Pennant

[Howard_lfc]

another thread picking on pennant / bellamy. unfairly.
before they joined, it was crouch. all this **** from our own supporters.

So you're happy with them then I take it.
Bellamy I've no problem with whatsoever - he'll get it right. Pennant is another matter..

[kurtangle01]

What's starting to piss me off is that Rafa is now making Stevie play out of position to accmodate him. I've tried to stick up for Pennant so far this season but today he looked out of his depth. Not good enough and he'll have to work extra hard and produce some good football to get the fans back on side. At the moment he doesn't look capable of it.

[Tom]

I agree that we a more effective when gerrard plays on the right.

[Fiddy]

Whenever you feel like taking your head out the sand you can read the following:

Pennant is an average footballer who can cross well on occasion, he's not very good at beating players, doesn't score many goals and gives the ball away too much.

To push Gerrard out to the left wing to accomodate Pennant is utterly ridiculous.

Sounds like fair comment to me. I was never over us signing him anyway so I haven't been too surprised...seems to me the reason he gets assists is mainly through throwing so much **** at the wall that some sticks. You can see some potential there, but is that all he'll ever be?

Stevie is much more effective as a RM at the moment, pushing him onto the left completely takes away his crossing ability so I think it wastes him, especially given that Pennant isn't doing the business on a consistent basis.

[The Glove]

Im not a fan of Pennant. He is his own worst enemy, never mind any **** that we spout. For me, he has done **** all to prove he is worht a place. I missed the first half hour against Galatasary, people say he played well. Now, if thats the case then fair enough but playing one half of football at a decent level is nowhere near the standard we require.

[Kinell]

Pennant seems to be well placed out wide and going past most of the players he takes on, but when it comes to getting the ball in the box his crosses are failing to be half decent and even meet a target on far to many occassions. He definitly needs to lift his game and maybe a brief spell on the sidelines will give him the kick up the backside he needs to start producing the quality we are after from him.

[Morph]

He needs to stop getting the ball, and turning backwards with it, whats that all about? Also he's got the turning arc the size of a small planet.

[kurtangle01]

He needs to stop getting the ball, and turning backwards with it, whats that all about? Also he's got the turning arc the size of a small planet.

All I heard about this lad when we were linked with him was that he had delivered the most amount of crosses in the prem last year yet I have only seen him do it a handful of times for us because he always cuts inside. He should be trying to take his marker on the outside and give him something to think about because at the moment he always cuts inside and makes himself easier to defend against.

[lfc4ever]

Pennant ready for England call, says Benitez

Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez believes Jermaine Pennant is close to
receiving an England call-up.

The 23-year-old winger has been impressive since his move to Anfield from
Birmingham and in the absence of Aaron Lennon he had been a contender for
inclusion in the squad to face Macedonia and Croatia in the forthcoming Euro
2008 qualifiers, but was left out by national team boss Steve McClaren.
However, Benitez has no doubt that Pennant's time will come.

'It is only a matter of time before he gets called up for England,' the
Spaniard told his club's official website.

'He is learning a lot, he is working hard, he is more mature and I think
that soon we will see him in the national team.

'I have no doubts about Pennant's quality. He is playing really well. This
is the kind of player we were looking for, someone who can beat players, can
cross and can give to us more options on the right side where we had
problems last season.'

Talking about the decision to leave him out on this occasion, Benitez added:
'You must have a lot of respect for the other managers, and if they want to
select other players then you must respect their decision.

'The only thing you can do is to support your players and tell them they
need to work harder.'

http://www.liverpoolfc.tv/news/drilldown/N153643061002-1026.htm

[Kinell]

Don't know what Rafa's been smoking?

[Red_Polo]

Giving the lad a boost as any good manager should do to a player who's working his socks off but struggling a little.

[lfc4ever]

Don't know what Rafa's been smoking?

Prob doing a spot of "pat on the back" confidence boosting, especially after reading this thread!

[Rafa_el_Gafa]

Is Rafa blind?

The 23-year-old winger has been impressive since his move from Birmingham and in the absence of Aaron Lennon had been a contender for inclusion in the squad to face Macedonia and Croatia in the forthcoming Euro 2008 qualifiers.

However, Benitez has no doubt that Pennant's time will come.

"It is only a matter of time before he gets called up for England," the Spaniard told his club's official website.

"He is learning a lot, he is working hard, he is more mature and I think that soon we will see him in the national team.

"I have no doubts about Pennant's quality. He is playing really well. This is the kind of player we were looking for, someone who can beat players, can cross and can give to us more options on the right side where we had problems last season."

Talking about the decision to leave him out on this occasion, Benitez added: "You must have a lot of respect for the other managers, and if they want to select other players then you must respect their decision.

"The only thing you can do is to support your players and tell them they need to work harder."

1.) he isn't playing well
2.) is he really the kind of player we were looking for?
3.) yes he can cross well but we haven't seen enough of it.
4.) does he beat players? or does he stop and pass it cause he is too afraid.
5.) yep he gives us options, but id have gerrard, finnan, kromkamp(!) bellamy, ciise over him.

[Farside]

At times he shows promise but he tends to turn inside and give the ball away. I think if chelsea or man u had off signed him we probably would have laughed

[MrMichael]

Strange really, how the players Rafa signed from the premiership, Bellamy and Pennant, are taking a long time to show anything really in a red shirt wheras the big foreign import, Kuyt, has settled almost straight away. Should be the other way round shouldn't it?

I really hope we're seeing "Peter Crouch syndrome" with them both. And at this time last year people were jumping way on Sissoko's back too. Bellamy is a player I have always really rated, Pennant slightly less so, but I really do think its a little early to be making final judgement on these lads, infuriating though they both have been so far.