by bigmick » Sun Jan 08, 2006 10:32 am
I've never been a massive fan of either player and probably agree with the couple of lads who wonder whether either of them are ultimately what we require. The question is a fair one in the light of last nights performance as Cisse was very very poor IMHO and Pongolle had unquestionably his best performance in a red shirt.
Cisse was by no means alone in his poor performance, I thought the team looked very jaded and a better side than Luton would have beaten Liverpool yesterday. He still has that "headless chicken" look about him though, and although he is nowhere near as bad as some on here suggest, he is nowhere near a 14 million pound striker either. His first touch varies from the sublime to the ridiculous and his movement lacks intelligence and subtlety. His team play such as it is, is negligable and you can never be certain he is going to take a chance no matter how clear cut. He does however possess blistering pace as we all know and once inside the box, he has a good anticipation and awareness. He is the sort of player that would do well in a solid, defensive team. The sort of team who would be inclined to play him upfront on his own and hit him with speculative punts in the hope that he may get on the end of something. He would probably aid a team who defends deep, because his pace would restrict the tendancy of the opposition to press up. I can see why Foolier bought him for his Wimbledonesque mantra, but at 14 million pounds I said on here within about three appearances we had paid a ridiculous fee and I stand by that today.
In the case of Pongolle he is young and unproven and while he may one day make a player, I wonder whether he ever get enough time on the pitch to develop at Liverpool. He hasn't the searing pace of a Cisse but is a much better technician. He has that all important intelligence and subtlety, the ability to move three yards backwards like his first goal yesterday. That crucial split second train of thought which is so hard to teach, but which enabled Gerrard to feed him in with a relatively easy pass. The header came out of the blue and was right out of the top drawer. If that is an indication of his heading ability then he really does have a future, but as I've never seen that before I'm more inclined to think it is a one off.
In conclusion, on current ability I would go with Cisse. If Ping-Pong performed like he did last night, and Cisse like he did then theres no contest. I'm allowing for a bit of fatigue though, Cisse is not as bad as he looked last night and alas I'm not sure Ping-Pong is as good as he looked either. In a season or so however, it may all change.
"se e in una bottigla ed e bianco, e latte".
