Liverpool FC Forum

[Scottbot]

I know this link was posted up the other day but it gives a bit of insight into the formation Hodgson is more likely to play. You get the impression that 3-5-2 is the least likely.

http://www.uefa.com/trainin....ay=true

He does some analysis of 4-4-2, 4-5-1 and also 3-5-2. Comse across very well + as a man who knows his football.

[dundreamin]

I think babel may be a revelation under Hodgson, i get the impression that he,s a type of player who may respond to a father figure. And i believe that Hodgson is that kind oe manager. Time will tell.and i think kuyt will be utilised properly

[maypaxvobiscum]

:D I'm not, however I'm just trying to get my head around why some people are so nervous about how successful the new manager will be at buying players. I'm nervous about some things too with regards the new manager which is why I totally understand if people have reservations.

well even if he does buy a couple of players for 20million, im sure he would've enough sense to play them instead of wrapping them up in cotton wool, blaming the chairman for buying the player or selling them 6 months later.

[bigmick]

I think babel may be a revelation under Hodgson, i get the impression that he,s a type of player who may respond to a father figure. And i believe that Hodgson is that kind oe manager. Time will tell.and i think kuyt will be utilised properly

With Babel we are about to find out once and for all. Perhaps we already know what he's like and he is actually just a doughnut, but hope springs eternal that somewhere inside that thick head, there is a footballers mentality waiting to come out.


If it was me, I wouldn't try and complicate things too much for him. I'd play him up top, and I'd tell him to run the channels, the opposite side to Torres if he remembers. I'd tell him not to be afraid of dropping in, and when he gets it to try and get it on the half turn so he can set off. From there, I'd tell him to let it flow. Run with it, hit it, blast it, lay it off and get in the box etc etc. He's the type of lad that needs to operating at somewhere near his maximum confidence level in order to produce, but if he did get ona  run he could be anything. Lets get him doing what we know he can do well occasionally, and the stuff we know he can't do lets just give up on it.

No more harsh words for not tracking back enough, no more telling him to practice crossing with his left or berating him for lack of vision. Tell him to go out there and run at people, make things happen. Lets do that, and see exactly what we've got on our hands.

[Benny The Noon]

I think babel may be a revelation under Hodgson, i get the impression that he,s a type of player who may respond to a father figure. And i believe that Hodgson is that kind oe manager. Time will tell.and i think kuyt will be utilised properly

With Babel we are about to find out once and for all. Perhaps we already know what he's like and he is actually just a doughnut, but hope springs eternal that somewhere inside that thick head, there is a footballers mentality waiting to come out.


If it was me, I wouldn't try and complicate things too much for him. I'd play him up top, and I'd tell him to run the channels, the opposite side to Torres if he remembers. I'd tell him not to be afraid of dropping in, and when he gets it to try and get it on the half turn so he can set off. From there, I'd tell him to let it flow. Run with it, hit it, blast it, lay it off and get in the box etc etc. He's the type of lad that needs to operating at somewhere near his maximum confidence level in order to produce, but if he did get ona  run he could be anything. Lets get him doing what we know he can do well occasionally, and the stuff we know he can't do lets just give up on it.

No more harsh words for not tracking back enough, no more telling him to practice crossing with his left or berating him for lack of vision. Tell him to go out there and run at people, make things happen. Lets do that, and see exactly what we've got on our hands.

Babel has never really played up top at any time in his career - for Ajax and Dutch (Under 21 and Full team) he played in that dutch left forward role which enabled him to cut inside to shoot . As a striker he has some great attributes - pace and power but he could only play as someone running onto balls played through - he doesnt have the game brain to run the channels or play people in or hold the ball up - his touch is awful and his awarenss even worse - whenever he has started and in whatever position he has been truely awful - he has only seemed dangerous when coming of the bench .

