18 Nov 2014

Lallana admits: 'Amazing' World Cup legend is 'my idol' and I 'watch clips' of him all the time

Liverpool attacker Adam Lallana is currently struggling to make an impact at Anfield, and with only one goal/no assists in 12 games, his creative contribution so far is, quite frankly, not good enough. Lallana clearly needs some inspiration, and who better to inspire him than one of the greatest players in football history?

In an interview with the official Liverpool FC website this week, Lallana - who cost Liverpool are whopping £26m over the summer - revealed:

"My idol growing up was former Real great [Zinedine] Zidane.

"I watched a lot of him growing up. The way he plays. Even now, he's a coach at Real but I still go back and watch those clips."


Ah, Zidane - what an amazing footballer. He made the game look so easy, and always seemed to have much more time than anyone else on the ball, but that was the genius of the player. If Lallana is still watching clips of the great man - hailed by Mourinho last month as 'amazing' and a 'one-off' - then hopefully it'll have an impact on his form for Liverpool.

Earlier this week, I argued that Lallana still has a small-club mentality, which is impeding his ability to make a difference at Liverpool, and here's yet another comment from his latest interview that (IMO) confirms this:

"In our wildest dreams both of us wouldn't have imagined we'd both be playing for Liverpool. Rickie would echo what I'm saying, I'm sure"

Lallana needs to snap out of this way of thinking. He sounds like some starry-eyed, wet-behind-the-ears teenager who can't believe his luck. This is not some romantic football fairytale, though - it's LFC's future, and the honeymoon is well and truly over.

The tiresome, counter-productive 'aw shucks, am I really here' routine needs to go. Liverpool paid £26m for Lallana - he needs to man-up, and start displaying a strong enough mentality to rise above the pressure/expectation and do the business.

On an unrelated note, Lallana also hailed the the large number of homegrown players at Anfield. He raved:

"One thing that's great about Liverpool is our core of English players. I think we'll grow together as a group for England. It's refreshing to see because a lot of people talk about the amount of foreign players playing in the Premier League. It is healthy to see".

Liverpool have lost five league games already, and are languishing in mid-table obscurity, so the British core to the team is definitely not contributing anything 'healthy' or 'refreshing' right now. In fact, I'd argue that the disproportionate number of British players in the team is the main reason the Reds are struggling.

Again, it's a mentality issue: you just have to compare the tough, winning approach and absolute self-belief of Luis Suarez to the tentative, 'Anfield tourist' mentality of Lallana to see the reason why Liverpool are failing to hit the heights this season.

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15 comments:

  1. Still the English seem to be good enough for the Scots though :-)

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  2. oh no you didn't :D

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  3. You're right, Lallana needs to get past the awe of being at a big club and work out that he belongs here. Hopefully that happens soon and he can put on display the talent we saw last year and in a few moments this season. He can't hide behind the notion that he never expected this or it's beyond his expectations. If the press are to believed he desperately wanted this so now is indeed the time to step up and be the player that he's supposed to be.

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  4. Yea, our bubble's well and truly burst

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  5. Lallana is definitely on the same level as Zidane & I can see him surpassing the Madrid ledgend. Jokes aside I agree Lallana has been underwhelming especially for the amount we paid. What's even more laughable is the way some fans say he's got potential as if he was still a teen!

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  6. It's not that he's got potential, it's that he's just not playing at his top level at the moment. So what we're seeing right now is not the best Lallana possible. I fully expect him to grow and improve as a player, first of all to reach the level he was at for Southampton and then to be a better overall player for Liverpool. Sure, most players peak around his age and you'd expect him to be close to 100% of his ability but obviously he's having some issues. Resolving those issues will ensure he's a better player than we've seen so far.

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  7. Zidane is overrated anyway. There. I said it.

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  8. This article makes it sound like its mostly Lallanas fault i personally thought it was a bad buy in the first place.
    We are stuck with him now because of the stupid money paid for him, but i will grant him that he has had an injury and should get improve once he settles in.
    It must be tough having to carry that price tag into a club that has high expectations and has no one who has been better than serviceable.

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  9. Add Balotelli and Markovic to the list of 'Anfield Tourists'. With the money these three have cost certainly we could have bought 1 maybe 2 big stage ready players. God I miss Suarez for his energy, creativity and work rate all in short supply on this team.....

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  10. good inspiration material to study....but can all lfc player stop bla bla bla too much and show ur talking at field

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  11. Him and Rickie together. That was pretty unlikely to happen.

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  12. "Don't get annoyed, I was probably joking."

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  13. Why? We are missing a trick. Our players look like strangers too often so we should have used their knowledge of eachothers game by now. Can't be worse than Balo on his bill.

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  14. I'm just frustrated that we have no one stepping up! We all are hoping an injured Sturridge comes in to rescue us.

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  15. For once I wasn't joking, haha. Still a tremendous player, but I don't think he deserves to be in that category some people put him in with the likes of Beckenbauer, Platini and Cruijff.

    I think his elegance and being the best player at two World Cups makes some people think he is a top 5 player of all-time, but I'd say whilst undoubtedly an all-time great, he isn't in that very top echelon.

    That said, comparing players intergenerationally is a pretty imprecise science at the best of times.

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