Firstly Babel. It's not news to anyone with eyes, but this lad is supremely talented. It was obvious to me from the start and while there's a touch of raw inexperience about him, the signs are extremely good. Pace goes without saying, strength, athleticism and the ability to score goals. He just has a spark about him and he makes things happen.
I'm delighted with the progress he's been making. Sure he's not the finished article, not by a long way. But along the learning road he's undertaking, there's a hell of a lot of quality and potential there. We've all seen potential before and sighed as it faded away into nothing, but Babel's different. He's actually producing quality AS he develops. With some young players, they huff and puff, but produce very little. And the excuses come along, that they're young and learning. Babel IS young and learning. But he's also producing end product.
An already important part of the squad, a high quality impact player who makes things happen. Super signing, must be used more frequently and some match time up front wouldnt go amiss either. These are the type of players we need to be recruiting more of. He doesnt wait to see what happens and reacts. He MAKES it happen. Very exciting player and already at a young age, he is (for me) someone who should be considered a first teamer, as opposed to a bit-part player.
Onto captain fantastic. Or vice-captain fantastic, as he was tonight.
You cant really educate many people about the qualities of Steven Gerrard, let alone Reds. He has it all, we know this. Strength, power, desire, drive, passion, touch, pace, shooting ability...you name it (and i probably barely named half of it).
One thing that impresses me so much about him though, and is something that is often forgotten or taken for granted with a footballer, is his intelligence.
Very little frustrates me more in football, than when you're watching a situation and it's obvious to you and everone in the ground, that only a certain type of thing will work in this situation. It might be a player trying to put his striker away, and only a dinked pass will achieve that. Any other type of ball will be blocked. It might be a situation by the corner, where it's tight and you can see that only a chipped cross will reach the box. The defender's blocking anything else.
In the case of Steven Gerrard tonight, it was a pair of examples.
The headed goal was one. Absolutely superb. Looked very simple, but how many times do you see players identify the specific thing that's needed, let alone execute it? Not often is the answer.
The side-foot pass into the net was even better. It's not the execution that impresses me so much (although it was very good), but it's the ability to recognise what's needed in that situation so quickly and then go on to execute it too.
Many players are blessed with the talent to have passed that into the net. But few would've had the intelligence and composure to recognise that option. And it's no fluke that Gerrard did, he's done things like that countless times before.
It's incredibly rare that you find a combination of all Gerrard's technical, physical and mental skills in one player and his game intelligence is as important as anything else he possesses.
Praising the skipper is something we do a lot and rightly so. But, for a player so highly praised and so often, he keeps producing more and more praise-worthy moments and he produced two tonight.
Not for the first time, Steven Gerrard, i salute you.
What a ****ing amazing player we have and how blessed and fortunate we are to have him.
I'm delighted with the progress he's been making. Sure he's not the finished article, not by a long way. But along the learning road he's undertaking, there's a hell of a lot of quality and potential there. We've all seen potential before and sighed as it faded away into nothing, but Babel's different. He's actually producing quality AS he develops. With some young players, they huff and puff, but produce very little. And the excuses come along, that they're young and learning. Babel IS young and learning. But he's also producing end product.
An already important part of the squad, a high quality impact player who makes things happen. Super signing, must be used more frequently and some match time up front wouldnt go amiss either. These are the type of players we need to be recruiting more of. He doesnt wait to see what happens and reacts. He MAKES it happen. Very exciting player and already at a young age, he is (for me) someone who should be considered a first teamer, as opposed to a bit-part player.
Onto captain fantastic. Or vice-captain fantastic, as he was tonight.
You cant really educate many people about the qualities of Steven Gerrard, let alone Reds. He has it all, we know this. Strength, power, desire, drive, passion, touch, pace, shooting ability...you name it (and i probably barely named half of it).
One thing that impresses me so much about him though, and is something that is often forgotten or taken for granted with a footballer, is his intelligence.
Very little frustrates me more in football, than when you're watching a situation and it's obvious to you and everone in the ground, that only a certain type of thing will work in this situation. It might be a player trying to put his striker away, and only a dinked pass will achieve that. Any other type of ball will be blocked. It might be a situation by the corner, where it's tight and you can see that only a chipped cross will reach the box. The defender's blocking anything else.
In the case of Steven Gerrard tonight, it was a pair of examples.
The headed goal was one. Absolutely superb. Looked very simple, but how many times do you see players identify the specific thing that's needed, let alone execute it? Not often is the answer.
The side-foot pass into the net was even better. It's not the execution that impresses me so much (although it was very good), but it's the ability to recognise what's needed in that situation so quickly and then go on to execute it too.
Many players are blessed with the talent to have passed that into the net. But few would've had the intelligence and composure to recognise that option. And it's no fluke that Gerrard did, he's done things like that countless times before.
It's incredibly rare that you find a combination of all Gerrard's technical, physical and mental skills in one player and his game intelligence is as important as anything else he possesses.
Praising the skipper is something we do a lot and rightly so. But, for a player so highly praised and so often, he keeps producing more and more praise-worthy moments and he produced two tonight.
Not for the first time, Steven Gerrard, i salute you.
What a ****ing amazing player we have and how blessed and fortunate we are to have him.
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