Liverpool FC Forum

[JC_81]

why do people say he wasn't rafa's buy.

LFC were not obliged to buy him when GH sacked.

Rafa's responsible for him.

End of story.

He wasn't Rafa's buy mate.

Houllier, and more importantly Liverpool had an agreement to sign Cisse.  Although Rafa was in charge when Cisse officially signed, he was NOT rafa's buy.  Houllier scouted the player and agreed to sign him.

The deal was in place and I do not believe Rafa could have pulled the plug on it.  Even if the deal was not already sealed, Rafa still had no choice but to take him due to Owen pi.ssing off just before the deadline.

You can't say he is Rafa's buy when Houllier set up the transfer

[76-1115222408]

Even if the deal was not already sealed, Rafa still had no choice but to take him due to Owen pi.ssing off just before the deadline.

I agree with your post JC, but the thing is Cisse would have joined way before it was imminent that Owen was on his way, remember they did play together in the pre-season tour of the USA when we played Celtic and the like!!

[JC_81]

Even if the deal was not already sealed, Rafa still had no choice but to take him due to Owen pi.ssing off just before the deadline.

I agree with your post JC, but the thing is Cisse would have joined way before it was imminent that Owen was on his way, remember they did play together in the pre-season tour of the USA when we played Celtic and the like!!

Fair point mate, I forgot they played together pre-season

[neilE]

Doesn't look to me as though Cisse's the least bit bothered abut his price tag, or whether Benitez would have chosen to buy him. In the year or so before we bought him I read plenty of stuff that suggested he really wanted to play for our club. Everything I've seen since confirms he loves it with us and loves playing football. Of course, we need him to show the ability we would expect from a 14 mil player, but his attitude gives him a big head start on one or two in the squad. Put it this way, whether Rafa would have bought him or not, I'm sure Cisse's enthusiasm makes him exactly the kind of player Rafa wants.

[El Nino_#9]

as rafa would say.
"he has the right mentality!"

[stmichael]

But have to agree this is gonna be a big season for Djib for a number of reasons:

-Will he be a regular starter?
-Will he be a regular scorer?
-If he doesnt start as often as he likes, will he begin to complain?
-Is he going to be utilised on the right wing often?

in answer to your questions.

i don't think he'll be a regular starter in the side. i think morientes is benitez's main man and with rafa's tendency to use one main striker and one deep lying striker, cisse and baos could find themselves fighting for one position.

as for his goalscoring, you don't score 73 goals in 142 games in league football if you're no good. ok this is a different kettle of fish but given the right service i think cisse would thrive. i noticed that he scored a lot of goals for auxerre from through balls through the centre of defence. with alonso and gerrard, we have two of the best pinpoint passers in the game.

cisse doesn't seem like the whinging type. he is not milan baros. he is just happy to be playing for such a prestigious and great club. compare this to baros who seems intent on running his mouth about possibly moving all the time, especially when he gets left out in big games.

playing cisse on the right wing would be ludicrous in the long term. see diouf.

[El Nino_#9]

[MCYan]

Come on man.. who has the right mentality? You are telling me Cisse has the right mentality to just walk around on the pitch not trying to get the ball when he went on for Baros in the 70th minute? He has a lot of pace and come on, use it! Look at Baros, he runs no slower than Cisse and he actually runs around to push the opposition's defenders. What about Cisse? All he does is to kick the ball far behind the defender and starts beating him with his pace. (just like Riise) Plus he doesnot worth 14M at all. Look at all these French league top goalscorers. Cisse and Drogba. Who cares how many goals they score in the French league?


PS Cheyrou scored a handful of goals in France, i bet that little Essien ain't any better than that.

[76-1115222408]

But have to agree this is gonna be a big season for Djib for a number of reasons:

-Will he be a regular starter?
-Will he be a regular scorer?
-If he doesnt start as often as he likes, will he begin to complain?
-Is he going to be utilised on the right wing often?

in answer to your questions.

i don't think he'll be a regular starter in the side. i think morientes is benitez's main man and with rafa's tendency to use one main striker and one deep lying striker, cisse and baos could find themselves fighting for one position.

as for his goalscoring, you don't score 73 goals in 142 games in league football if you're no good. ok this is a different kettle of fish but given the right service i think cisse would thrive. i noticed that he scored a lot of goals for auxerre from through balls through the centre of defence. with alonso and gerrard, we have two of the best pinpoint passers in the game.

cisse doesn't seem like the whinging type. he is not milan baros. he is just happy to be playing for such a prestigious and great club. compare this to baros who seems intent on running his mouth about possibly moving all the time, especially when he gets left out in big games.

playing cisse on the right wing would be ludicrous in the long term. see diouf.

