29 Apr 2012

Lawro hails 'outstanding' £6m striker snubbed by Dalglish

At the end of the season, one of Liverpool's biggest regrets will surely be the inexplicable failure to sign another striker during the January transfer window. With the signings of Nikica Jelavic and Papiss Cisse, Newcastle and Everton did exactly that, and they've reaped the rewards.

Anfield legend Mark Lawrenson is a big fan of Jelavic, and this week, he dedicated at entire column to praising the Croatian goalscorer. Lawro enthused:

"41 of his last 44 goals have now been scored with one touch, which tells you he has a great body position. When the ball comes in to him, Jelavic sets himself in such a way that even if there is a slight deviation, his reaction remains instinctive.

"Every time he [Jelavic] gets the ball facing goal, it looks as though something could happen. His movement is excellent and that’s not something you can teach, it’s natural. He might not even need half a yard of space to get a shot away, and he also works extremely hard".

"He has been outstanding, But what if someone comes in for a bid for Jelavic this summer? I don’t think Fellaini is irreplaceable, but I wouldn’t want to have to replace Jelavic, though"


Jelavic was definitely on Liverpool's radar in January, and it's frustrating to see that the club lost just let a natural goalscorer slip away. It's obvious, however, why Liverpool decided not to spend a paltry 5.5m on a striker who guarantees goals: Dalglish's pigheaded allegiance to his failed signings.

Earlier in the season, Dalglish claimed that Stewart Downing - who has not scored a single goal or assist in the league - is actually a 'better' player than he originally thought (!). Then, last months, he offered the following preposterous assessment of his signings:

"These players have done fantastically well and if anyone is going to come in they will have to be a hell of a player to do better than what this group has done. These boys are in pole position and they are sitting there comfortable; not one of them can be disappointed with what they have contributed this season"

I shudder every time I read that (!) With a mindset like this, is it any wonder Jelavic was ignored in January? Dalglish probably thinks he's not 'a hell of a player', and is not good enough to challenge the likes of Andy Carroll.

Well, Jelavic's ten goals and two assists in thirteen games since arriving in January blows that theory right out of water.

Jaimie Kanwar


47 comments:

  1. Sometimes you need to look at the bigger picture

    Something you seem unable to do

    I feel from reading your blog your the kind of supporter that wears his shirt only if we win!!!!!!

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  2. So Jaimie the whole point of this article is to have yet another go at Kenny Dalglish, for signings he did not make, the now ex Director of Football Damian Comolli was singularly to blame for the disastrous signings. Dalglish was not even in charge at the time, he was just in temporary control.

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  3. It's always sad when you have to take your team's manager's words with an ocean of salt, but that's what I do when reading considering Dalglish's words.

    I can even put 2 and 2 together, and get 5, by suggesting our alleged 20 million kitty is because Kenny's recruitment is under scrutiny.

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  4. If youre going to be criticalor Dalgish then you haved to also be critical of the other 18 teams in the Premier league who didn't take a punt on him at £6m.

    Another stupid, vindictive attack on OUR club nd OUR manager! NOT the Liverpool way

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  5. He's lining up Ramirez by that sounds of it. When you think they already have Carroll, Suarez, Bellamy and supposid young talent coming up, you might see why Liverpool didn't go for Jelavic. You can't have everyone on your books. Although Jelavic looks great, i'm sure Ramirez will do just nicely 

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  6. Jamie, do you want Kenny to say "I signed bad players"? That just opens media flood gates for media and bloggers to have a go, does nothing for players' confidence and is counterproductive. You should know by now what kKenny says and what Kenny says are often not the same thing. All he is doing is protecting his players and I would expect nothing else.

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  7. I meant says and thinks!

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  8. Hi Jaimie, I've never read anything positive about LFC, written by you.
    Are you in disguise or what?
    Try to write something that makes sense and not just for the sake of writing.

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  9. No article on the hatrick? Twat.

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  10. What a deluded idiot... obviously a Dalgish apologist with no idea of what's going on.

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  11. there are obviously platers out there,who wouldn't cost the earth,such as the examples mentioned. maybe our scouting network needs a kick up the ar*e. if other clubs can find players like these,why do we always seem to buy expensive? you don't always need 'superstar' players to flourish, just excellent team ethics and organisation.

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  12. Demba Ba can't hit a barn door now, a couple of months ago he was a genius????. Players have to do it longterm not just half a season, Jelavic will get sussed out by defenders, then what???

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  13. The sad thing is that probably if still there next season he won't buy another striker cos from his statement he still believes that the crap he bought r good enough for our club.

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  14. Jelevic blows Carroll out of the water, and with Suarez likely to depart in the summer, it certainly seems an opportunity missed.

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  15. Dont talk shite u WUM. Suarez has asked for a longer contract. hes goin nowhere. We will sign a partner for him in the summer hopefully along with Ramierez. Then our forward line will be a different class.

