Dirky Dirky

[fah-q]

110% of nothing is still nothing.
We aren't in fourth place "because" of Kuyt....we're in fourth place despite him.

Sorry but that is nonsense

[Mattshark]

110% of nothing is still nothing. That may be slightly harsh but do try to keep things in perspective. He's a very limited player who is currently playing above his normal level. To throw superlatives around just because you're emotional after a win is exactly the knee jerk comments I'm referring to.
We aren't in fourth place "because" of Kuyt....we're in fourth place despite him.

Biggest load of retarded bollocks I have ever read and please tell me how many players in our team have more goals this season for us? I doubt you'll reply though.

Carheex apart from being a boring and thick WUM, is there actually any point to you posts? I have seen nothing that suggest not.

[Craig_H]

110% of nothing is still nothing. That may be slightly harsh but do try to keep things in perspective. He's a very limited player who is currently playing above his normal level. To throw superlatives around just because you're emotional after a win is exactly the knee jerk comments I'm referring to.
We aren't in fourth place "because" of Kuyt....we're in fourth place despite him.

He scored 16 goals last season and is currently on 10 goals this season (playing mainly as a right midfielder).

Surely these facts indicate that this IS his normal level.

[Exiled_red]

Sorry but that is nonsense

He scored 16 goals last season and is currently on 10 goals this season (playing mainly as a right midfielder).

Surely these facts indicate that this IS his normal level.

[murder_inc]

He scored 16 goals last season and is currently on 10 goals this season (playing mainly as a right midfielder).

Surely these facts indicate that this IS his normal level.

[Chrono]

I love that he cares so much. It's exactly as it should be.

People like him, Mascherano, Pepe Reina, Carra, Torres and one or two others, are a credit to the club.

Agree with that but personally think Masch is a mercenary and will be gone shortly. There's a big difference between caring and being hot headed.

[the rev leeroy brown]

dirk will never be the worlds greatest. he will never be as quick as walcott, as skillfull as ronaldo, cossing the ball like beckham, shooting prowess like torres but you know what, wi wouldnt swap him for anyone. kuyt is a rareity in football today. he loves our club and you can see it in his eyes.

[Craig_H]

Agree with that but personally think Masch is a mercenary and will be gone shortly. There's a big difference between caring and being hot headed.

Agreed about there being a difference, but they're both borne out of passion.

I hope he wont be gone, there was a dip in form early this season, but in the last 10 weeks or so, he's playing superbly and looks to have put Barcelona out of his mind.

If we sell him, i think it'll be down to the cash side of it, and the yanks.

[DeeTheDog]

Tompkins from the official site does another nice piece highlighting the strength of some of our more unheralded team members.



One thing really bothered me earlier in the season: accusations from some quarters that Liverpool lacked character.

This didn't tally with what I believed to be the case. Last season, time and time again, the Reds showed incredible character to rescue lost causes, and lose so few games.

But a confidence crisis can mask effort; it's not that the players weren't trying, but it's harder to want to the ball, and do something special with it, when your touch is awry.

The fact that Liverpool have dug their way out of a slump with a mixture of gutsy performances and tactical know-how, in the face of some of the most incredibly hyperbolic football reporting I've ever seen, goes some way to reassure me that I hadn't got it wrong after all.

Flair is certainly present in the squad, but 2010 has been about battling for the points, often against long-ball or overtly physical teams, with 6ft 4"+ midfielders and strikers.

When Torres, Benayoun and Johnson return, and when Aquilani and Maxi are more acclimatised (the last few games will have been like nothing they'd experienced in Italy and Spain!), the play can become more expansive - but the new year to date has been about character, first and foremost. Dig in, grind out.

The fact that Steven Gerrard appears to be getting back to his best is another major factor that will help in the improvement of the aesthetic side of the game, and an increase in confidence - and a lessening of the hysteria (and the insane pressure it brings, not to mention Anfield edginess) - should help free the players to express themselves.

I hate to say it, but yet again we've just seen another shocking refereeing display, with the number of inexplicable decisions against the Reds rising and rising. Thankfully, Liverpool are now playing well enough to override this misfortune. But it shouldn't have to be this way.