In reply to your answers  :

-I agree i dont think he will be a regular starter (the way we want) as Mori is the definite favourite of Rafa. Hopefully this ISNT to the detriment of his scoring, as he will need a run of games (IMO) to really hit top form, in terms of scoring.

-It was the last part of my above point that led to my second question.I know full well he can score plenty of goals, and an array of different ones, from volleys, to tap ins, from diving headers to dribbling past a few and going through on goal with his pacey and powerful style.
But the thing is IF he doesnt START as often as we/he would like, then this may affect how frequently he is going to score, dont you think?

-I agree again Stmick, that he doesnt seem the type to complain, he REALLY loves the club, and would (sorry has) break a leg to play for us. Thing is though he is flamboyant and used to being the star of the team as in his Auxerre days. Obviously he KNOWS he is amongst a group of stars now, but will still want to be seen as one the TOP players at the club, if he feels he is becoming 'a bit part' player, his attitude MAY change, though I really hope it doesnt.

-This question again was sort of linked to question three. I think that if HE is happy playing out there when asked to do so, the we MAY see it happen more often, and its not as if each time we have seen him there he hasnt changed the flow of the game. But if he is constantly played out there, then this could also affect his morale and have a bearing on question three too. to be honest he does change the game when he comes on as SUB in that role, but it could never work from the start of a game, especially against any of the top teams.

[yckatbjywtbiastkamb]

playing cisse on the right wing would be ludicrous in the long term. see diouf.

just like it was ludicrous to play natural centre forward ray kennedy on the left wing?

[stmichael]

playing cisse on the right wing would be ludicrous in the long term. see diouf.

just like it was ludicrous to play natural centre forward ray kennedy on the left wing?

I'm sorry but you can't seriously compare Ray Kennedy to Djibril Cisse.

He doesn't have the close ball control needed for a good winger. He has a really good cross on him, and I think he is actually quite an aware player, but his ball control will let him down. I'm sorry but in the premiership, simply being able to run at players is not good enough. Cisse is an out and out striker and I hope to god he plays as one.

Pongolle on the other hand has good pace, and also has one of the best first touches out of anyone at the club from what I have seen. He could make the transition to a wide right player given a bit of training.

At the end of the day we still need a "natural" right winger. When you're away from home with not a lot of the ball, wingers like zenden and garcia offer no genuine pace or width so they're pretty much useless anyway.

Figo, come on down.

[LFC #1]

Agree with you on those points st mick, especially on Sinama. He played on the right a few times last season and I was quite impressed tbh. I was hoping that Rafa would use him more their, but soon after he had played a few games on the right, he got that terrible injury which ended his season prematurely.

As you said he has good pace and his first touch is excellent, and like Djib he is capable of beating a player. These are all qualities which a good winger must have and with a bit of work on the defensive side of his game and crossing ability, he could well turn out to be an excellent right winger for us.

Garcia can play there if needed, but it is clearly not his favoured position and with Nunez seemingly on his way out we are really quite short in this area. Finnan did ok when he played their last season, but I see him as our first choice right back, so we definitely need a player like Figo to come to the club.

Sinama too me looks like a real star for the future (not sure the same can be said about La Tallec though) and I hope he can stay injury free and Rafa gives him plenty of minutes this season, as he seems ready to really make a big impression on the first team if you ask me, be it up front on the right wing, time will tell.

[Ola Mr Benitez]

I think you are right saying that El Moro is Rafa's favourite, but he is not really the sort of player to be used as a lone striker.  If anything he will be the lynch pin between midfield and Cisse up front.

Raffa was supposed to be interested in taking Cisse to Valencia whe he was there so I believe he is a fan and will therefore get lots of games this season.

[DrTNT]

Great post. I believe now with the arrival of Crouch Cisse will come good because Crouch has excellent link-up play so he can really bring Cisse into play. Last season during the first two months when Cisse was playing with Baros he didn't look happy so I hope he will play well with Crouch or Morientes and so far in pre-season the signs are looking good.

[kops_revolution]

Agree wif Cisse looks like an athelete than a player on the field. He has pace but if he can't prove his level in premier league, i would recommend him to be an athelete.