Jay Spearing

[PTP]

in the meantime....hope he starts Saturday!

[Exiled_red]

Erm, he had Mascherano, Alonso and Lucas ahead of him, all significantly superior players.

It might well be true that Rafa not rating him as highly as others may have held Spearing back. On the other hand his position in the team was held by some half decent footballers.

I'm not really sure that your point holds up to scrutiny overall. Rafa was clearly working Kelly and Robinson into the first team in much the way he did Insua and Lucas. The idea that Spearing was at the level he is now or Lucas was then when Rafa was in charge doesn't ring true to me.

Rafa bought in a lot of young players but a decent number of them have careers at top league levels now - Barragan, Ayala, San Jose for example - so I'm not convinced that they were in some way substandard. Obviously most youth players bought in or home grown are mostly not going to make the first team.

I'm not saying it would have been easy to get in the team and I'm not talking about replacing the likes of Mascherano, Alonso, Gerrard, Sissoko or Lucas with him, but players like Plessis, Hobbs, El Zhar were getting game time, while Jay Spearing wasn't. If he wasn't considered as good as those players why did we keep him?

All those players are playing in the lower leagues and were Rafa signings while Spearing and Guthrie players who came through the youth system and are both currently playing at Premiership level weren't getting games. I'm not having a go at Rafa, I liked him, but I think it's a valid point.

[RedReet]

Lucas was already getting games for us though.

I know.

[Mattshark]

I'm not saying it would have been easy to get in the team and I'm not talking about replacing the likes of Mascherano, Alonso, Gerrard, Sissoko or Lucas with him, but players like Plessis, Hobbs, El Zhar were getting game time, while Jay Spearing wasn't. If he wasn't considered as good as those players why did we keep him?

All those players are playing in the lower leagues and were Rafa signings while Spearing and Guthrie players who came through the youth system and are both currently playing at Premiership level weren't getting games. I'm not having a go at Rafa, I liked him, but I think it's a valid point.

Only one plays in the same position, 2 of them play top flight football.

Both Guthrie and Spearing are back up players.

[RedReet]

TBF, Spearing also played more than Plessis and Hobbs under Rafa if I'm not mistaken.

[PTP]

I'm not saying it would have been easy to get in the team and I'm not talking about replacing the likes of Mascherano, Alonso, Gerrard, Sissoko or Lucas with him, but players like Plessis, Hobbs, El Zhar were getting game time, while Jay Spearing wasn't. If he wasn't considered as good as those players why did we keep him?

All those players are playing in the lower leagues and were Rafa signings while Spearing and Guthrie players who came through the youth system and are both currently playing at Premiership level weren't getting games. I'm not having a go at Rafa, I liked him, but I think it's a valid point.

maybe, certainly in spearings case it's because of Jay himself.....

what i mean by that is....Spearing is an LFC fan first.....he probably would have agreed to anything he was offered....because i know i would...if LFC said to me, we'll pay you £200 a week for a two year contract and you might get the odd game, but on the whole you will just spend your days in and around the squad....**** me, i'd quit my job now and sign straight up

that's why i feel, it's important for us to keep the likes of spearing, and have kelly/flannagan/robinson coming through - cause those players are liverpool through and through - and even if they wre only put on for 1 minute a season, they wouldn't complain and you'd know for that 1 minute they'd run their bollocks off

[Chris]

Plessis

Speaking of him, I noticed the other day he's now a Doncaster Rovers bench warmer.

[Mattshark]

TBF, Spearing also played more than Plessis and Hobbs under Rafa if I'm not mistaken.

Played more than Hobbs, Spearing played 7, Plessis played 8 but also scored one. Both had 3 league games.

[RedReet]

I think the home grown rule may also have worked in his favour. Would have been foolish to let him go when we had so many foreigners on the books.

[Shaggy]

Speaking of him, I noticed the other day he's now a Doncaster Rovers bench warmer.

Amazing isn't it. On loan from some Greek club and can't get a game for Donny. His debut at Arsenal was absolutely exceptional.

[Mattshark]

Speaking of him, I noticed the other day he's now a Doncaster Rovers bench warmer.

He is currently on loan there from Pana

[PTP]

Amazing isn't it. On loan from some Greek club and can't get a game for Donny. His debut at Arsenal was absolutely exceptional.

mental - he seemed to come from nowhere as well...i'd never heard of him before that game - not like say, if connor coady was called up on saturday due to injure crisis....i'd think, hmmm well he's youth/ressie captain etc

Plessis just seemed to appear, play a blinder for that one game, then dissappear

[RedReet]

Played more than Hobbs, Spearing played 7, Plessis played 8 but also scored one. Both had 3 league games.

Ahh, a grave error on my part. The perils of using Wiki over history.net.

[PTP]

from plessis's wiki

Plessis made his debut for Liverpool on 5 April 2008 in the 1–1 away draw against Arsenal F.C..[6] Rafa Benítez described his performance by saying "Today was the debut for Damien Plessis. We knew when we signed him that he was a quality player. He's played really well for the reserves, and to play as well as he did today in this stadium, it shows we are going in the right direction and in time he will be fighting with the likes of Gerrard and Spearing for a first team place."[

[Chris]

Amazing isn't it. On loan from some Greek club and can't get a game for Donny. His debut at Arsenal was absolutely exceptional.

Yeah he was boss that day, thought we might have had a new star on our hands. Looked at a Panathinaikos forum a while back and the general opinion was he was useless and now he cant get in the Donny team. Weird!