Even in victory, and even if Kyrgiakos' sending off was technically correct, the incidents involving Pienaar on Mascherano (straight red card, no debate), Fellaini kicking a prone Kuyt in the face (straight red card, no debate) and Fellaini going for Kyrgiakos' shin instead of the ball (straight red card, no debate) need to be highlighted as yet further examples of more going against the Reds than for them - this season at least.

A couple of years back, Kuyt could easily have seen red at Goodison, and that's the way it goes; the Reds were very lucky that day, especially as he stayed on and scored the winner, and an Everton penalty was denied soon after.

But this season, time and time again, it's been letter-of-the-law stuff that hasn't been applied correctly, from beach balls to double-touch penalties to studs just below a player's knee so that his shinpad ends up around his ankle.

Even so, the Reds are starting to rise above the worst season for injuries and refereeing decisions I can remember. So the guts, the character, is there.

This campaign has been a testing time for everyone with an interest in Liverpool FC, from fans to players to management, but the media's intoning of the team's last rites has (yet again) proved premature. The ailing patient is up and fighting.

Fourth place is still far from a formality - lots can happen yet - but suddenly even third isn't beyond contemplation.

I got hugely frustrated a few weeks ago when people were going on about Birmingham, at that point above the Reds, being better than Liverpool; teams like this almost always fall away sooner or later. But some people cannot see beyond the league table at such points in a season. I guess that they panic. I had people talking to me as if it was May already.

Some teams don't have the quality and consistency to stay up there; or the stamina; or, when the going gets tough, the bottle. Time and time again under Benítez, Liverpool have proved that they have all three.

In little over a month, an eight-point deficit for fourth place has become a one-point comfort zone. And while Manchester City have games in hand, their defeat at Hull puts a different complexion on their challenge.

Long-term, you have to worry about what their spending policy will mean to rivals, but even with a squad that costs over £100m more than the Reds', they still haven't really taken advantage of the absence of Torres and others.

The good news for Liverpool is that, bar any dramatic changes, these key men can be slowly introduced back into a side in form, rather than thrown into the fray in desperation.

I could talk all day about the qualities of players like Torres, Gerrard, Carragher, Agger, Reina, Johnson, Mascherano, Benayoun, et al, but I often gain more pleasure from highlighting the successes of the unsung and the overly criticised.

No player is perfect. And obviously, in any team, some players are better than others. But everyone contributes something. And if the less-heralded players are doing a great job, then someone needs to redress that balance.

Half of Liverpool's team of late - Kyrgiakos, Lucas, Kuyt, Insua and N'Gog - have been rubbished at some point this season, if not for most of it. Not good enough for the Premiership? Not good enough for Liverpool? On recent evidence, they are. It's not about everyone being 'world-class', it's about the team as a whole.

A microcosm of Kuyt's worth could be seen in a couple of second-half derby minutes. Aside from that moment at Goodison, I don't think I've ever seen him lose his head (even if he could have literally lost it yesterday, when it was treated like a football).

You could see how fired up he was after scoring the goal, his face flushed with anger and visibly scarred by Fellaini's stud marks. And anyone who knows football is aware that scoring goals can lead to 'switching off', when the excitement takes over and the brain goes into hiding.

And yet there was the Dutchman, so shortly after that big adrenaline burst, in the right-back position, to make a goal-saving interception. It'll never make a YouTube compilation, but it was a spell of football that won Liverpool the game. That's why he kept being selected even when not at his best; he has the heart of a lion, and he will always turn things around.

Ditto Lucas. The Brazilian doesn't score goals, and suffers the daft fate of being compared to the stereotype of his fellow countrymen (as if every single Brazilian international was a showboat king).

Yet I'd take the heart and guts of this young player over a work-shy trickster like Robinho, who has failed to contribute at Manchester City to the point where the £32m man has been loaned back to Santos. Some players are great when their team is playing well and having a stroll. Lucas rolls his sleeves up and puts in every last ounce of energy, whatever the situation.

To me, Lucas has looked the more worthy of a place in the Brazil team based on his form this season. He can't do the really exciting things like Robinho (although he has shown some nifty footwork in tight situations), but it only takes one big-name player to not look bothered to drag the rest down to walking pace.

