Dirk Kuyt

[rage]

i never thought kuyt was good enough. he wouldn't start in any of united, arse or chelsea. Sell him in january i couldn't care less. Torres, Babel and a new second striker with guile is the way forward. Couldn't care less about the crow apart from wanting to cut his hair!

[Darth Marty]

my opinion on this is this - Kuyt is a necessary player IF he plays with Torres or someone as good as Torres (no one currently). I think he can free up space and make chances for the main Striker but doesnt seem to be a main striker himself.
In my opinion what we should do is sell Peter Crouch, buy another No.9 (Villa anyone?)
and play Torres and a.n.other(villa) and keep kuyt and Voronin for backup when either one of the main 2 is tired or injured.
I love Rafa but no one is above criticism and unfortunately, in my mind anyway, he makes it easy for people doesnt he?
Im sure we have the squad...if not then very nearly, to win the league...so lets get to it!

[Guest]

my opinion on this is this - Kuyt is a necessary player IF he plays with Torres or someone as good as Torres (no one currently). I think he can free up space and make chances for the main Striker but doesnt seem to be a main striker himself.
In my opinion what we should do is sell Peter Crouch, buy another No.9 (Villa anyone?)
and play Torres and a.n.other(villa) and keep kuyt and Voronin for backup when either one of the main 2 is tired or injured.
I love Rafa but no one is above criticism and unfortunately, in my mind anyway, he makes it easy for people doesnt he?
Im sure we have the squad...if not then very nearly, to win the league...so lets get to it!

Either of Crouch or Kuyt should be replaced by another quality striker ... It's just not possible buying 2 world class strikers in one transfer window, it's a gradual process IMO.

Hicks and Gillett have hinted, as regards to winning the league this season, that it could be a little too soon ... Maybe they were right.

United have got Tevez, Rooney and Saha, 3 quality strikers, plus the talents of Ronaldo, Anderson and Nani as opposed to us relying on Torres, Voronin, Kuyt, Pennant, Babel and Gerrard. It's clear we're still behind in that department.

[JPK]

i never thought kuyt was good enough. he wouldn't start in any of united, arse or chelsea. Sell him in january i couldn't care less. Torres, Babel and a new second striker with guile is the way forward. Couldn't care less about the crow apart from wanting to cut his hair!

You could sell all 3 and keep Torres and build again.Same with the wingers

[Marky]

Better movement, more mobile, better in the air. Just an all round better player. imho of course.

Crouch has been woeful so far this season and while he might improve he's not going to get any quicker or more mobile, is he?

The problem with Crouch is that all to often he slows our attacks down. If anyone should be sold out of our strike force it should, imho, be Crouch.

How many games has he started though?
Can't just forgot his form last season like.

Play Crouch alongside Torres for the next 10 games and the scores will fly in.

[JPK]

Either of Crouch or Kuyt should be replaced by another quality striker ... It's just not possible buying 2 world class strikers in one transfer window, it's a gradual process IMO.

Hicks and Gillett have hinted, as regards to winning the league this season, that it could be a little too soon ... Maybe they were right.

United have got Tevez, Rooney and Saha, 3 quality strikers, plus the talents of Ronaldo, Anderson and Nani as opposed to us relying on Torres, Voronin, Kuyt, Pennant, Babel and Gerrard. It's clear we're still behind in that department.

True and Chelsea and Arsenal are dangerous in these positions too.

[tomasjj]

Kuyt might not be my fav either, he is good at a lot of things, but not very good at anything apart from his workrate.
But Crouch is no better alternative for me.

[marcus50bucks]

I have video's mate.

I should have known.

[willa1975]

In Dirk's defense, he was put into a lousy situation yesterday. Neither he nor Voronin is the type of player to lead the line, and it simply doesn't make sense to play two link men up front, especially against a side that is defending deep like Birmingham was.

That being said, he was positively awful yesterday. Should have been taken off at the half if not earlier. But players don't take themselves off...that's the manager's job.

[Craig_H]

Christ on a bike. Someone agrees.

Rafa seems to really rate him. This worries me greatly.

I agree too. I really like Kuyt, for his workrate, his attitude and his appreciation of the club and fans. But he doesnt have enough of any one thing to be a threat. Not pace, not skill, not finishing...nothing.

Not good enough. I wonder if it's about how Rafa INSTRUCTS him to play, because in Holland, he was an out and out goalscorer, prolific too.

[Johnny]

I agree too. I really like Kuyt, for his workrate, his attitude and his appreciation of the club and fans. But he doesnt have enough of any one thing to be a threat. Not pace, not skill, not finishing...nothing.

Not good enough. I wonder if it's about how Rafa INSTRUCTS him to play, because in Holland, he was an out and out goalscorer, prolific too.

Dutch League V`s English League.

