Liverpool FC Forum

[Simari]

Assaidi, Narsingh and Dost formed the fulcrum of Herenveen's attack last season. The one attribute with that team was their resilience and ability to win games from losing positions. As a genuine title contender, they did finally make a statement after years of crying wolf.

I do hope for his sake that he can bring that experience along with technical ability to LFC.

The one thing Herenveen did NOT do was press the opposition. They were a [potent attacking force who happened to concede a lot of goals

I suspect he will be doing a lot of training and adjusting to BRs style before we see him in the side.

[Benny The Noon]

Liverpool Spring Surprise With The Capture Of Flying Winger Oussama Assaidi
August 16, 2012
By Dave Hendrick

Well that came out of the blue didn’t it? As the footballing world, or it least the part that revolves around Liverpool Football Club sat back and waited for updates on Nuri Sahin, Cristian Tello, Theo Walcott and Clint Dempsey the Reds sprung a surprise by announcing they had reached an agreement with Dutch club Heerenveen over the signing of Moroccan winger Oussama Assaidi.
 
This is the third signing of the Brendan Rodgers reign as manager of Liverpool, and the first player signed who had not previously worked under the new Liverpool manager. Rodgers is known to have good contacts in Holland having spent time their early in his coaching career as he learned his trade and they have clearly come into play in this instance.
 
The Reds are believed to have agreed a fee in the region of £2.5million for services of the 22 time capped Moroccan winger which represents an excellent low risk/high reward piece of business for the Anfield club. Assaidi was due to enter the last year of his contract, which explains the low price, and had been subject of interest from a number of clubs including Fulham, Galatasaray and Ajax. Ajax had been strongly linked with the player over the last year and were reportedly very close to signing him only for the deal to fall apart at the last minute due to a glitch in agreeing personal terms.
 
This signing marks another step in the right direction for Liverpool in terms of the fee paid, the efficiency in while the deal was done and the fact that the Reds managed to sign him before he went on to make a real name for himself. Obviously there are no guarantees in football but history has shown that Liverpool tend to sign players after they have made moves to bigger clubs, thus being forced to pay over the odds for them. With Assaidi, they’ve gotten him before that happens so if he can fulfill his potential and become a star, they will have saved themselves a fortune.
 
This move should hopefully lay to rest the accusation of “unimaginative scouting” which has previously been aimed at Rodgers over the signings of Fabio Borini and Joe Allen, and the pursuit of Gylfi Sigurdsson. Another point of note is that no media outlet or twitter “In The Know” had any information on this deal before it was announced on the club website. Liverpool are a club who were once famous for doing their transfer business behind closed doors and this marks a return to that practice. Long may that sort of operating continue.
 
Having only seen Assaidi play three times myself I can not claim to be any kind of expert on the player, so with that in mind I thought I’d see what the experts had to say on Liverpool’s latest recruit.
 
Mohamed Moalim, a well respected writer on Dutch football for the magazine FourFourTwo, who uses the twitter handle @jouracule had the following to say:
 

For those asking Oussama Assaidi: dynamic winger, can play either flank but stronger on the right, great dribbler and has an eye for goal.
 
Not faraway from being exceptional, dynamic winger can play through the middle, certain he was Ajax bound. A v good signing.
 
Back to the football: Assaidi is a v good footballer, only going to get better, will thrive under Rodgers
 
 
 
Andy Brassell (@andybrassell) a freelance journalist who covers different leagues throughout Europe added:
 

Excited at the prospect of Assaidi joining Liverpool. Great to watch; lovely dribbler, can score goals & tremendous work rate
 
In fact, Eric Gerets once told Adel Taarabt when he left him out for Morocco: “Watch (Assaidi) & you’ll figure why you’re not in the team.”
 
 
 
Leander Schaerlaeckens, ESPN Columnist who covers European football and tweets from the handle @leanderalphabet because his “Last Name No Fit” had the following to say:
 

For those asking, Oussama Assaidi is classic Dutch scoring winger. R-footed, can play on both sides. Good crosser from R,takes on men from L.
 
Assaidi seemed to be on his way to Ajax for about 3.5 million euro. Assuming Liverpool got him for the same amount,the cost-benefit is great.
 
 
 
These statements tie in with what I saw from Assaidi in the matches I watched. He’s an extremely pacey winger who’s comfortable on either side of the field. He takes on and beats defenders for fun and he can score goals. He’s also a good crosser of the ball and a decent passer of the ball although that is an aspect he will need to work on, especially in the final third.  In 29 matches for Heerenveen he racked up 10 goals and 8 assists (stats via @jeremy_lfc) and helped his team finish 5th in last season’s Eredivisie.
 
While he is noted as somewhat of an individualist who can at times be a bit frustrating as he has a tendency to overdo things, his link up play with Bas Dost and Luciano Narsingh looked excellent when I saw him play and that trio are credited with Heerenveen’s strong season. Unfortunately for Heerenveen, all three have now left the club.
 
If Assaidi hits the ground running he could be a perfect fit on the right hand side of Liverpool’s front three and should link well with the likes of Luis Suarez, Fabio Borini and Steven Gerrard. His signing likely means the end of pursuits of Tello, Walcott and Adam Johnson but that may not be a bad thing as he’s more affordable than the latter two and Tello seems reluctant to leave Spain.
 