Indeed, that's why Fernando Torres has been such a success: he matches ability with effort. In the latest edition of FourFourTwo, he talks about his incessant desire to get better, and places his massive improvement since arriving at Liverpool at the door of Benitez, whose perfectionism and advice helps him find that little extra in the penalty box. (Not that the manager gets such credit when others talk about Torres.)

But such players need those like Kuyt and Lucas doing the legwork behind them - but also showing the tactical nous that goes unnoticed by a lot of people.

Just as Kuyt had earlier got back to deny an almost certain goal, when Anichebe finally got past Insua, Lucas was the one back making a last-ditch intervention that, by denying the Everton striker a clear last-minute shot, could well have been worth two points.

Insua and Ngog are two others - both 20 when the season started - who get some quite baffling criticism as they learn the game. Ngog hasn't scored for a few weeks, but his hold-up play is superb for one so young (and when he's filled out a bit, he'll be able to use strength as well as scontrol), and Insua has come through the blip all youngsters experience to once again show his ability.

Many fans (of all clubs) are quick to call for youngsters to be thrown in, then get instantly dismayed when they're not the finished article, and angry over every mistake they make. As Opta recently noted, Liverpool's average age this season is the second-lowest in the Premier League, behind Arsenal. So the side is young enough already.

It's been tough at times, but the adversity will have helped Ngog and Insua - not mention the five others to feature in major games when aged 20 or under.

On another note, I thought it was brilliant to see Rafa standing up to Sky's questioning of zonal marking before the derby, retorting with the example of how Tim Cahill scores most of his goals against teams deploying man-marking.

And how did Liverpool end up winning the game? From a corner in which Phil Neville was so intent on grappling with Dirk Kuyt (as was Tim Howard), he totally forgot to bother about the ball.

Last week I Tweeted about Chelsea conceding another set-piece goal, and I had a reply saying that they only sometimes concede them, but 'we concede MOST goals this way'. The fan also accused me of misrepresenting facts in general.

So I checked with Opta; Liverpool have conceded 13 of their 26 league goals from set-pieces: 50 per cent.

Chelsea (a physically imposing side who man-mark) had conceded 15 of their 20 league goals from set-pieces: 75 per cent.

Yet someone felt assured enough, even though he was quite, quite wrong, to tell me I was talking rubbish. But that's football for you.

[BFG]

Liverpool FC's selfless striker is Kuyt from a different cloth
Feb 9 2010 by Dominic King, Liverpool Echo

http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/liverpool-fc/liverpool-fc-news/2010/02/09/liverpool-fc-s-selfless-striker-is-kuyt-from-a-different-cloth-100252-25791671/

FOR some it would have been the cue to self-indulge, a chance to play to the gallery and remind the world of their achievement.

Dirk Kuyt, though, is cut from a very different cloth. No matter that his header had settled the 213th Merseyside derby or brought up a half century of Liverpool goals, here was a man with no intention of milking the moment.

With a game to be won and a season to be saved, Kuyt was simply happy to join a huddle of celebrating team-mates and acknowledge the crowd with a pump of his fist before getting back down to the business of keeping an old foe quiet.

“It’s great to have scored 50 goals for the club and it’s even nicer that I managed to do it in such a special game,” said Kuyt.

“It means a lot that I have managed to do it but the main thing was for us to beat Everton.”

The irony, however, is that Kuyt is a player who deserves his place on centre stage; a model professional blessed with the happy knack of finding the net in crucial games, the Dutchman’s return to form could not have been more timely.

Having confessed to not being able to sleep after his diving header at Stoke City thudded against a post in the dying seconds last month, his insomnia stemming from the idea he had let Liverpool down, Kuyt has responded in fine style.

First came a double in the win over Tottenham Hotspur, then there was an opportunist strike as Bolton Wanderers were swatted aside before that crowning moment against Everton provided further evidence he is flourishing once more.

Yet, predictably, Kuyt has no desire to talk about why he has emerged from a pre-Christmas lull to prove himself an able deputy for Fernando Torres – what excites him more is the fact Liverpool’s revival suddenly has great momentum.

