Jermaine Pennant

[Gavzie]

I just posted this on SCM...

"He was the worst player on the pitch today, by an absolute distance, overhit crosses, misplaced passes, he even ****ing fell over every ten mins or so, in short he was useless.

The worst thing is, he knows it too, he knows he's lucky to be with us, he knows he's not good enough, he knows he doesn't have the ability to drop his shoulder, skin Ashley Cole and chuck a half decent ball in the box, so the most adventurous thing he does is a five yard ball back down the line to Finnan. I genuinely cant see him scoring one goal all season.

Getting angry with the ref, swinging your arms about and muttering '**** off' under your breath just makes you look even more like the childish, stupid little criminal-scally you really are Jermaine.

The annoying thing is, his positioning is good. He gets the ball in decent positions out wide then just ****s up, no wonder Bellamy was annoyed to be replaced instead of Pennant.

Maybe his only saving grace, is that Aurelio and Zenden looked even worse when they came on, at least they were free though.

Seven. Million. Pounds.

Oh. Dear. Rafa."

Nearly all of you prophets of doom are talking bollox. Frankly I dont know many players whop can drop a shoulder and go past cole and whip in a decent cross (ffs he is recognised as one the best in the world)Secondly JP he's only just getting used to the team, thridly he wears red and he is obviously passionate about beating the chavs and hence getting upset when he thinks the ref is making shyte decisions. Fourthly you muppets that go on and on about the lack of skill and talent are blind. He has buckets of talent and will find the right form soon enough. IMO he's made a good start.

We have had a ****ty start to the season so ****ing what. Why was it going to be any different this year from last. It takes time to get the squad ready to win stuff and I am sure we are better placed than we have been for the last 15 years. And with respect to today we dominated that game away to the twice back to back EPL champs!!!

Back off and get behing the team. If you want to blame someone it should be Benitez. Too many player changes, not enough reliance on people playing in theri positions and frankly rotation sucks. We should have kept as close to our best line up for some time and played until people start to look a bit tired then change things up.

[Icon]

For Chrissakes....
Liverpool has been in need of a RW forever.
We get one and we all go mad.
He plays underpar for a game or two and he's hardly worthy to be called human.
Rest the guy - Don't slaughter him.
IMO I'd play him over Xabi at the mo who is playing under a veil of invincibilty - coz he's been well underpar of late.

[Gavzie]

For Chrissakes....
Liverpool has been in need of a RW forever.
We get one and we all go mad.
He plays underpar for a game or two and he's hardly worthy to be called human.
Rest the guy - Don't slaughter him.
IMO I'd play him over Xabi at the mo who is playing under a veil of invincibilty - coz he's been well underpar of late.

[Harv]

Nearly all of you prophets of doom are talking bollox. Frankly I dont know many players whop can drop a shoulder and go past cole and whip in a decent cross (ffs he is recognised as one the best in the world)Secondly JP he's only just getting used to the team, thridly he wears red and he is obviously passionate about beating the chavs and hence getting upset when he thinks the ref is making shyte decisions. Fourthly you muppets that go on and on about the lack of skill and talent are blind. He has buckets of talent and will find the right form soon enough. IMO he's made a good start.

We have had a ****ty start to the season so ****ing what. Why was it going to be any different this year from last. It takes time to get the squad ready to win stuff and I am sure we are better placed than we have been for the last 15 years. And with respect to today we dominated that game away to the twice back to back EPL champs!!!

Back off and get behing the team. If you want to blame someone it should be Benitez. Too many player changes, not enough reliance on people playing in theri positions and frankly rotation sucks. We should have kept as close to our best line up for some time and played until people start to look a bit tired then change things up.

well said mate

people haven't even given the lad a chance.

[slimbimjim]

Especially as a lot of great players were ****e to start with suchas Henry and Bergkamp.

Sure it's great when they play like gods from the off but do you ever stop to consider if he is following instructions from the manager?

PS. Hello all ex KrapTalk Gold Members! (Hope it's alright to say that!)

[The Glove]

So too many player changes was the reason Pennant had so much time and space and failed to deliver? Er, no.

The players know, they come in and do a job or they are out. If Pennant played a blinder but we didnt score then no one would moan. As it happens he had a shocker and given the time and space we had there you can rightly point the finger at his wastage.

[blacky]

Especially as a lot of great players were ****e to start with suchas Henry and Bergkamp.

Sure it's great when they play like gods from the off but do you ever stop to consider if he is following instructions from the manager?

PS. Hello all ex KrapTalk Gold Members! (Hope it's alright to say that!)

This excuse only washes with foreign players...new country, climate, culture ,a new league to adjust to, living in a hotel room etc etc Pennant has premiership experience now with Arse, Brummies, Leeds and now us so there is no excuse for not doing the basic things right.

