by 112-1143112803 » Thu Mar 23, 2006 3:06 pm
To all you true Liverpool Fans I’m deeply sorry to have to subject you to this but I believe that the current situation has become so dire that this must be said.
Now, for this one post I am going to descend to the level of ‘fan’ that most infuriates me and I’m sure many of you fellow supporters. I am going to have to focus my attention upon one player as opposed to the entire team, which I believe no fan should ever knowingly do as football is a team game and, as you are told from the earliest age, one player does not make a team. This one player however is, somewhat predictably, Djibril Cisse.
Let me start by saying that I am a believer in Cisse’s ability and have never, and will never, turn against him especially not while he dons the famous red strip of Liverpool FC. In the aftermath of Sunday’s game, despite the many positives that should have been taken from our victory over a difficult opponent, many of the fans, and I use the term loosely, who frequent these boards decided to turn all their energies upon tearing into Cisse’s role in the game. Now I like many of you witnessed this match and took note of Cisse’s contribution to the game. However, this is where my problem begins, I came away with a very contrasting view of Cisse’s game to, what seems, the majority of the other fans who post on these boards. My overall assessment of Cisse, in this game was that he played well. However ever since the final whistle blew I have read many of the Cisse posts that cropped up on these boards and I found positive posts, whether about Cisse or our general performance, a rarity, which I for one find absolutely disgusting. I did however, very predictably, find that the abundant negative posts about Cisse contained the same tired old criticisms and very few actual negatives from his performance against Newcastle.
Cisse’s performance against Newcastle while containing inevitable mistakes, which coincidently these fans have not commented on for other players, was on the whole a good one. In this match I witnessed: a Cisse cross lead to a goal, vastly improved runs, more defensive play in evidence, a noticeably improved first touch, a very well dispatched penalty and I saw Cisse becoming an ever increasing threat to the Newcastle goal as the game wore on, particularly after his switch to a more central position. Some of you may want to contradict one or more of these points but ask yourself if, for example his first touch, the point you’re going to make has relevance to his game against Newcastle and I believe you’ll find the answer to be, no. Can any of you name a point at which Cisse’s first touch let him down against Newcastle?
There were however, as already mentioned, a few inevitable mistakes in Cisse’s performance; entirely perfect performances are a rarity for any player and I, like everyone who watched the game, did notice Cisse’s poor decision to shoot as opposed to playing a ball to Harry Kewell, which would have almost guaranteed us another goal. However, I implore you to ask yourselves, how easy that pass would actually have been and whether Cisse was actually aware of Kewell’s wareabouts, also if you were in the same situation as Cisse, getting the few games in his preferred position that he has, what would you have done? Wouldn’t you have attempted to alleviate some of the pressure on you by scoring. You may now say that a good player would have been aware of Kewell’s presence and been selfless enough to pass but, with no criticism of Kewell here, Kewell’s run into the box was relatively late and, for another thing, when you are inside the opposition’s penalty area you simply do not have the time or opportunity to stop and look for the pass, you have a split second to decide what option you will decide to do. With hindsight we are able to see that he made the wrong choice but at the time, I for one, was thinking “hit it”. I also witnessed Cisse’s miss hit cross from the back post after, I think it was, Warnock’s original ball in. Now this I cannot really explain as it was exactly what I said, a miss hit, but when you’re arriving to the ball at such a speed it is very difficult to provide a perfect first-time ball. Mistakes are common in football and this was certainly one of them.
One mistake however that he made that I will not even attempt to defend was his ‘goading’ of the Newcastle fans. His original celebration, while now considered incitement, was not in my opinion a bad thing to do, I’m sure all of you can appreciate Cisse’s desire to dedicate a goal to the his newborn child. It is however now against the rules to raise your shirt and so he did deserve to be punished. However his continued goading, while I’m sure done in jest, was little short of stupid. It damaged the appearance of the club and him as a player, which I’m sure was not his intention as from what I’ve seen of him he is a gentleman and if he could relive that moment of madness and rush of blood I’m sure he would as it’s a miracle that he wasn’t more severely punished for his behaviour. As I said his behaviour is undefendable but I beg you to forget it and pass it off as a mistake even though I do not in anyway condone what he did. Our very own Robbie Fowler does not exactly hold a clean behavioural record yet he is still adored by the majority of Liverpool fans, why should one player receive specialised treatment over another; they are part of the same team yet they are treated so differently. The good points of his performance do however, in my honest opinion, outweigh the few key mistakes of his game but as it’s Cisse anything less than an immaculate performance is unacceptable. How some of you can claim to be supporters when you turn on one player for a few mistakes yet many other players are impervious to criticism from you.