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  16. Demba Ba has played a lot of games on the left wing as wide forward, since Cisse has come in. Newcastle have sometimes switched to 4-2-3-1/4-3-3, with Demba Ba on the left and Ben Arfa on the right. 

    Demba Ba couple of weeks ago:'The coach told me he would put me on the left. And for the team I thought, ‘Let’s do it.’''“I like to be up front but lately the coach has decided to play with three strikers and I do not mind playing on the side.'

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  17. Why do people bother to compare Carroll with other strikers Liverpool 'could' have bought? We just have to accept the fact that he is a Liverpool player. 

    As for not buying Jelavic, I think we have to wait and see who comes in in the summer. If by not buying Jelavic, more money is available for a better player (striker in particular) I think we would all accept that the decision not to buy him in January would prove to be a prudent one.

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  18. Players come and go! The question is, can Jelavic keep up this momentum for the next season with defenders now sussing him up? Demba BA now all but disappeared to oblivion after a majestic start to the season.

    Kenny needs time! What else do you want him to do? Be negative or in a much better term "ruthless" like Rafa? Look where that got us with Alonso, Masch, Keane, Crouch just to name a few! Kenny has always been a winner. A glimpse of what LFC could do was witnessed in Carrie Road. Now they need only to maintain consistency and we will be fighting for the top four and perhaps the championship in the seasons ahead. Proving your assessments and write-ups are right by attacking LFC managers and pkayers just to get traffic to this blog is just criminal!

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  19. You also forgot to mention former Lille and Senegal striker Moussa Sow who welcomed a move to LFC in January but insteadwent to Turkey  for 10 Million.He was Ligue 1 top scorer last season .

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  20. Liverpool also didn't sign messi or ronaldo at Christmas, what a disgrace! With the combined 120 goals they scored this season, we would have been a real force.

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  21. this happened this january dalglish was in charge at the end of the day dalglish has a terrible manager record he might of been an excellent player but that doesnt automatically make him a good manager, the only player dalglish didnt have much say in was the only one i'd keep suarez, downinng and enrique both excellent on the left in my opinion but the rest of the team cant keep up or even realise that theres even an attack on, the amount of times the pair of them get them selves in great attacking posistions just to pass the ball between them then pass back down to our defence because our attacks taken that long the oppositions barracked the penalty box shut, if you look at the table it's only first and second who have les goals against which jus shows the reason that jevalic and cisse are getting all their goals their teams are actually going for goals and countering faster allowing these players goal scoring opps more often, liverpool are like watching a bunch of girls who are jus scared to loose the ball its pathetic and me and my three children wont be getting new lfc shirts till dalglish   is gone or has the balls to play attacking rather than defense it's just boring and doesnt really produce that many good results which is why newcastle are 4 places above us but conceaded 9 more goals..... the only thing dalglish does well is he doesnt let the players walk alone which i think no one should slag him of for its the liverpool way, if only we'd acted the same years ago with folwer.

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  22. Could have been a another 'looked great at rangers, bad for us' sort of player. I dont understabd why players crumble at Anfield. Its not like we've been consistently mounting title challenges year in year out. The fans only get on your case if your lazy and rubbish. It really puzzles me.

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  23. i am so tired of reading your stuff Jamie! Do you ever have ANYTHING positive to say???

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  24. Players have to do it longterm ? Think u mean players have to do it short term first lad ha ! Is Carroll gna be shite short term & good long term sort ya head out lad

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  25. Why did you delete my post when I posted first!!!!!!! '?

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  26. Ha ha ha u jokin lad u speak about jelivic as if he's gna stop scoring worrie about ur own players . Even if jelivic does stop scoring he will always score more than Carroll 43 of his last 46 goals have been first touch finishers . And even if he doesnt score as many next season he only cost £4.5mill were Carroll cost 35 mill think I no who got the best deal .challenge 4 the league title next year sure I've heard that 4 the last 20 years

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  27. Playing on the left mostly for Newcastle since Cisse has come in.

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  28. Demba Ba has been playing on the left a lot since Cisse has come in. Big difference between playing on the left and playing as the main striker. So its no surprise that the goals are drying up.

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  29. Every time a player is linked there are people here who are supposedly     " experts" who start the conversation by saying not good enough 4 LFC .As for this topic i remember a saying " if ifs and buts were pots and pans i'd be a tinker",the season is over my friends i just want to look forward to the new and forget the old and hope that things will be better. Though i doubt there will be someone who is really good who is willing to come to Anfield seeing our position in the league without inflated prices.

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  30. Theycallmemrburt6:31 pm, April 29, 2012

     Exactly.

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  31. Theycallmemrburt6:40 pm, April 29, 2012

    Strikers should NEVER be judged on their 1st season.  Even the great STEVEN GERRARD was a great striker alongside Torres for 1 season and then got sussed out all ends up in his second.  For 12 months he never got a kick.

