attack. He needs a Crouch to feed off or to make runs off and I'm not sure he'll form a really effective partnership with either Torres or Voronin because of that.

Since Kuyt joined the club we've won 13 of 16 games that he & Crouch have started together, drawing once and losing twice (Arsenal away in league, Arsenal home in cup).

His record with Bellamy was something like 9 wins in 20 games.

[cobain]

With all due respect, Crouch? No offence but he was wastful today. Yes he scored today but he missed 4 sitters. The worst thing was, he never even hit the target. Fact is, if he doesn't being more clinical then he's gonna get sold - it happened to Baros and Cisse all of whom are players who scored goals under benitez but missed too many chances. This led to them being politely asked to move on.

I agree

Crouch is horrible this season. I really like him as a player, but I think he'll never be able to score with his head more often than a few times (2,3) per season. Which is a darn shame, considering he is the biggest dude in football.

[Nic83]

With all due respect, Crouch? No offence but he was wastful today. Yes he scored today but he missed 4 sitters. The worst thing was, he never even hit the target. Fact is, if he doesn't being more clinical then he's gonna get sold - it happened to Baros and Cisse all of whom are players who scored goals under benitez but missed too many chances. This led to them being politely asked to move on.

I think his hold up play and his link to the midfield is awesome. He always finds his man with a lay off. I think he would create buckets of chances for Torres. He's intelligent and sees little through balls and always has a opicture of what's going on around him. The (almost) perfect target man for me. He's also capable of getting all sorts of goals although I agree with you, he should score more. (mainly from headers)