The main, currently justified, problem with Cisse is his lack of composure. All I can say to that is that composure comes with the confidence brought about by a consistent run of games. Many of the fans on here have been asking for Cisse to be given a run of games upfront for weeks now yet a large number of these fans have fallen at the first hurdle as it were and are not prepared to give their support to Cisse anymore. This is not the behaviour of true fans, as I am constantly saying true fans are those with belief in the team, faith that we will succeed and those who give their all in support of everyone connected with this great club. You will never catch me, and I’m sure many other true fans, criticising anyone who plays in the red shirt for no good reason. It’s not being naïve it’s called having faith; faith that each player’s true quality will show . What good is criticism going to do, unless constructive, all it does is cause the person pain and, in the case of footballers, causes them to lose the confidence on which they thrive. I’m not in anyway suggesting that the team, and each player within the team, is perfect, all I’m saying is that singling out players for criticism is not what we should be doing.
During Crouch’s barren spell the behaviour of the Liverpool fans really rebuffed my belief that we are the best and most supportive fans in the world. When Crouch was given a chance to break his duck and score from the penalty spot, did he? Yet still we supported him, why can’t we do the same with Cisse who did score his penalty? Cisse is in the same position that Crouch was, that being that he’s not scoring the goals that are expected of him yet Crouch received a huge level of support whereas support of Cisse is somewhat lacking. Though I can understand that Crouch during his barren spell was playing good team football I just can’t see why the belief shown in Crouch is not shown in Cisse. Cisse is hugely improving his all round play: tracking back, tackling, looking for passes and playing out of position to help out the team he loves. Some people regularly question Cisse’s attitude problem. What attitude problem? He once showed his displeasure at being subbed, not at the management as many ‘fans’ choose to believe but at himself, again Crouch has done the same thing but his attitude is not questioned. Cisse has shown time and again that he loves this club, is loyal and is willing to fight for his place yet again many of our fellow fans choose not to give him an opportunity to show us his true quality. Cisse has also been called the new ‘le sulk’ but his sulking expression is again his displeasure with himself. Cisse in an interview a while ago told us that his disappointed expressions are how he plays football and who are any of us fans to question him? Sure Cisse could provide his team mates with more encouragement but that’s something that can be rectified with time. Time is something Cisse has on his side, he’s still only 24 and so is nowhere near his prime yet. Under Rafa’s guidance I am sure we’ll see a huge improvement in Cisse, all I can ask is that each and every fan on here gives Cisse the chance to improve instead of jumping on each and every mistake he makes.
If this slating of Cisse continues, then I suggest is that you ‘Cisse Slaters’ take a long hard look at yourselves and then decide if your behaviour is befitting of a true supporter of Liverpool. Everyone at this great club will always have my, and I hope others, full support. Recently I have become absolutely disgusted with what many ‘Liverpool Fans’ have descended to. Regardless of personal opinions of a player we should support each and every team member to play our part and help get the best out of this great club. As I have mentioned in another topic it all comes down to the holy trinity, in a football club, that Shankly used to talk about.
No player at Liverpool should ever walk alone but if the current situation continues we must ask ourselves whether we are the greatest fans in the world. I beg of you to treat all players equally and comment only upon the overall team performance. The only criticism on here must be constructive; we must have the courage to stick with each and every player through rough patches. Playing the blame game is of no benefit. Please can we rectify this board and our overall fellowship in Liverpool FC.
I had to register to let you know this...otherwise im just the unseen guest in your boards.
YNWA
Last edited by 112-1143112803 on Thu Mar 23, 2006 3:10 pm, edited 1 time in total.
he is, but i can't be arsed.
Exactly what i was about to say!!!!
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