Liverpool FC Forum

by **Reinas No.1 Fan** » Thu Dec 29, 2005 12:09 am

I wasnt in favour of signing him back in the early summer, but when we did it occured to me why Rafa did sign him. I have always been a fan of him and previous to the wigan game I seemed to be one of the only few who stood by him, He played so well worked so hard all he couldnt do was score.

Crouch is a good signing as was all of the summer ones Obviously i cant co :censored:

the youngsters but on reserves results there quite good.

by **mighty mo** » Thu Dec 29, 2005 12:19 am

rafa had a similar striker when he managed at valencia in john carew,who is also brilliant at holding the ball up and bringing midsfielders in the the game,he doesn't care about your typical 25 plus goals striker ,he likes his teams to spread the goals around and we are seeing it with the reds with gerrard garcia alonso kewell scoring and getting planty of oppertunities to score with crouch being instrumental in this way and system rafa wants liverpool to implement

by **The Manhattan Project** » Thu Dec 29, 2005 12:28 am

He played very well tonight.

Actually, he's played excellently ever since we signed him and showed a tremendous amo :censored:

of character when he was looking for his first goal, despite the London media's attention.

Well done Crouch. :grinning:

by **mighty mo** » Thu Dec 29, 2005 12:30 am

why is the word am.o :censored:

being censored,it has happened on the game thread as well

by **7_Kewell** » Thu Dec 29, 2005 12:32 am

Crouch is looking the complete player now and i'm confident he will net at least 15 this season.

by **bigmick** » Thu Dec 29, 2005 1:27 am

Jeez it seems everybody was well infavour of signing him when his name first cropped up

There's me thinking that one or two had doubts, but it seems Phil was the only Liverpool supporter in the entire universe who didn't like the idea. Mind you, he's clueless that fella

by **greenred** » Thu Dec 29, 2005 2:04 am

bigmick wrote:Jeez it seems everybody was well infavour of signing him when his name first cropped up There's me thinking that one or two had doubts, but it seems Phil was the only Liverpool supporter in the entire universe who didn't like the idea. Mind you, he's clueless that fella

I was crying out for a Niall Quinn type striker ten years ago Mick so Crouchie was never a surprise to me.A good coach like Rafa would always appreciate the advantages of a beanpole striker like Crouch.His touch on the ground has surprised me though,i never realised he was that good.

by **TheoRacle** » Thu Dec 29, 2005 2:08 am

bigmick wrote:Sorry mate, in no way do I mean to take the p!ss I genuinely do enjoy reading your stuff.

Thanks bigmick - no offence taken. Happy to hear that my posts at least get some people thinking.

stu_the_red wrote:
Owzat wrote:
TheoRacle wrote:Tbh when your team enjoys an average of more than 55% posession and has 14 shots each game any decent striker should be embarrased not to get well into double figures in a season! I'm still to be convinced though, that dollar for dollar we've got the best return on 7 million quid that we could have.

Don't get me wrong, I think Crouch is definately a good player but we've seen this season that we are definately missing a player who can convert chances more often. Crouch's strike rate (based on stats for all comps up to and including to Dec 18 courtesy of ESPN Soccernet) is 3 goals from 41 shots. The much maligned Cisse has 13 goals from 38 shots (and I am not particularly a fan of Cisse either), Henry has 13 from 54, Drogba 10 from 41, Owen 12 from 17 and for fans of Yakubu he has 11 from 29. The claim is that Crouch offers more than just goal scoring but I don't see a proportionately high number of assists from him either. Yes he has shown some great touch and laid off a few good balls that have resulted in goals but Liverpool fans are hard to please - we expect nothing less upfront.

At the end of the day, Crouch and his fellow strikers have some big boots to fill (yes I know - he does actually have very big feet but you get the gist!). As long as we're scoring a couple of goals each game we have the luxury of saying "Wow, what a great game Peter had, a couple of nice touches, he made a great chance for Stevie and wasn't he unl y not score from one of the 4 chances of his own?' But if the goals from midfield dry up for a week or two we'll all be saying where are our strikers again.

I have to agree, Crouch may have good touches and play some good passes but for a striker over £5m you expect a better goals return. I think a few are getting carried away with his sudden run of goals having said they don't matter, two against Saprissa plus a couple of dubious ones hardly co s as prolific. And the fact remains our defence is keeping us right up there, 22 goals in 16 games simply isn't good enough overall

And before I get slagged off for not jumping on the Crouch bandwagon I've never said he is a player I just think the pro-Crouch fans are way too willing to give him credit for breathing and when someone only ever looks at the positives you question whether they are looking at it from an objective viewpoint

This is people talking rubbish as usual.

Stu could you clarify who's talking rubbish please... I feel your being a bit harsh whomever your comment is directed to.

To clarify my position, whilst being in the group who have been pleasantly surprised by his performances to date - not particluarly rating him at all when at Southampton, I still feel that LFC's finishing 'problem' is epitomised by PC.

Now I know that plenty of people have differing views on the value of statistics but I find them a useful way illustrating my point so please bear with me.