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  32. Because that would mean kenny admitting defeat in Carroll. Can't blame camoli either now!

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  33. Jaime, we've got it you dislike Daglish, Suarez, Benitez and Johnson. Do us all a favour and get over it.

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  34. If JK looks back through the posts in his columns he can confirm that the majority of Liverpool fans who wrote in were in favour of the purchase of Ba, Defoe & even the expensive Darren Bent in preference to Jelavic. Even now they refuse to recognise Jelavic as a natural goal scorer!
    After the manager's summer buys were failing to show signs of producing the goods I consistently pressed for Jelavic and Dempsey to be brought in to shore up but sad to say Scottish players were a fans no-no even though the manager himself was probably Liverpool's best ever acquisition.

    Liverpool would be heading for the Wembley final with a great deal more confidence with both those players in the team if they had done the deals not too mention a much better league position too.

    Maybe I should be signing off with: LROTTEOTR-LROTTE, TTWBLLYHBS-LROTTE. Clue it's one of Kenny's Scottish songs.

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  35. Hindsight is wonderful. Everton could have just as easily signed Jelavic and he was a disaster, not many players in the Scottish leagues make it into the top flight in England. Maybe Kenny thought Adam once played for Rangers and looked the business but now I know he's crap so I think I'll stay away from the Scottish leagues.
    Kenny couldn't afford any more gambles and in reality he had to stand by the new signings, just as we have to stand by Kenny, because it is far too early to be making knee jerk reactions.

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  36. Suarez likely to leave?? Thats why he has already stated he wants to stay and in talks over a new deal

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  37. Chi Bai lu, Lawro, this guy just din't fit it our style of play ! Not every player can suit us well, eg Robbie keane, Ryan Babel, Fernando Morientes etc etc etc.
     

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  38. Did Robbie Fowler get Sussex out? Did Ian Rush? I'm not saying Jelavic is as good as these (he may turn out to be), so what makes you think he's all of a sudden going to lose his knack for scoring. Suarez hasn't bagged that many goals this season,does that now make him shit?

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  39. The thing is Johno,Messi and Ronaldo wouldn't go to Liverpool

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  40. goalscorers never get found out like all players they loose form jelavic like owen like shearer fowler ian wright theese players are all good at finding space its not lucky its quality

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  41. This is a fine example of a bullsh1t, speculative article written months ago leading to another bs article written with no substance behind it, now becoming fact. I think if you remember very early on in the January transfer window KD said they weren't looking to sign anyone despite being linked with every striker over the age of 15. I'm no KD apologist and like most others I'm disappointed with the PL season but stick to facts please.

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  42. Yet another go at Kenny? Did he refuse to sign an autograph for u J? Lets be honest its no good crying over spilt milk. Every clubs misses out on good players, Liverpool didn't sign a young Ronaldo as i remember. Point is it happened and that is that. No one was signed as the christmas market is renowned for being over priced, and yes i know the players LFC have signed have also been overpriced hence DC got the boot over it. Bottom line is LFC are a work in progress and mistakes will be made and although we all crave success it will take time to achieve. chopping and changing managers before the work they do has time to bare fruit is not the way forward unless ur Chelski. Look at UTD and it pains me to say this Fergie was 1 game away from the boot and 5 years or so in the job but they stuck with him and look what he has achieved unfortunately. Gotta give Kenny a chance and another season to see how his plans pan out, if not i'm sure Kenny will step aside as he has never put anything before the club. YNWA.

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  43. I look at Man City who had mountains of money and it still took them years so we must be patient as far as comparing Jelavic to Carroll how can ya, every striker in the league almost is better than him.

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  44. We're not haviing a go at Kenny! The whole Liverpool recruitment system failed miserably. It does not take you to be a "scout" to recognise when a bargain like Jelavic should be bought as a 'back-up'. Another potential bargain, Dempsey, has been ignored by Liverpool and he's an American who surely the owners would be agreeable to recruit. Why have we not attempted to recruit him? He simply cannot stop scoring and he hasn't played for Rangers!

    I'm beginning to agree with JK and say Liverpool refuse to accept what is staring them in the face - the summer buys did not (and will not) work. (Barring the obvious exceptions)- Considering the amount of money spent £4.5m to £5.5m was small change for a proven goalscorer.

    When Liverpool were at their peak (which many of the people writing in may not recall) they refreshed the team each season with a maximum of two good players. Now each summer sees half the team changed. - With that policy Liverpool will never again become the winners they once were.

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  45. Jelavic should have been bought as back up ?? 2 who that donkey who cost 35mill an scored how may goals , or the player who scored more goals in his last 9 starts than a player who's had 14 months sort ya head out bitter cunt JFT 39

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  46. jamie kanwar loves nothing more than a hot 12 inches up his fudge tunnel

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