[Revo]

kuyt had a nightmare yestreday but not for lack of effort and heres where the problem lies. nobody gets dropped anymore they get rotated. steven gerrard was also guilty of being **** again yesterday and seems to have fallen back into the same old trap of believing his own hype. gerrard has not looked like the player he was before he went away with england and wont be dropped but at the very least he should be thrown back on the right to give him the wake up call. just as i called for crouch to be dropped after last week, kuyt should be dropped in favour of crouch and play them off against each other. the only thing i will say about voronin is that he was a free transfer and you know what you get for free? he is not good enough. his international manager was right, he looks overweight and off the pace of the game and thats at home ffs.

[JohnDoe]

Kuyt is a jack of all trades, master of none type of striker, and it isn't an insult to his talent. He's pretty good in everything you want in a striker, but he's not really excellent in anything except for the incredible hard work he puts on the pitch.

Sometimes the hard work hinders his own game, because he's always expected to run lost causes when he would have probably been more successful had he saved that energy for the situations where his hard work can create us goals (Villa own goal).

I don't think he'll ever be able to carry us in games like some strikers do for their teams, Kuyt usually magnifies the team's performance. If we play well, he really shines because he adds that extra touch in the build up that can break teams down. If we're poor though, he's usually one of our worst performers unless you factor in his runningaroundthepitchalot. Other than that he's not effective.

Kuyt needs to remind himself that he's a striker, stop dropping deep in every attack, especially when he sees his partner doing the same, think a bit more about himself and scoring goals. Yeah, it's great to see someone close players down high up the pitch, but if it makes him so tired at the end of the game and prevents us a scoring opportunity, I'd happily give that up.

[Craig_H]

Dutch League V`s English League.

Oh fecking well do one, it's obvious what point i was making...

You think he scored prolifically in the dutch league with the same alllergy to the 6/18 yard box that he has here? :whatever:

[Kopite_Colin]

I just don't get it.

Now this opinion won't be popular - I suspect - but it's bothering me greatly ever since we signed him.

I’ve come to the conclusion that Kuyt is not Liverpool quality. Never was, never will be.

Let me explain.

I don't want to bash the guy, he works hard and plays with passion, but so would I if I got to play for LFC.

See I, like lots of others on here, was brought up on Kenny Dalglish's all round genius, Ian Rush's goals, Beardleys magic passing, Fowler's goal poaching brilliance and latterly Michael Owen's 1 in 2 goals to games ratio bailing Ged out of the ****e, time after time.

Torres is the first striker we've had since Owen, who has a legit chance of being in the same class as those, mentioned above, yet yesterday both Kuyt and Voronin – both inferior players we can all agree - were picked ahead of him for tactical reasons.

I was also brought up with the philosophy where you play your best players in your most important games. Birmingham at home is a must win game for us, infact every league game should be viewed as such. But is it?

I'd like to think Rafa knows a hell of a lot more than me, but how on earth does that makes sense?

Now I don’t want to single him out, but because he seems to play every game, he’s one of the most visible members of the first team squad. There are others who IMO clearly aren’t up to scratch, but who don’t start as often. I want to make it clear that I’m not here to attack Kuyt because of yesterday, too many, including our best player, our captain, didn’t perform to their usual standards. I’m simply fed up of seeing ****e forwards - who don’t threaten to opposition - play for us. That statement might make me sound childish and spoilt, but I’m just being honest.

Birmingham yesterday were comfortable playing against Kuyt in particular, Against teams defending deep at Anfield he hasn't the pace to threaten in behind, nor is he dominant in the air to win crosses thrown in. And I‘d rather not comment on his first touch.

So somebody explain it to me.

I don't go to the games every week, can one of the seasies tell me, is there something he does during the game which you can't see watching him on the telly?

As for Rafa he’s made some avoidable mistakes so far this season, will he learn from them? I just hope that he doesn't fall into the trap of his ego, like, dare I say a certain French hack that used to manage us.

I don’t want to be accused of an overreaction. 12 points from 6 games is the best start we’ve had in years in what could be one of the most open leagues in years.

But it could and should’ve been better had Rafa not messed around. I hate stats, but here’s one; in the 4 league games Torres has started we’ve won 3 and drawn one, which but for a diving Frenchy and a shaky ref we would’ve. The other 2 games he hasn’t started we’ve failed to win.

I just hope that Rafa doesn’t use Torres from the start against reading in the league cup, because he will get an awful lot of stick for that.

I think if we’re able to play our best 7-8 players most league games, we’ll be in with a shot, but if keep leaving out our genuine top quality difference makers, we won’t be.

Ready to be sent to the Gallows now.

Excellent post Charlie.

I'm a Kuyt fan and was prepared to give him another season due to him being our top league scorer last time out,a nd his previous oalscoring record in Holland. But his touch is beginning to give him away. Like you I'm beginning to think he's only good enough as a squaddie. The trouble is we only have 2 other "squaddies" in Crouch and Voronin, and we desparately need another goalscorer who is going to torment the opposition in the box not outside it, which is where Kuyt spends most of his time (maybe on orders from Rafa). Add to that our less-than-top-class wingers and it gives us a real problem.