Riera

[Neil Young]

so you could go on a football equivalent of mr and mrs with him?

lol

[Fernandinho]

There is this winger for Stoke atm who is fast and plays a good early ball. I think his name is Pennant or something. He could be a good winger.

[Craig_H]

I generally forgot about Cole. He really hasn't played a lot. I agree with you though potential wise that Cole could be better than Riera and I would love for him to show us so.

I think Cole is the kind of player who has both the talents and the limitations, which mean he will only really succeed if the system is almost entirely geared to his strengths. I'm not suggesting a manager sets up his whole team and system around Joe, but that whatever system a manager uses, it needs to coincide with that which Joe will benefit from and thrive in.

Primarily, it needs to be a possession game, a shorter passing game, a patient game and one of the typical 'pass and move'. Ironically, it's not unlike Rafa's way of playing, and even more painfully, the one area which Rafa's Liverpool lacked most, was that of creativity and creative 'spark' when a defence was proving hard to break down.

Rafa's Liverpool with Joe Cole in it, would've been a very promising prospect.

There is this winger for Stoke atm who is fast and plays a good early ball. I think his name is Pennant or something. He could be a good winger.

Oh god no. His attitude stinks and he thinks he's far better than he actually is.

Perfectly suited for a team like Stoke, who's expectations mean that a few runs and crosses, equates to a great winger's performance.

[Neil Young]

There is this winger for Stoke atm who is fast and plays a good early ball. I think his name is Pennant or something. He could be a good winger.

Stop being silly.

[red g]

In fairness I think we all agree in a round about way. We all admit Riera isn't good enough, but we also all admit we haven't replaced him with any better. We miss Riera, but we also miss Insua - not because they were great players, but because we've replaced them both with absoloute tripe.

yep you can add players like Warnock and Pennant into that to, they would improve our team now, but nowhere good enough for us in the long term

[Craig_H]

Especially considering when we initially got him he was only 8 or 9 mil which is chicken feed for a 25 or so year old winger of his quality.

For a Spanish international winger, the fee was very good for us.

In fairness I think we all agree in a round about way. We all admit Riera isn't good enough, but we also all admit we haven't replaced him with any better. We miss Riera, but we also miss Insua - not because they were great players, but because we've replaced them both with absoloute tripe.

A very fair summary.

[Fernandinho]

Stop being silly.

It was inevitable

[danperkins]

Have to say gutted we let Warnock go, not the answer to our LB problem but far better than The Konch & Insua an dnot injured as much as Aurelio. Pennant not so much but his best facet to his game is his crossing, and we do miss that from wide areas for sure.

[Craig_H]

yep you can add players like Warnock and Pennant into that to, they would improve our team now, but nowhere good enough for us in the long term

Warnock yes, but not Pennant. He's ****e.

[danperkins]

Roll on January, it better make us happy. Serious pressure buys have to be spot on.

[Fernandinho]

Warnock yes, but not Pennant. He's ****e.

I love that we are talking about Pennant now My comment was a wind up.

On another note, we could do with a good creative midfielder. A guy from Fulham doing well for them at the moment, his name escapes me. Danny something, the English fella.

[Craig_H]

I love that we are talking about Pennant now My comment was a wind up.

On another note, we could do with a good creative midfielder. A guy from Fulham doing well for them at the moment, his name escapes me. Danny something, the English fella.

You're terrible at these windups

But fulham's training ground is about 5 mins from where i live, so i can get down there and pass on your praise if you like

[danperkins]

Jermaine Pennant LFC Legend

[dww]

Riera is a decent player but although ultimately he flattered to deceive, we were always a better side with him in it. The one full season he was here we achieved a record PL points tally, should've won the league and it was our best side for 20 years. He was a regular in it.

I think this is an interesting area - Riera like Alonso was key to the way that side played but would have very little directly in terms of goals or assists to prove it. In the end it proved that Riera couldn't provide the same consistently but that doesn't mean that what he bought when he was performing should be undervalued.

In a lot of ways finding wide players who can do that job consistently is a problem that is affecting all clubs in the PL. There are a number of players who can do it at a certain level (obvious examples given recent games being Pennant and Etherington) but very few who when given a chance at a big club can do it on a regular basis. Perhaps though part of the problem is what we expect them to do? If judged by different criteria would they find it easier to maintain confidence. I'm not sure just typing as I muse really.

[RichC]

There is this winger for Stoke atm who is fast and plays a good early ball. I think his name is Pennant or something. He could be a good winger.

far too busy playing with mobile phones.