That revival will, of course, be sternly tested at the Emirates Stadium tomorrow night when Arsenal – smarting from back-to-back defeats against Manchester United and Chelsea – look to haul themselves off the canvas.

But similar sentiments apply to Liverpool and after becoming a derby hero for the third time – think back to clashes at Goodison Park in October 2007 and last November – Kuyt is anxious for their winning groove to continue.

“We (him, Tim Howard and Phil Neville) had a couple of fights while we were waiting for corners during the game,” reflected a man who left Anfield on Saturday clutching several bottles of champagne. “They tried to hold me and sometimes I had to give them a little push back.

“But then Stevie (Gerrard) put in such a great delivery.

“It was the perfect cross and all I had to do then was touch it a little bit to send it on its way into the goal. I’m just really happy I was in the position to do so.

“We showed again we have confidence. When we went down to 10 men, we had to believe that we could win the game. It was very difficult but we did well and it’s so encouraging that we have got 17 points from the last seven games.

“In that time we have kept six clean sheets and I think everyone can see we are playing better but we have to keep it going.

“The focus is now on Arsenal, another massive game. We enjoyed the three points on Saturday but since then it has been all about Arsenal.

“We have got a couple of very important games coming up and this will be the time when we really need to show everyone that we are capable of pushing for the top four. We need to keep the confidence going.”

Should they continue to show such fight and determination, there is reason for thinking that Liverpool might just have too much power for an Arsenal side that, for all its footballing qualities, is not known for its mental strength.

Rafa Benitez’s side have proven themselves well capable of winning wars of attrition since the turn of the year and never was that more evident than against Everton, particularly after Sotirios Kyrgiakos had been sent-off.

With two red cards and six bookings to go alongside any number of hefty tackles, some have since made the derby out to be nothing more than a glorified scrap but Kuyt, for one, is quick to point out it was anything but.

True, there were a few poor challenges but, in the main, it was an engrossing spectacle and for Liverpool to emerge from it with three points is just what Kuyt says was required ahead of further battles down the line.

“It was a mixture of relief and happiness to win,” said Kuyt.

“It is always hard when you have to play with 10 men, as we did for almost 60 minutes, but we stuck together and put a lot of effort into the game and, at the end, we deserved it.

“There were a couple of big challenges but that is what a derby game is all about.

“I’m happy to have the scars but tackles like that will always happen – that’s why they are derbies.

“Everyone was so committed but, at the end of the game, you shake hands and move on.”

Posted it as a spoiler because it's bloody long.

Dirk

[Reece]

[carheex]

Sorry but that is nonsense

All I'm saying, is that there are far too many people on here who's opinions change at an alarming level. Earlier this season, the general feeling was that Kuyt was a waste of space and Rafa needed to be sacked for continually picking him. Now that we're doing well (if you can call 4th place doing "well") and Kuyt has scored a few he's some kind of legendary hero whose name must be first on the team sheet and rafa has pulled off a shrewd piece of business in getting him for 10m, blah blah blah.....

Give it a month and half of you lot will be back saying how ****e he is. Guaranteed!

[Qantaga]

It can be sometimes frustrating watching Kuyt miss chances that many world class strikers would put away in the net. When it matters though Kuyt has been there for a lot of occasions, for that alone he should be praised by all us fans. I was never Dirk's number 1 fan and I have given him stick for missing sitters as you do, but when you think about how hard he works and the right position he's had to adapt to without any complaints you do realise how much he puts his head down to get the job done no matter what.

\Q

[BFG]

All I'm saying, is that there are far too many people on here who's opinions change at an alarming level. Earlier this season, the general feeling was that Kuyt was a waste of space and Rafa needed to be sacked for continually picking him. Now that we're doing well (if you can call 4th place doing "well") and Kuyt has scored a few he's some kind of legendary hero whose name must be first on the team sheet and rafa has pulled off a shrewd piece of business in getting him for 10m, blah blah blah.....

Give it a month and half of you lot will be back saying how ****e he is. Guaranteed!

Are you absolutely sure it isn't just a case of different threads, different posters and therefore a different general level of praise (or otherwise) for Kuyt?

[Reece]