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Posted:
Fri Nov 10, 2006 4:34 amby red37
the thing that wound me up with JP against birmingham was this:
clearly pennant was a loss to steve bruce's plans. obviously they would have preferred to retain his services but..not to be. so they squeezed as much out his sale to us as possible. who could blame them? besides which, the theory was that he may have been too 'good' for the championship. and, of course when your boyhood heroes come calling...what you going to do?--- you jump at the chance...you'd expect to feel proud and full of enthusiasm to set the record straight...silence the doubters-- wouldnt you 
even if you arent a fan. you are a professional footballer paid thousands to at least behave as though you are good at what you do...and do it with a bit of 'oomph' or fighting spirit at the very least. (never mind the fact that its in a red shirt)
what i was surprised at about his performance (more so on wednesday than previous run-outs) was the apparant lack of any pride in turning up at his former club and taking the utmost self-esteem out of displaying to them his new and improved standards (doesnt JP need to be taught anything new anymore?) it was hardly the heroes welcome home was it.. partly because of the lame fashion in which he seemed to take it all in in the first place..almost like saying "well ive arrived now...so f**k you"
id love Pennant to flourish at this club. he has absolutely no reason to do anything but that under Rafa. and yes, of course the lad needs confidence. he has to believe in his own stock in order to allow that to develop. even perhaps (sigh) a bit of TLC here and there...and a few of the others included.
confidence is one virtue to aspire to: that doesnt come at any other cost than one of patience/understanding and a desire to achieve. but Pride...and Hunger are two faculties that should be cast iron requisites within each and every belly that takes to the field of play when its representing Liverpool FC. regardless of the level of opposition. dont tell me thats old school now as well!
Pennant on sunday against another of his ex-employers..
the stage is set for him, ill leave it at that.
Posted:
Fri Nov 10, 2006 4:52 amby A.B.
Where's Stu when you need him? 
He isn't playing well at the moment, that's a given but he does have five or six assists in all competitions, which is more than any of our other players I believe.
Posted:
Fri Nov 10, 2006 4:56 amby red37
well (edi...) i mean said 
Posted:
Fri Nov 10, 2006 5:06 amby Houllier=LFC
What ive seen of Pennant is somehow different from some of you guys.
He held on to the ball far too long for my liking, always tries to beat defenders from the centre and ends up falling over...I had watched him since his Arsenal days and he had never impressed me as a good dribbler.
Im not saying this guy can't dribble, but that is definitely not what he is best at. A lot of times i would rather prefer him to play short passes, run into spaces and try to deliver crosses which is really his forte. We have both Crouch and Kuyt in the team who will really benefit from his quality crosses. 
For Bellamy im just worried our play might not suit him, and his finishing is pretty shocking which might also reflect a lack of confidence.
Posted:
Fri Nov 10, 2006 5:14 amby A.B.
Houllier=LFC wrote:What ive seen of Pennant is somehow different from some of you guys.
He held on to the ball far too long for my liking, always tries to beat defenders from the centre and ends up falling over...I had watched him since his Arsenal days and he had never impressed me as a good dribbler.
Im not saying this guy can't dribble, but that is definitely not what he is best at. A lot of times i would rather prefer him to play short passes, run into spaces and try to deliver crosses which is really his forte. We have both Crouch and Kuyt in the team who will really benefit from his quality crosses.
For Bellamy im just worried our play might not suit him, and his finishing is pretty shocking which might also reflect a lack of confidence.
What is our style of play exactly? All we've been doing is hoofing balls up to Bellamy whenever he's played. For some reason some of our players still think that Cisse is in the squad. There's no need to hit it long to Bellamy, he's an inteligent player. We need to start feeding him balls through the channels that he runs in on the ground, not in the air.
Posted:
Fri Nov 10, 2006 5:30 amby The Manhattan Project
He's been OK so far. He needs a long run in the team and his confidence will improve. It can't be easy coming from a 
team like Birmingham and trying to adjust to playing for Liverpool. I like him and I think he'll be alright.
