In amongst Kenny Dalglish’s many signings this summer, Charlie Adam was heralded by the majority of Liverpool fans as the best of the lot. Coming off the back of the best season of his career, the £7m signing came with the reputation as the man to finally replace Xabi Alonso.
Adam’s superhuman performances for Blackpool even led many to compare him to Steven Gerrard. Both were the heartbeat of their teams; consistently spraying passes from a deep-lying position, swinging set-pieces into dangerous areas and scoring important goals.
Indeed, Adam began his Liverpool career in the same vein. On his debut for the club, the Scot’s superb free-kick was flicked on by Luis Suarez to give Liverpool the lead. In the next home game, Adam scored his first Liverpool goal just a week after helping the side to their first win at Arsenal in 11 years.
However, things soon turned sour. A potent Tottenham Hotspurs side exposed Adam’s chronic lack of pace, resulting in a red card within half an hour.
With Steven Gerrard missing the start of the season, Adam looked to provide the side with a creative outlet, but this often led to wayward 60 yard passes when a shorter, simpler pass would have sufficed.
With Dalglish often deciding on a 4-4-2 system, Charlie Adam’s lethargic movement came to be highlighted by opposition teams, who began to see this as a weak point in the Liverpool team. Lucas Leiva’s long-term injury certainly did not help matters and only served to further highlight Adam’s defensive frailties.
By far and away the most frustrating aspect of Adam’s Liverpool career so far though is his woeful delivery from set-pieces. At Blackpool he was lauded – and rightly so – up and down the country for his wicked, teasing deliveries which led to many goals for the Seasiders.
In contrast, he has struggled terribly to replicate this sort of service on Merseyside. Far too often, his weak corners and free-kicks are cleared by the defender at the near-post.
Despite looking like a man in his late-thirties, Charlie Adam is still only 26 years old. When Lucas is reinstated in the team, Adam will immediately look more assured and hopefully return to the sort of form that led King Kenny to part with £7m. But as things stand, Adam faces a real fight for a starting berth.
In pre-season it was highlighted that Alberto Aquilani could boss the midfield more than Adam but it was the vision of Kenny and co and we went on to throw away more class when Raul Merelies was allowed to leave for Chelsea trusting Henderson and Adam over those two over a whole lot of class was folly, I also have to mention allowing first Babel to go and then taking Downing over Charles Ignzobia as further mistakes in the transfer window that has us paying the price, when Suarez is out of the team no one is applying that direct style and why should only one player do this Ryan Babel would have been handy.
Nzogbia has had an awful season bar one game? Not only that he has had off the field problems where as Downing is a model professional. I think the manager needs to play Downing on the left and encourage more of a traditional wing play to get the best out of Caroll
You would too if you went to Villa having waited all summer for a move to Lverpool.
We need to sell the following players in the summer :-
Charlie Adam, Glen Johnson, Kuyt and Carrol
Then Buy :-
Cavani and Hazard
Hopefully the sales might cover half the cost.
We have enough great young players ready for the first team to cover over positions.
KUYT?
You kidding me?!!!!
Is that a joke or something? Beside Gerrard, Kuyt et the only player that can get Liverpool to win. He can play in any position and he gives everything to the game. If you don’t see what he does to the team then you suck !
Hazard won’t be toi helpful. You need defence. Carragher will end his career at the end of the season. You need 2 – 3 strikers. Both of suarez and caroll havr to leave. Suarez brought nothing but shame to the team.
Liverpool deserves better. GERRARD deserves better than this. Bring back Benitez and he’ll know what yo do to make the team go to the UEFA…
Kuyt got to 50 goals……….in 6 seasons and we won our first trophy in the sixth season working hard and battling but lacking in composure, skill, pace and accuracy is not what i want on the right or up front, we need end product and his lack of mobility and accuracy means it is time to hit the road Dirk as it was at least two seasons ago….
Not going to mention Kuyt, he has been a true teamplayer and has contributed a lot, despite his lousy ball control.
Defence? Dont know what you are talking about. Carragher should have hung his boots two seasons ago, we all know why!
Besides Skrtl (who always should start at right position and never ever give the postion to Carragher) and Agger, we do have Coates for cover, who is much better than Carragher in every area. And Kelly is actually a CB.
Carragher has served us well and should have hung his boots looong ago, to give us the memory of a legend instead of a fool. I certainly hope that you are right about Carragher burning his shoes this summer (hopefully this week!).
Hazard would be perfect for us, since Gerrard (a TRUE legend) probably will continue to have his injury problems.
Carroll will probably turn out to be a good player, but never a £35m player.
Suarez besides his advert sides is pure class, but not a no 9. Cavani should do as a no 9, even in England!
Oh dear, your just another arm chair supporter. I actually go to the games and everyone you speak to agree’s that YES although Kuyt does put the effort in for £80,000 a week he should, he is slow, he has no ball control and the goals he scores are more out of luck than skill. Kuyt WOULD NOT get into a Man U, Arsenal , Chelsea or spurs team. He is getting old now and if we can sell him for Nearly £10 mill to an italian team then we should. We DONT need Glen Johnson as we have Kelly and Flanagan, so if we can also sell him for £10 mill then we should. Adam was a gamble and it didnt work, Liverpool knew this thats why we haggled so much over £7-8 mill, if we can get £5 mill then we should. Now carrol is garbage, if we can get £20 or even £15 mill then we should deffo get rid.
