Right, just a quick one in this busy Christmas period. As a follow up to my best XI of this season's Premiership signings a couple of weeks ago, I thought that I would go to the other end of the spectrum and compile a side of the season's worst XI from signings in the 2010 summer transfer window. So here it is in all its glory (playing in a 4-4-2 formation):
GK: Brad Jones (Middlesbrough - Liverpool)
DR: James Perch (Nottingham Forest - Newcastle)
DC: Jerome Boateng (Hamburg - Manchester City)
DC: Winston Reid (Midtylland – West Ham)
DL: Paul Konchesky (Fulham - Liverpool)
MR: Stephen Ireland (Manchester City – Aston Villa)
MC: Ranieri Sandro (Internacional – Tottenham)
MC: Christian Poulsen (Juventus - Liverpool)
ML: Joe Cole (Chelsea – Liverpool)
ST: Mario Balotelli (Inter – Manchester City)
ST: Mauro Boselli (Estudiantes – Wigan)
So let's have a quick run through the team and see why each of the players had the displeasure of making such an elite squad.
Goalkeeper. Brad Jones was chosen by default really. He is the only goalkeeper that was signed who has failed to impress at his new club, obviously through a lack of playing time, so he got the gloves. Not too much to read into there though.
Defence. James Perch, on the several occasions I have seen him, has looked a quite terrible player in the Premiership. He is an example of a player who belongs in second tier football. Boateng has, in my eyes, been relatively disappointing since going to Eastlands. He has failed to live up to the hype but, to be fair, he is yet to have an extended run in the team and he may well prove to be a good signing in the future. But so far he has not seemed worth his hefty price tag. Winston Reid may be a name you don't recognise and with good reason. He has played just three times for the Hammers this season and looked largely out-of-sorts. Konchesky, despite being foolishly mentioned for my 'best signings of 2010 team', has received huge amounts of criticism from Liverpool fans since his transfer from Fulham. Maybe a disproportionate amount of blame. Nevertheless he has been the poorest left back signed.
Midfield. The midfield foursome was quite straight forward. Ireland has been in dreadful form after moving to Villa as part of the James Milner transfer. Sandro received a large price tag and has not looked worth a fraction of it. The Brazilian has struggled with the frantic pace that comes with being a central-midfielder in the Premiership. Poulsen and Cole make up the rest of the Liverpool quartet in the team. When the season was about to kick-off I said these were both good signings for the Merseysiders but how wrong I was. Both have been impressively poor in the disturbingly below-par Liverpool team.
Strikers. Boselli came from Argentina with a good reputation. He had scored 32 goals in 56 games for Estudiantes but has failed to score in eight for Wigan. His partner up top, Mario Balotelli. Big transfer fee, huge wages and even bigger ego. He may have masses of talent but his attitude and constant need to take long-range pot shots have not impressed many. His bad boy reputation has only been enhanced at Eastlands and despite his superstar attitude, his selfish play has been anything but.
So there it is. Some big-money-flops, some has-beens and some never-will-bes. What do people think of the team? Who doesn't deserve to be there? Who should have been there? Let me know what you think.
Thoughts, comments and opinions...
The number of Hodgson summer signings in that team suggests the last thing Liverpool should be doing is giving him more cash to spend next month. Unless he wants to splash £2 million or more on James Perch, that is, whose early season form was so awful that Ryan Taylor, astonishingly, began to look like a safer choice at right back.
ReplyDeleteAgreed, although I'm pretty sure that those players (such as Cole) would perform a lot better under a different manager. It's a disgrace how we sold one of our most promising youngster to Fulham PLUS cash! Furthermore, how he loaned Insua (granted still young and not too great) away to Turkey and bought someone worse than him to fill his role.
ReplyDeleteOn topic however, it's a pretty accurate list and it's great to see someone else's noticed Balotelli not doing well :p Sick of reading how good he's been
Can't be too objective with this but my worst 11's something like this but I agree with most of the team cos I don't know others
ReplyDeleteJones(He simply hasn't played)
Perch(cards tell the story)-Boateng(Don't Like him)-Reid(WC Hype)-Konc(4 a number of reasons)
Ireland(Pure Flop)-Ramires(4 transfer fee though better days ahead)-Poulsen(truely woeful)-Joe Cole("He's as good as Messi with the ball")
Boselli(Not reached expectations)-Can't complete squad cos I like Super Mario and think his home is in the Crazy Squad of mad men Milan are assembling
Nice! Happy new year to everyone, and a great 2011!
ReplyDeleteYou did a great job. A team with those players. It will fail or they will win a lot of games.
ReplyDelete