Gareth Bale has been named the PFA Player of the Year after the season he has enjoyed with Tottenham. There is no doubt that Bale is a good player and he has probably caught many peoples attention this season with his great wing play down the left and his blistering pace. Bale has also shown that he has an eye for goal which is always an asset for a winger. But at Liverpool, we have Dirk Kuyt who most of the time finds himself playing wide on the right. Kuyt is not an out and out winger like Bale as he does not have the pace and trickery of Bale but with Kuyt you know what you will get : sheer hard work. But hard work is not all you get out of Dirk, you are assured of some goals and assists.
Just looking at the stats this season between Kuyt and Bale in the Premier League (source ESPN Soccernet):
Kuyt: 27 games started, 10 goals, 52 shots, 25 shots on goal, 5 assists and 25 fouls suffered.
Bale: 26 games started, 7 goals, 54 shots, 23 shots on goal, 1 assist and 50 fouls suffered.
Looking at those stats, the first thing that catches my attention is the number of assists Bale has had this season : One! This in a team where he is an out and out winger and has the likes of Crouch to assist. Whilst Dirk was playing most of the season with a striker who looked disinterested in the game in Fernando Torres, but Kuyt has managed to rack up 5 assists.
Their shooting ratios are virtually the same so we can not look much into that. Kuyt has more goals than Bale but Kuyt is aided by the fact that he takes penalties for Liverpool. But the bottom line is that Kuyt has scored more goals this season than Bale. As Rafa would say, “That is a fact!” It makes sense for Bale to have suffered more fouls as he is a target for opposing defenders due to his sheer pace.
There is no doubt that Tottenham have had a better season than Liverpool but that just goes to show how well Kuyt has played in a team which has not been that successful (up until Dalglish took over). What many people also tend to forget is how instrumental Kuyt was for Holland in the World Cup last year.
As much as Bale is all flashy and catching peoples attention, I would much rather have Kuyt in the team ahead of him!
Just coz the car has a rear spoiler and racing stripes doesn’t mean it goes fast! Dirk all the way!!!
haaaaahaaa, you cant be serious!? liverfools glaring problem is having no wingers. kuyt is a good player granted and puts in a real shift always but a better player ? no chance. would imagine most scousers would swap him in the blink of an eye .
kuyt has scored 10 goals in his last 11 games for Liverpool and Holland, nuff said really!!!!
Sorry my man, I have been a Red for 30 of my 34 years and I have always appreciated LFC players who intelligently use the ball and retain possession, thats what the principles of our club is built on and that is exactly the opposite of what Dirk is, my kindest description of him is the “antiAlonso”. His passing and use of the ball is abysmal, yes he scores in the big games but Carlton Cole scores against the big clubs also it doesnt make him a good player. If we want a player who puts in a shift and closes down the opposition Im sure there are plenty of hungry players in the reserves who can carry out the same task but would have much better passing ability. The Dirk fan club amazes me. Please tell me I am not alone?
tottenham are above liverpool.
bale won the player of the year, kuyt didnt.
everyone knows bales better.
nuff said really!!!!
tottenham are above liverpool.
bale won the player of the year, kuyt didnt.
everyone knows bale’s better.
nuff said really!!!!
Tottenham might be higher up the league. But don’t worry we’ll send Roy down there with you guys once Harry gets the England job.
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha Ron….good one we’ll swap Bale for Krgyiakos sure lol what a prize twat
9EINVs vsmyiznrbfed
Ur best at farming. Stay there, don’t come out.
The heading made me laugh so much I had to click on the link. Has anyone noticed the disparity in fouls suffered. I wonder how many assists and goals Kuyt would’ve contributed has he suffered the same attention Bale gets. Not dissing Kuyt though – top player and would be welcome at Spurs.
Ur class mate.
Look at the assists??
As they say you can make anything from staistics!