Now please go back to your Football Manager game and leave these forums to real supporters, goodbye.
That reply is to the muppet MIDO not Nik and Kalle
dalglish should be sack also henderson,pepe reina,charlie adam,downing should be sold to which ever club that are ready to buy them even if in low price,then give the money to a new manager to bring quality players from europe to lift our great club back to were it belongs.
What, Babel ???? ha ha ha ha. He has only scored one goal all season in Germany. How good is that?
At this time last year comment abounded on buying Adam- The genius and EPL winner. I was adamant that we did not need Adam as he was quite talentless, clumsy, prone to hacking opponents down in precarious spots and verging on a tub-of-lard physique. It all came to nothing and money was wasted on this excuse of a footballer naturally as I was told I was an idiot and NOT as knowledgeable as KD and his staff. Now of course I beg to differ as things turned out exactly as predicted . There is no point in going into why I also said we didn’t need the overrated Downing. We will never learn it seems.
I wouldn’t just blame Charlie Adam on our season the whole team has been inconsistent. I am not sure we know how to belnd all of our players together. We play narrow and play with wingers on opposite wings meaning Caroll is left plodding around like a waste of space. Charlie Adam totally bossed Liverpool last season when Blackpool did the double over us. I reckon there is some kind of motivation problem throughout our squad.
U are totally right! Adam is totally clueless, no talent what so ever! Adams best merit so far is beeing a relegation team hero, good enough for Liverpool? We have loads better amongst our young talents! Adam should only see the bench when Shelvey plays, that meaning that Adam should be left at Melwood most of the time, until someone would want to have him for free! Give him to Ferguson, only to have him in their dressingroom would dent their title aspirations!
Adam wouldnt even take place in the lineup of Kalmar FF, U dont know what team that is? Well thats the quality of Adam!
There is probably no wrong with the guy, its not his fault that he was brought to a club way over his talent!
I also agree about Downing. Worthless! Has contributed with 4 or maybe five things all season! Sterling managed that in 5 minutes!
I cant understand why Downing gets a single minute as long as Sterling stays fit?!
Must say that KD makes wrong descisions in many areas!
KD says that Sterling is to young; was God to young? Was owen to young? Sterling is of same quality and is needed in the team! Ask the lad for good sake! If he wants to play, LET HIM!
Think we have put Babel backwards in some respects but he would be more dangerous than Downing and actually nobody can see that this boy is more of a threat on the right, he plays as a striker there and played on the left for us, on the brief occasions he got on the right he produced,I clearly remember a nice cross for a Torres goal. We can’t judge him on what is happening in the German league, have a look at the logic of buying Carroll who needs crosses and get rid of Bebel for the peanuts he went for, he hardly flopped because he never got the chance of a run in the team. His first season was great although it was as a bit part player he gave some great moments. Dirk Kuyt, Henderson, Maxi and Downing are not better alternatives on the flanks actually of the current crop Johnson and Bellamy would do best on the wings so its high time we start to blood Sterling ,Shelvey,Suso morgan and Ngoo.
Small fish big pond this year!!!!
@mido, u fuckhead forgot dat it was under benitez dat we failed 2 qualify 4 europe in 2009. Leave benitez out of d discussion. I think our major problem is reina. I’v never seen reina make d heart-stoppin saves dat opposing team stoppers pulled off against us. And remember it was his clumsy goalkeepin in 2008/2009 when he’d let in an equalizing goal at d death of a game to deny us d title dat season. We need a better keeper if we ever hope to go anywhere. And yes, get a new striker. Carroll is utterly a waste of space. Adam may stil come good. A creative midfielder doesnt necessarily have to be a runner. Look at paul scholes. I believe once we have a strong defensive midfielder to play along and leave distribution to him, adam will come good.
Adam will never ever come good! he looks like 40 when he plays, and he will only get older!
We do have Shelvey, Spearing, Gerrard and I bet we have yet one or two lads in reserv team that beats Adam in every area! SAo why on earth should Adam ever reach the bench?
Anyone who ever actually thought Adam would be a success was a muppet. He wasnt even Blackpools best player last season that was David Vaughan, he tries to repeatedly hit the Holywood pass, but the vast majority of the time fails. He tries it so often though that once every now and again he pulls one off and it goes on the highlights tape and everyone seems to forget how useless he was for 89 minutes of the match.
He’s also slow, cant tackle, one of the least creative players I have ever seen, thinks hes more important to the team than Gerrard and an SPL reject.
How anyone thought he could be better than Aquilani or Merieles I dont know; Aquilani had the top assists to minutes played of any player in the top 5 european leagues whilst playing at Liverpool, yet the same people who kissed Adams behind felt that wasnt good enough. Merieles with Gerrard was about the only player last season with a good enough footballing brain to help get the best out of Suarez.