[bigmick]

I think babel may be a revelation under Hodgson, i get the impression that he,s a type of player who may respond to a father figure. And i believe that Hodgson is that kind oe manager. Time will tell.and i think kuyt will be utilised properly

With Babel we are about to find out once and for all. Perhaps we already know what he's like and he is actually just a doughnut, but hope springs eternal that somewhere inside that thick head, there is a footballers mentality waiting to come out.


If it was me, I wouldn't try and complicate things too much for him. I'd play him up top, and I'd tell him to run the channels, the opposite side to Torres if he remembers. I'd tell him not to be afraid of dropping in, and when he gets it to try and get it on the half turn so he can set off. From there, I'd tell him to let it flow. Run with it, hit it, blast it, lay it off and get in the box etc etc. He's the type of lad that needs to operating at somewhere near his maximum confidence level in order to produce, but if he did get ona  run he could be anything. Lets get him doing what we know he can do well occasionally, and the stuff we know he can't do lets just give up on it.

No more harsh words for not tracking back enough, no more telling him to practice crossing with his left or berating him for lack of vision. Tell him to go out there and run at people, make things happen. Lets do that, and see exactly what we've got on our hands.

Babel has never really played up top at any time in his career - for Ajax and Dutch (Under 21 and Full team) he played in that dutch left forward role which enabled him to cut inside to shoot . As a striker he has some great attributes - pace and power but he could only play as someone running onto balls played through - he doesnt have the game brain to run the channels or play people in or hold the ball up - his touch is awful and his awarenss even worse - whenever he has started and in whatever position he has been truely awful - he has only seemed dangerous when coming of the bench .

Hmmm. Well if he's "never really played there", my idea is to give him a shot. Not for a half, or for a match, but for half a dozen matches and lets see what he's got. "Left forward" for me qualifies as up top in any case, so lets give him a shot.

He isn't a left winger in any case, we know that. My suspicion is he wouldn't be that good in goal, or anywhere accross the back four or in central midfield. That leaves right midfield, or up top. Let's give him a shot as a striker. If he isn't better than David N'Gog, then I'm not fat.

[Benny The Noon]

I think babel may be a revelation under Hodgson, i get the impression that he,s a type of player who may respond to a father figure. And i believe that Hodgson is that kind oe manager. Time will tell.and i think kuyt will be utilised properly

With Babel we are about to find out once and for all. Perhaps we already know what he's like and he is actually just a doughnut, but hope springs eternal that somewhere inside that thick head, there is a footballers mentality waiting to come out.


If it was me, I wouldn't try and complicate things too much for him. I'd play him up top, and I'd tell him to run the channels, the opposite side to Torres if he remembers. I'd tell him not to be afraid of dropping in, and when he gets it to try and get it on the half turn so he can set off. From there, I'd tell him to let it flow. Run with it, hit it, blast it, lay it off and get in the box etc etc. He's the type of lad that needs to operating at somewhere near his maximum confidence level in order to produce, but if he did get ona  run he could be anything. Lets get him doing what we know he can do well occasionally, and the stuff we know he can't do lets just give up on it.

No more harsh words for not tracking back enough, no more telling him to practice crossing with his left or berating him for lack of vision. Tell him to go out there and run at people, make things happen. Lets do that, and see exactly what we've got on our hands.

Babel has never really played up top at any time in his career - for Ajax and Dutch (Under 21 and Full team) he played in that dutch left forward role which enabled him to cut inside to shoot . As a striker he has some great attributes - pace and power but he could only play as someone running onto balls played through - he doesnt have the game brain to run the channels or play people in or hold the ball up - his touch is awful and his awarenss even worse - whenever he has started and in whatever position he has been truely awful - he has only seemed dangerous when coming of the bench .

Hmmm. Well if he's "never really played there", my idea is to give him a shot. Not for a half, or for a match, but for half a dozen matches and lets see what he's got. "Left forward" for me qualifies as up top in any case, so lets give him a shot.

He isn't a left winger in any case, we know that. My suspicion is he wouldn't be that good in goal, or anywhere accross the back four or in central midfield. That leaves right midfield, or up top. Let's give him a shot as a striker. If he isn't better than David N'Gog, then I'm not fat.

