Peter Crouch

[Shaggy]

[AFII]

Look mum, I can fly.

[thekop]

In his very limited playing time this season, he's been really poor. I don't see how he's going to get any rhythm or form going when he plays so little. He'll be out of the side on Tuesday and probably next week again. He's a good player but Rafa, in my view, hasn't managed him very well of late.

I still think a partnership WITH Torres would be very dangerous and our best pairing, but they've not played together for a second.

The writing's on the wall for him, IMO, and selling him while we'll get a top premium for him might be a good idea.

I don't care what ANYONE says, if he goes in January he will have been a success at LFC. He's proved everyone wrong, time and time again, and he'll do well elsewhere. Good player, but it's no good for either party if he's only gonna be used once a month.

Spot on Shaggy

[IanTatt]

Sell crouch for £10-12 mill to city or whoever else will buy him, use the money to buy a decent right winger. Then our top six looks pretty tastey.
Pace, skill and bags of goals...

????? masher Gearrard Babel
Torres Kuyt

[JPK]

Sell crouch for £10-12 mill to city or whoever else will buy him, use the money to buy a decent right winger. Then our top six looks pretty tastey.
Pace, skill and bags of goals...

????? masher Gearrard Babel
Torres Kuyt

What will our front six be like after and International week though.
All the above will be too tired

[thekop]

Why would that be stupid?

We clearly don't need him. He is our FIFTH best striker. It's very clear that it's Torres or Crouch and not Torres and Crouch.

If we can get around £10m for a player that will only play when Torres is rested then that is excellent business.

£10m for a player that don't strenghten our squad, yes please.

I concur AF

[bigfooty]

Crouch was **** today, end of.

Gave the ball away everytime he went near it.

That's absolute rubbish. If you read my posts on the update thread I mentioned him laying it off a number of times. Yes he also lost control a few times but generally this was when he came deep into the midfield area which Pompy had flooded with bodies.

Crouch was not at his best yesterday but as much as of that is down to useless tactics and team selection as it was his fault.

[CharlieMansonsSquint]

He looked well off the pace to me.

He hasn't played any football in just about 2 weeks.

To me he needs to play regularly to be at his best.

He was ****e yesterday though, and so was the service to him.

[Gazzla]

He looked completely lost yesterday although he looked the same in preseason

[MascheredUp]

The things that Fernando did in 30 mins or so when he came on for Crouchy highlighted his inadequacies, regardless of his lack of time on the pitch.

I know we were poor yesterday in an attacking sense, but we need a striker who isn't so one dimensional that decent central defenders can easily deal with.

Can't see Crouchy having a happy season here and will be gone by the start of next season, or possibly even in January.

[Joe Le Toff]

Crouch wont leave.
Im a big fan of his in general and think hes a very good and criminally underrated player.
That said, he has to be used in the right manner and too often we dont play to his strengths, but rather punt long aimless balls up to him for the midfield to feed off the scraps and occasional knockdown.
To me, it happens too often for it to be down to the lads, i think this is instruction from the manager, which makes me think if Rafa really knows how to get the best from him.

If he were to leave, he wouldnt go to a top 4 club but Newcastle, Citeh or someone of that ilk, and i dont believe he would want to go down a level at this stage of his career.

[peekay]

In his very limited playing time this season, he's been really poor. I don't see how he's going to get any rhythm or form going when he plays so little. He'll be out of the side on Tuesday and probably next week again. He's a good player but Rafa, in my view, hasn't managed him very well of late.

I still think a partnership WITH Torres would be very dangerous and our best pairing, but they've not played together for a second.

The writing's on the wall for him, IMO, and selling him while we'll get a top premium for him might be a good idea.

I don't care what ANYONE says, if he goes in January he will have been a success at LFC. He's proved everyone wrong, time and time again, and he'll do well elsewhere. Good player, but it's no good for either party if he's only gonna be used once a month.

Great post Shaggy. I still think that with the number of games we are set to play this season Crouch will be a useful choice.If he wants to leave in January, and if we find a suitable replacement then yes he should be sold.

Considering the number of games we are planning to play, we might be better of taking the 3 million hit and selling him in summer. Ideal scenario would be crouch signing a contract extension with a 10 million release clause which can be activated this summer.

[The Glove]

for me it was the whole robot dance thing that did for crouchy and rafa.

the press and football crowds in general top the piss out of crouch constantly yet rafa backed him to the hilt when he struggled to get off the mark.

during all that criticism, i'm sure at that time rafa would have told crouch to ignore the media etc and keep going.

to then start believing the hype/good stuff (as i think crouchy must have a bit- as we all would probably) i think made rafa question his mentality/focus.

every now and then, rafa says things like "peter needs to remember what got him where he is" which is about as critical as rafa gets in press conferences (there was a nice quote about it in yesterday's guardian from friday's PC, which wasn't reported elsewhere)

i like crouch but he has been pretty dreadful when he's played this season and more importantly the team hasn't looked as potent or purposeful with him in the team. its hard to say which is symptomatic of the other, but it is a concern.

rafa has shown that even with favourites and long standing friends he will be ruthless if he feels things need to change- add in the contract situation and i'd say its not looking good for the big lad.

I said around the time of the World Cup, he sees himself as Englands Peter Crouch rather than Liverpools. I think, he thinks he has made it now and as such isnt working as hard as he should. If he leaves in the summer, he will soon realise what a mistake he has made du to his own lack of effort and cockynes.

Sadly i think Crouch will be gone come January. I for one will miss the big fella.
Harshly treated if you ask me.

He wont. Then we will have less strikers for the business end of the season. The type of striker we would go for would be Cup-tied in Europe at least and that wouldnt help us. We'll see come the summer tho. Stalling on a contract and if his form isnt more consistant, he'll be out.

[Revo]

I'm not defending his performance yesterday but equally I wouldn't pick him out or blame him for our below-par performance. Xabi, Pennant, Benayoun and Voronin all struggled, yet I don't see any threads about any of them.

No I don't enjoy watching us play long balls, but we've been guilty of that before we signed Crouch and even when he doesn't play. He can't be blamed for other players taking the "easy option" and launching it towards him.

btw shaggy ive just watched the game again and benayoun was ****ing atrocious. to me, banayoun will fit in with better movement up top ala torres and kuyt but on the strength of yesterdays performance and players like riise aurellio masher and kuyt not even on the bench, benayoun has got some way to go to even get on the bench like.

[AFII]

He wont. Then we will have less strikers for the business end of the season. The type of striker we would go for would be Cup-tied in Europe at least and that wouldnt help us. We'll see come the summer tho. Stalling on a contract and if his form isnt more consistant, he'll be out.

We already have four other strikers(Torres, Kuyt, Voronin and Babel). Kewell will probably play on the left very often when he is fit and Babel will play more as a striker.

I think Rafa kept Crouch because Kewell and Aurelio wasn't fit so we needed Babel on the left. The offered contract is probably only about that we want to tie him up on a longer deal so we can get more money for him if we sell him.