Posted:
Fri Nov 10, 2006 10:00 amby tubby
Lando_Griffin wrote:red37 wrote:the thing that wound me up with JP against birmingham was this:
clearly pennant was a loss to steve bruce's plans. obviously they would have preferred to retain his services but..not to be. so they squeezed as much out his sale to us as possible. who could blame them? besides which, the theory was that he may have been too 'good' for the championship. and, of course when your boyhood heroes come calling...what you going to do?--- you jump at the chance...you'd expect to feel proud and full of enthusiasm to set the record straight...silence the doubters-- wouldnt you
even if you arent a fan. you are a professional footballer paid thousands to at least behave as though you are good at what you do...and do it with a bit of 'oomph' or fighting spirit at the very least. (never mind the fact that its in a red shirt)
what i was surprised at about his performance (more so on wednesday than previous run-outs) was the apparant
lack of any pride in turning up at his former club and taking the utmost self-esteem out of displaying to them his new and improved standards (doesnt JP
need to be taught anything new anymore?) it was hardly the heroes welcome home was it.. partly because of the lame fashion in which he seemed to take it all in in the first place..almost like saying "well ive arrived now...so f**k you"
id love Pennant to flourish at this club. he has absolutely no reason to do anything but that under Rafa. and yes, of course the lad needs confidence. he has to believe in his own stock in order to allow that to develop. even perhaps (sigh) a bit of TLC here and there...and a few of the others included.
confidence is one virtue to aspire to: that doesnt come at any other cost than one of patience/understanding and a desire to achieve. but Pride...and Hunger are two faculties that should be cast iron requisites within each and every belly that takes to the field of play when its representing Liverpool FC. regardless of the level of opposition. dont tell me thats old school now as well!
Pennant on sunday against another of his ex-employers..
the stage is set for him, ill leave it at that.
The only glimpse of Pennant on a stage this season mate is when he was sweeping up at the Paladium.
Pull your f*cking socks up you idle tw*t or f*ck off back to Birmingham to be another nearly-man.
At Liverpool, if you have talent then effort = respect = confidence = results.
Do you get it, Gimp?
Thats a bit harsh Lando, he hasnt done that bad. Ok he hasnt been going past players at every oportunity but he has shown hes a good crosser of the ball. And he showed good play against Reading the other night as well as early on in the season when he helped to create Bellamys goal against Macabi Haifa.
Now that Momo is out for a considerable amount of time im sure Rafa will have had a word with Jermaine and said to him that he will be getting more playing time now that Stevie will most likley move to the centre.
I say make your judgment on him after the new year.
Oh and A.B as for Stu, i have tried a few times to get him back on the forum after we put our little barmy behind us but I dont think hes really interested.
Posted:
Fri Nov 10, 2006 9:00 pmby Feeney
A lot of posts have said that Pennant is lacking confidence - seriously, he's not that type of kid that suffers from it. He's very cocksure and has a enormous amount of self belief.
I've posted in the League Title thread in the Advanced Forum my initial thought on Pennant - and on current form they are ringing true (unfortunately). I always thought of Pennant as a half decent sized fish in a small pond at Birmingham and didn't really believe he had the grade, so to speak.
I also touched on his criminal conviction and how, for any potential employer across the land, this represented a huge gamble. How indeed.
So far, this is a gamble that simply isn't paying off IMO. I want the lad to do well, of course, but I don't believe he has the conviction nor the will to succeed as maybe a Kuyt, Sissoko or Agger has. He seems content to plod and as such his performances are reflecting that attitude.
He has, in his defence put in some 'decent' performances. Decent and some, in my book don't cut any sort of mustard at the minute. He will get his place back by default this weekend and this should be a real opportunity to stamp his place in the side and also in the supporters hearts. Alas, I don't believe that this will come to pass to my dismay.
Posted:
Sat Nov 11, 2006 2:06 pmby kirankara
i think ppl are very quick to judge lad, it was only season ago ppl slagging momo off 4 being rubbish, but now we are very dependant on him, i think ill reserve judgement 4 while yet, think hes improving over time continually.
Posted:
Sat Nov 11, 2006 2:56 pmby Cool Hand Luke
Expressed my thoughts on Pennant before he arrived. Though he would have been worth a gamble for a few million a couple of years ago but having seen him play regularly in the Premiership realised he wasn’t up to playing at this level, decent mid table player, nothing else.
Posted:
Sat Nov 11, 2006 4:58 pmby coddy
waste of money, thus far. I hope he can prove some people wrong and deserve the England call up he has been talkin about.
Posted:
Sun Nov 12, 2006 1:05 pmby floppo
Think it's a bit early to be judging him and Bellamy, although both haven't been great so far.
Pennant needs to play more consecutive games but can't see it happening, I wouldn't trust him to do the job today and would play Gerrard on the right and Rafa may well do this. It's gonna be difficult for JP because unfortunately he won't play all the time.
Bellamy is more likely to come good for us, he has a better track record than JP, scoring plenty of goals last season at Blackburn - he also will need a run in the team though.
Posted:
Sun Nov 12, 2006 1:14 pmby Ciggy
Cisse played better on the wing than Pennant FACT.
Posted:
Sun Nov 12, 2006 1:24 pmby dawson99
Geard gets more crosses in for us than anyone tho, 50 so far this season i have read... i'll give penannt a bit longer tho