by JBG » Tue Apr 20, 2004 9:45 am
You Smicer supporters are obviously watching a different player to what I have seen in the last 5 years: either that or Liverpool have sunk so low that your expectations of what a good player is is in the gutter.
Smicer has some good technical ability but thats about it as far as I can see. He has little or no pace, little strength, and for a player of his technical ability his vision and reading of the game is below par.
The worst thing about Smicer is there is absolutely no end product whatsoever to his modest abilities.
Stu says Smicer showed some flashes of creativity against Fulham, which is true to a point. However, it must be remembered that the Fulham game was absolute trash with little or no spark on view and in the land of the blind the one eyed man is king.......
His run in the first half sums up Smicer completely. He made some good interchanges with other players and progressed up the field to the Fulham box nicely, but when he received the ball back from Cheyrou all he could muster was a pathetic and weak side footed effort which Van Der Saar threw his cap at.
I have watched Smicer with interest for the past 5 years and I have seen him play well at times, most notably when he has come on as a sub where we were losing games (Basle away last season, Charlton away this season) and showed some good touches and scored consolation goals. However, I don't think I have seen a game in Smicer's 5 years where he has started from the beginning to end and has had a monumental impact on the game. I cannot think of one game that Smicer won for us.
People say he's a good squad player but I entirely disagree. A squad player is a guy who will come in and play around 25-35% games a season where other players are rested or are injured and he contributes something substantial to the team's season. In the past we had great squad players like David Fairclough, Barry Venison, Gary Gillespie and Ronnie Rosenthal (don't laugh, before Souness arrived he was a valuable member of our squad). These guys came in and rarely let the side down. I am sick of watching Smicer in space with time on the ball and ALWAYS taking the wrong option.
Stu and others: you guys are nearly as bad as my mate who declared in 1999 that Smicer was the new Peter Beardsley.
Murphy is a better player than Smicer and in 2002/03 he was probably our best player of a poor season. However, his form has dipped since then, but even at his best he's a modest enough player that pales in comparison with other guys in our competitors' squads.
As for Froobs, I think anyone that can justify Houllier's position and some of his players at the moment are exactly that.
Jolly Bob Grumbine.