After today's matches, Liverpool stand 5th from bottom in the shots converted stats with a 10.2% conversion rate. To put this in perspective for you, only Sunderland, Birmingham, Portsmouth and Everton are below us. Surprisingly, West Ham top the list with 15.9% while Chelsea and Spurs are in 2nd and 3rd. This is why Cheslea with roughly the same number of shots per games as us have 41 goals for and we only have 25.

What this means is that Peter Crouch can work his ar$e off along with the rest of team and create chance after chance, opening after opening but if no-one, PC included, can convert their chances we are putting extra pressure on our (solid but lacking in cover) defense to keep clean sheets week after week. If we let in one goal, we end up with a nail biter even though we are routinely peppering the opposition goal. One quick break is all it takes - anyone care to remember the Chelsea game?

Perhaps another way of looking at it is to put it this way. PC thanks to his excellent work rate, touch, technique, intelligence etc, etc, has got himself into a postion for an attempt on goal 44 times this season and scored 6 times. If his finishing was as good as the rest of his attributes perhaps we'd already have someone in double figures and a lot more games would be in the bag by half time.

by **banana** » Thu Dec 29, 2005 2:21 am

bigmick wrote:Jeez it seems everybody was well infavour of signing him when his name first cropped up There's me thinking that one or two had doubts, but it seems Phil was the only Liverpool supporter in the entire universe who didn't like the idea. Mind you, he's clueless that fella

FWIW biggie I was a big fan of liverpool signing him. Just go back in time and have a look at the threads. I knew what he was going to give us, and he has delivered just that. An amazing player, almost impossible to deal with for the defenders and a true team player. Crouch will both score goals, link up with his team mates and cause havoc whenever he is inside the box and there is a decent cross coming his way. Also he is deadly on set pieces and a valuable defender on defensive set pieces. Brilliant signing.

by **vlady16.1** » Thu Dec 29, 2005 2:52 am

man forget what we paid forget if we had concerns, the man is the real thing

when crouchie scored little vlad took his treat ( he gets one after every goal and good save) and left the room -- he was satisfied and he knows footie

but when he came to his mates aid -- thats when i realized just what we got -- take the red card(glad he didn't get one) just show em you're a man not some fancy pants-- he won't score 20( hope i'm wrong) but remember i always have ranted that you won't win with foriegners you need boys who will bleed for the team -- peter showed what he was today

the man plays a team game and bless him he takes alot of **** for it in the press

maybe cisse can learn from him what a team-mate is :buttrock

by **A.B.** » Thu Dec 29, 2005 5:04 am

bigmick wrote:Jeez it seems everybody was well infavour of signing him when his name first cropped up There's me thinking that one or two had doubts, but it seems Phil was the only Liverpool supporter in the entire universe who didn't like the idea. Mind you, he's clueless that fella

I didn't want us to sign Crouch, he was the last player I wanted to see in the Red shirt. But, I didn't critisize him. I've seen him play for Soton and knew what he did for them, I was mostly upset about the price tag more than anything.

by **GOAT** » Thu Dec 29, 2005 5:25 am

I was one who was doubting the signing of crouch and i think most of you were, dont lie. Now hes proving all of us wrong and the opposing fans cant seem to be able to give him much stick anymore

by **welsh wizzard** » Thu Dec 29, 2005 12:24 pm

Loook 7m spent on crouch now looks money well spent, when you consider we sold baros for the same ammo :censored:

. Then there is talk of ashton going for the same ammo :censored:

, I know which player i would prefer now so i wish people would stop going on about the price tag 7m in todays game is not expensive for a centre forward. Crouch will probably score more goals than baros,beattie,saha,etc is a more complete player with alot more to his game than any of these.Need i say more...................

by **drummerphil** » Thu Dec 29, 2005 12:51 pm

bigmick wrote:Jeez it seems everybody was well infavour of signing him when his name first cropped up There's me thinking that one or two had doubts, but it seems Phil was the only Liverpool supporter in the entire universe who didn't like the idea. Mind you, he's clueless that fella

At least i admit i thought he was sh!te mick and way way overpriced at 7 million..........I have since eaten my words and said i was wrong......the guy looks class and worth every penny,even if he dosnt score what he gives to the team is immense.

What amazes me though the month leading up to him signing every other fan on here were saying WTF hes :censored:

etc etc....
Where are they all now......there are some feckin good liers on here.

by **bigmick** » Thu Dec 29, 2005 1:23 pm

drummerphil wrote:
bigmick wrote:Jeez it seems everybody was well infavour of signing him when his name first cropped up There's me thinking that one or two had doubts, but it seems Phil was the only Liverpool supporter in the entire universe who didn't like the idea. Mind you, he's clueless that fella

At least i admit i thought he was sh!te mick and way way overpriced at 7 million..........I have since eaten my words and said i was wrong......the guy looks class and worth every penny,even if he dosnt score what he gives to the team is immense.

What amazes me though the month leading up to him signing every other fan on here were saying WTF hes etc etc....
Where are they all now......there are some feckin good liers on here.

Spot on Phil, everybody slagged him and even out of those that were optimistic for his prospects, almost nobody thought he was worth 7 mill'. The road to Damascus is going to need some of the Hustlers mates to do a resurfacing job such is the volume of foot traffic down it as far as Crouchino is concerned. At least you're big enough to admit he's proved you wrong bud' :bowdown

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