Can teams afford to give players that many games to see if they work out ? in 6 games you could lose a hell of a lot and going by his previous form its likely that in those 6 games he still wouldnt impress - he has been with us how long now ? he hasnt had a run of games becuase he hasnt shown he deserves them . While Ngog isnt the best the lad still found the net plenty of times and certainly on numerous occasions looked more dangerous than babel has ever done .

[bigmick]

Right. So you'd leave N'gog in there, I wouldn't, I'd give Babel a go. We disagree, it's Ok. No need to fire off twenty seven questions, just accept we disagree and there we are. As the thread was talking about players who could come in and do a job, one of my picks was Babel. Anyway....

[Benny The Noon]

well their records are pretty even with babel playing the odd more game but scoring the odd goal less than Ngog . But if you want to risk 6 games of totally inactivity of Babel over 6 games " just to give him chance" then dont be surprised if once again he disappoints like he has done many times over the last 3 previous seasons .

[tubby]

Babel will get a go, will be like a fresh start for him. And you know what I really want him to do well for us. Thing is doesn't he have like just under 2 years left on his contract? Hopefully he still wants to play for us.

[Benny The Noon]

Think he is one of the players who is prob thankful to our owners - if rafa would of been given the full ten million to spend that brum offered in jan I think he would of gone . If he gets a chance he has got to grab it and prove he can be a player his potential has threatened

[PabloAimar]

Babel played well on the right a few times, so rafa put him back on the left.

[Owzat]

Think he is one of the players who is prob thankful to our owners - if rafa would of been given the full ten million to spend that brum offered in jan I think he would of gone . If he gets a chance he has got to grab it and prove he can be a player his potential has threatened

If you are constantly worrying that we won't get the full fee from sales to spend on new players then we might as well not sell anyone and just attempt to get by on whatever funds are made available.

The only way to assess Babel is performances on the pitch against bids made. He is not currently proving worth £5m let alone £10m, hanging onto him because we might only have been able to spend say £5m of it is false economy because those kind of bids may not come in again.

Babel played 25 times in the Premiership last season

Games 01-19

P9 W2 D2 L5 PTS 8 (out of 27)
Start = P3 W0 D1 L2
Sub = P6 W2 D1 L3 (goals = 2, both vs Hull)

Games 20-38

P15 W8 D3 L4 PTS 27 (out of 45)
Start = P8 W4 D1 L3 (goals = 2)
Sub = P7 W4 D3 L1

So his record starting is not so clever, may only have been 11 games but Liverpool lost five which is just under half. Can we afford to have a sub who cost £11.5m but makes little impact most of the time?!? Surely cashing in and spending the money on a better value for money purchase would be more prudent?

That said, he might suddenly start playing under Woy, I'd consider starting him and looking at selling before the window closes if he doesn't make a great start. May sound a tad harsh, but frankly he hasn't shown much since arriving and he's had 82 bites at the cherry in the Premiership alone, so it's not like he hasn't had chances. Noone expected him to come on and dribble through defences and score winners every other game, just to look like a quality footballer from time to time would have done. And that business/quote about not passing to team-mates did him few favours

He is like John Barnes in reverse, Barnes was brilliant for us and not so for England. Babel is not so for us, but seems a lot better in orange.

[dundreamin]

I know let's get babel a ginger wig and put him on the bench,that should do the trick! David babel i like that name:D

[RED BEERGOGGLES]

With Babel we are about to find out once and for all. Perhaps we already know what he's like and he is actually just a doughnut, but hope springs eternal that somewhere inside that thick head,
No more harsh words for not tracking back enough, no more telling him to practice crossing with his left or berating him for lack of vision. Tell him to go out there and run at people, make things happen. Lets do that, and see exactly what we've got on our hands.

I can now cease my frantic search for a term that best  describes Ryan  Babel .... Doughnut sums him up perfectly cheers Mick