For those who like comparisons between players the best I can think of is that Assaidi is little bit like Hatem Ben Arfa, only a right footed version. That’s not to say he’s as good as Ben Arfa, or ever will be, but there are similarities in the way they play.
 
Oh and one last piece of information, Assaidi is nicknamed The Ferrari.
 

http://www.theliverpoolword.com/2012/08 ... a-assaidi/

[LFC2007]

Thanks for that. We need someone to blame if it all goes Pete Tong 

[killerp]

El Zhar 2

Hopefully the sequel is better than the original 

[Eagle]

Arsenal bought van Persie from a Dutch club for £2.75 million while he was in his early 20s and we bought Hyypia for £2.6 million and everyone asked “who?”. You just never know!

[Simari]

Benny, glad to see someone else noticed the potent attacking trio for Herenveen last season

I will throw some caution though. He has a LOT of adjusting to do with regards to BRs style of pressing while not in possession of the ball. I seriously doubt he has the fitness levels to do his thing as well as 'defend' when not in possession.

The one big positive is that he is is still young and his technical ability is not in question. £3m is a great piece of business with no real downside.

[friendlyguy33]

10 goals and zero assists in season 2011/2012 with the Dutch League.

Time will tell if he's any good I remain to be convinced.

I've seen 10 goals and 0 assists in 21 games, but I've also seen he had 10 goals and 8 assists in 27 games from a person who did actual research compared to the site that doesn't really care about the dutch league.

Who did the research? Which league does ESPN care about? I hope it works out and he does well but honestly I fear another Babel/Jovanovic type player. I would have preferred Walcott in all honesty and I think he would have come.

[RED BEERGOGGLES]

This kids got fucking rockets on his boots

[bowolf42]

10 goals and zero assists in season 2011/2012 with the Dutch League.

Time will tell if he's any good I remain to be convinced.

I've seen 10 goals and 0 assists in 21 games, but I've also seen he had 10 goals and 8 assists in 27 games from a person who did actual research compared to the site that doesn't really care about the dutch league.

Who did the research? Which league does ESPN care about? I hope it works out and he does well but honestly I fear another Babel/Jovanovic type player. I would have preferred Walcott in all honesty and I think he would have come.

Or we could have saved the 15 million and nipped round Bernard Matthews to grab ourselves a headless chicken for a tenner! Walcott is all speed and no end product mate at least this guy seems to lift his chin up from his neck when he runs!

[Reg]

Liverpool Football Club have reached an agreement with SC Heerenveen for the transfer of winger Oussama Assaidi, subject to the player passing a medical.

The 24-year-old, who has scored 20 goals in 68 appearances for Heerenveen in the Dutch Eredivisie, will now undergo a medical at Melwood.

Assaidi has represented his native Morocco 22 times since making his international debut in February 2011.

One of the highlights of his young career came in a 6-2 win over FC Twente in 2010 when he scored a hat-trick and assisted the other three goals.  

68 goals in 22 matches with 47 assists, all for 3 million. He's obviously the new messiah.

So why did the  Dutch sell him and why for so little? 

[Kenny Kan]

Liverpool Football Club have reached an agreement with SC Heerenveen for the transfer of winger Oussama Assaidi, subject to the player passing a medical.

The 24-year-old, who has scored 20 goals in 68 appearances for Heerenveen in the Dutch Eredivisie, will now undergo a medical at Melwood.

Assaidi has represented his native Morocco 22 times since making his international debut in February 2011.

One of the highlights of his young career came in a 6-2 win over FC Twente in 2010 when he scored a hat-trick and assisted the other three goals.  

68 goals in 22 matches with 47 assists, all for 3 million. He's obviously the new messiah.

So why did the  Dutch sell him and why for so little? 

last year of his contracr reg.

[damjan193]

47 assists? That sounds nice, even though he's coming from the Dutch league.

[ethanr]

Liverpool Football Club have reached an agreement with SC Heerenveen for the transfer of winger Oussama Assaidi, subject to the player passing a medical.

The 24-year-old, who has scored 20 goals in 68 appearances for Heerenveen in the Dutch Eredivisie, will now undergo a medical at Melwood.

Assaidi has represented his native Morocco 22 times since making his international debut in February 2011.

One of the highlights of his young career came in a 6-2 win over FC Twente in 2010 when he scored a hat-trick and assisted the other three goals.  

68 goals in 22 matches with 47 assists, all for 3 million. He's obviously the new messiah.

So why did the  Dutch sell him and why for so little? 

last year of his contracr reg.

I think you meant 22 goals in 68 matches, and 47 assists seems a bit high?  He had 8 last season in 27 or 29 games ro whatever it was, so 39 assists in his other 40 games?  I don't think that's right... that's not right at all.

Also they sold him because they were relegated.  He wanted to leave instead of play in the lower division, and Ajax were trying to sign him.

[Raoul]

I knew of this deal. Had to keep it close to my chest though. 

WHAT?! You too? Brendan told me he hadn't told anyone else!

[alwayslfc]

I wonder who in Liverpool staff spotted this lad. We were not linked to him at all and now suddenly we've signed him from out of the blue. Don't know anything about him but at 3 million, it was a bargain.