[Harv]

So too many player changes was the reason Pennant had so much time and space and failed to deliver? Er, no.

The players know, they come in and do a job or they are out. If Pennant played a blinder but we didnt score then no one would moan. As it happens he had a shocker and given the time and space we had there you can rightly point the finger at his wastage.

how were his crosses wasted?

did they all go out of play? that in my book would be a wasted cross.

our players didnt get onto the end of them...that is all. Terry is the best in the world at reading crosses and getting rid of the danger, he did it very well last night. I just dont understand how Jerm is being made the scapegoat in this.

you cant expect every cross he puts in to be on the head of one of our players.....thats totally unrealistic. Our forwards have to get into space, and attack his crosses. They never did that. Thats the problem with our forward line...they expect the ball on a plate.

[Taffy]

I thought Pennant did ok and was an outlet for us.

However, as I said when he signed, he's no more than a squad player in my opinion, and is a good option off the bench or against the lesser teams. Yesterday, a lot of attempted crosses went to no-one, whether they were overhit or just not clearing the first man in the six yard box - although that one in injury time was on a plate for Crouch, but his heading abilities summed it up with what looked more like a pass back than an attempt on goal!

Pennant lacked that penetration yesterday and seemed more like going through the motions at three quarter pace, but he was a good wide option for us though. I don't think he did enough though, especially when they were down to ten men, and I'd have liked to see him run more at the defences rather than try to run inside across field or fall over the ball as he did on numerous occasions.

I'll give him time, as he's a good option out wide, but in the big games I don't think he's what we need there. We should have played Gerrard on the right with Gonzalez on the left to give a better balance.

I'm not slating Pennant, as he was an option for us out wide and did ok, but for me I didn't think he was gambling enough in taking his man on and stretching them when they were a man down.

[Kiwi]

Pennant was not at the races yesterday, the quality of his final ball was poor to say the least.
I can understand why Rafa kept chasing Alves right till the end of the tfr window, Rick get
that cheque book out.

[Rich]

I was worried about signing him as well, but he won me over with his pre-season form. He's gives us something we haven;t had in a very long time, an out-and-out winger who can get to the byline and can get crosses in the box.

Still would love to get Alves in, who having seen him in the EUropean Super CUp looks absolutely awesome, but I'm confident Pennant can do a very good job for us in the meantime.

Good point re: Alves.

Pennant yesterday was incredibly frustrating. He was the outlet, time and time again he had half the pitch to play, Cashley was nowhere to be seen at times - yet Pennant's delivery and decision-making were very poor. Cutting inside, when he should have gone outside - delayed crosses when they should have been early.

If we'd had a "better" (either an on-form Pennant, or somebody else) player out there today, we'd have something from the game.

Would Alves have wasted so many good opportunities to do Chelsea damage?

[Rich]

how were his crosses wasted?

did they all go out of play? that in my book would be a wasted cross.

our players didnt get onto the end of them...that is all. Terry is the best in the world at reading crosses and getting rid of the danger, he did it very well last night. I just dont understand how Jerm is being made the scapegoat in this.

you cant expect every cross he puts in to be on the head of one of our players.....thats totally unrealistic. Our forwards have to get into space, and attack his crosses. They never did that. Thats the problem with our forward line...they expect the ball on a plate.

Time after time Pennant failed to beat the first man, how is a striker meant to get on the end of one of them?!?

[Slim]

Thats the problem with our forward line...they expect the ball on a plate.

I think that our forward line have to work bloody hard to get a chance at the minute. Kuyt never stopped working yesterday.

[The Glove]

how were his crosses wasted?

did they all go out of play? that in my book would be a wasted cross.

our players didnt get onto the end of them...that is all. Terry is the best in the world at reading crosses and getting rid of the danger, he did it very well last night. I just dont understand how Jerm is being made the scapegoat in this.

you cant expect every cross he puts in to be on the head of one of our players.....thats totally unrealistic. Our forwards have to get into space, and attack his crosses. They never did that. Thats the problem with our forward line...they expect the ball on a plate.

So for it to go out of play is a wasted cross? If he looked up and saw were our players where and yet didnt hit the ball their way thats our strikers fault? Crossing the ball to a space even Linford Christie couldnt have got into isnt a wasted cross? If Pennant had been putting in good balls then again, we wouldnt be discussing his performance. How many quality balls did he whip in, regardless of if we had someone on the end of it or not? From memory Id say 3. Now in a normal game against 11 men of Chelsea Id probably still be disappointed with that return. Given Pennant had basically all that side to himself to only provide 3 decent balls is woeful.

[bazza76]

Mate, I'm not defending his performance, I was disappointed with it as well, if he was on his game we could have done them serious damage today.

But why are the knives out for the guy after he's only played half a dozen games for us?