The thing is Spurs efforts at goal have been anything but prolific this season compared to previous. Opportunities from nothing created by Bale have been phenomenal and by far outweigh anything DK has created. Also, the amount of creative chances made in comparison would be in Bales side I would say. They both do their fair share of grafting at the back. Why not include tackles made etc? Maybe 50 fouls suffered shows just how hard it is to get the ball from Bale and the attempts made that have failed also? (like I said you can make what you want of stats).
I think a bit more thought should have been put forward before this article went to print.
Fact is, I think Prem players know the game a lot better than you or I, so who are we to argue?
Rob, do you not need to be out to work on a farm?
FAIL
@Farmdog – If ur good at farms and dogs. Then that’s ur baby, u can keep it. But i don’t have anything against the work.
When someone writes Roy, but the farmer sees Ron. Then we have a point.
I totally agree 200% A Liverpool player needs to be more than a worker especially if he’s a winger/striker. It will be hard/impossible for us to win the league with him on the wing for the whole season..But he works so hard maybe he picked the wrong sport because I do love his attitude for work, it’s a shame he’s no quality or vision :/
Kuyt is good because of his terrific work rate. Be an asset to any team but Bale is a world class match winner, which i don’t think Kuyt is.
Also stats lie. The assist thing is nonsense. Say Bale runs down the wing. He crosses it, Crouch heads it down to Van Der Vaart who scores. Crouch is credited with an assist which is fine but Bale is not. He could have beaten three men and placed the ball on Crouch’s head. It counts for nothing because he is not the last player to pass to the scorer.
Original author of the post ‘Why Dirk Kuyt is better than Garth Bale'(ha ha ha ha ha ha pure brilliant) was called Ron. BIG FAIL now jog on
Funny, funny article. Obviously written by someone clueless or with red tinted goggles. Kuyt has been a bit better than his headless chicken self this season but he’s still pretty average and would struggle at most other teams. Lets not forget that Bale is young, has missed a lot of the season and gets double marked in most games. Not only is Kuyt allowed more freedom but has also started far more games with a lot coming up front.
Not sure why I even bothered replying to this article.
Funny
Well, you’ve convinced me. We will swap you Bale for Dirk and give 10M on top.
Oh, wait. No, we won’t, because that would be stupid.
Bale is younger, faster, and has more potential. He has created a boatload of chances that more clinical strikers (which we don’t have) would have turned into goals.
Dirk is a good player; I don’t say otherwise, but Bale will be one of the greats. If you asked all 20 league managers–including Kenny–if they wanted Dirk or Bale, I bet each would go for Bale.
can’t mate – I think you probably are!!!!
The above was a reply to Brianom (1459)
I am a huge (unbiased) Liverpool fan and to see the title of this thread made me laugh.
There is no comparison between the two. Bale is in his very early 20s and is already a better player than Dirk Kuyt will ever be.
Ok, Dirk has banged in a few penalties to up his goal ratio and work’s hard but then again so are carthourses.
Dirk Kuyt has very limited footballing ability, he can’t head, he can’t shoot, his passing is woeful and don’t even mention his dribbling. As I said, he works hard but that shouldn’t cloud people’s judgement. He was never worth the money we paid for him (as a striker) and nothing has changed.
Bale every time.
Typical Spurs fan clinging desperately onto their one good season!
Enjoy it while it lasts, the fans of other similar small clubs like Norwich, Wigan, Bolton, Blackburn etc have all done the same.
how old are you lee, 9? spurs rank as the 4th most succesful team in england with one of the biggest followings in the country, your football knowledge is awesome…
I do agree Kuyt is underrated (by many) and Bale overrated (by most) but assists can be hard to measure, for e.g a Bale cross getting knocked down by Crouch for someone else to score wouldnt (afaik) go down as an assist for Bale.
GARETH BALE IS A BETTER PLAYER THAN DIRK KUYT BUT THIS SEASON DIRK KUYT HAS FAR BETTER STATS.