Jose Enrique has been excellent for Liverpool football club since arriving from Newcastle United, and he has (arguably) proven to the most consistent of all Kenny Dalglish's summer signings. John Aldridge is a big fan of the player, but he believes the Spaniard's form has tailed off a little over the last few weeks.
Analysing the Man United game in his column for the Liverpool Echo, Aldo observed:
"The players looked a bit scared to go in on each other and the perfect example of that was United’s equaliser.
"Jose Enrique had a great opportunity to take the ball and the man and really get the crowd going, but he went in half-heartedly, failed to get the ball and United punished him".
Enrique often attempts to play his way out of trouble instead of just whacking the ball to safety, and that can sometimes cause problems, but as he explained in an interview with LFC Magazine recently, hoofing the ball is just not his style:
"I prefer to pass to feet; I always try to keep it, and I've always been like this. I may not be successful all the time, but I try. You need to kep the ball, and it's how I want to see football played"
An admirable philosophy, and one that I completely agree with. Enrique might make the odd mistake every now again when attempting to play football the right way, but I doubt many of his mistakes will be fatal.
Aldo added:
"I don’t know what’s wrong with Enrique but his form has dipped in the last few games. But he’s been great for most of this season and hopefully it’s just a blip".
Has Enrique's form dipped? I think it has slightly, and it's coincided with Liverpool's poor run of form in the league (one win in six games prior to the Wolves victory).
I don't think it's anything to worry about though; most players experience that at some point during the season. Enrique's impact in the final third of the field is the real issue. Let's look at the facts:
* 74 crosses in the league this season, and only 25% of them have actually found another Liverpool player.
* 77% passing accuracy, which is one of the lowest in the squad.
As we've seen, these things come into play in the final third of the field, and against Wolves last night, Enrique's crossing was, once again, not up to scratch. He had a good game overall though, and if Enrique can improve in this area in the second half of the season, he could ultimately turn out to be the best buy of the summer.
Jaimie Kanwar
Analysing the Man United game in his column for the Liverpool Echo, Aldo observed:
"The players looked a bit scared to go in on each other and the perfect example of that was United’s equaliser.
"Jose Enrique had a great opportunity to take the ball and the man and really get the crowd going, but he went in half-heartedly, failed to get the ball and United punished him".
Enrique often attempts to play his way out of trouble instead of just whacking the ball to safety, and that can sometimes cause problems, but as he explained in an interview with LFC Magazine recently, hoofing the ball is just not his style:
"I prefer to pass to feet; I always try to keep it, and I've always been like this. I may not be successful all the time, but I try. You need to kep the ball, and it's how I want to see football played"
An admirable philosophy, and one that I completely agree with. Enrique might make the odd mistake every now again when attempting to play football the right way, but I doubt many of his mistakes will be fatal.
Aldo added:
"I don’t know what’s wrong with Enrique but his form has dipped in the last few games. But he’s been great for most of this season and hopefully it’s just a blip".
Has Enrique's form dipped? I think it has slightly, and it's coincided with Liverpool's poor run of form in the league (one win in six games prior to the Wolves victory).
I don't think it's anything to worry about though; most players experience that at some point during the season. Enrique's impact in the final third of the field is the real issue. Let's look at the facts:
* 74 crosses in the league this season, and only 25% of them have actually found another Liverpool player.
* 77% passing accuracy, which is one of the lowest in the squad.
As we've seen, these things come into play in the final third of the field, and against Wolves last night, Enrique's crossing was, once again, not up to scratch. He had a good game overall though, and if Enrique can improve in this area in the second half of the season, he could ultimately turn out to be the best buy of the summer.
Jaimie Kanwar
Bad timing by Aldridge, he played a blinder last night!!
ReplyDeleteI can totally agree with him. He was hitting bird like Adam and making bad crossses, few bad defending spells. Hopefully it's temporary.
ReplyDeleteHaha Enrique was a monster yesterday!!!
ReplyDeleteHe's played more minutes than any other outfield player at Liverpool this season. He needs a break....though was immense last night against Wolves.
ReplyDeleteDon't think playing against Stoke with a virus did him any favours!
ReplyDeleteSeem to be weaker in the following games easily knocked off the ball and wasn't willing with his running seem to stop when he received and took the easy way out .
Back to his best last night,still needs to work on his crossing and shooting.
He played well last night but chris Eagles gave him the roasting of his life against Bolton. I agree he needs a break occasionally. It seems we are overusing him in the same way we over used Kuyt in seasons gone by.
ReplyDeleteI'd rather have Enrique playing positive, attacking passes at a 77% completion rate then having Henderson or the old Lucas playing passes backwarks and sideways all the time and completing 100%. Henderson has improved though in that department over the last few games ...
ReplyDeleteEnrique played a great ball to Kuyt in the build up of the final goal last night ... thats the kind of passes we love to see.
This site reports nutn but negativity towards LFC , bad enough listenin to d doubters but a site dedicated to shi te. R u really a closet SCUM supporter ,Even after a good run in form ur full of it .PURE W AN KER LFC YNWA
ReplyDeletehe played a great pass to get kuyts goal and a good pass to bellamy which he chased down for a throw-in which led to the second goal. His crossing does need to improve, but i dont see it as an issue because he gives us so much more. i think his form has dipped, but only by his own extremely high standards, barring the bolton game he's still been solid in the others. He's played so many games this year so perhaps he's just tired.
ReplyDeleteJose Enrique is a class act, arguably the best full back in the league. Couldn't give a monkeys if he makes the odd error, every player does. you don't become a good player by blindly hoofing it out of trouble anytime your under pressure. The English game is rife with this misconception that hitting it into row Z is the correct fail safe policy. It's only in top competitions, like the champions league, world cups and european cups that you see this theory falls flat with many contenential full backs outdoing english midfielders for skill, poise and control on the ball. Football is a possession game, you'll never get blamed for playing it long, but you'll just never win much with it either
ReplyDeleteI voted Enrique MOTM after Wolves.
ReplyDeleteI think he looks like he is compensating for Adam a lot at the moment. The majority of his forward runs with the ball end up in a short sideways pass or turn and back pass. With Adam predominately playing around and towards the left midfield and being an absolute liability when chasing a player back, it looks like Enrique is making sure he's far enough back to cover him. Just a thought but maybe if he had the confidence to get forward more often, he may develop more confidence with the ball when he does. IMO
ReplyDeleteWhatever Aldo, we still have a long way to go!
ReplyDeleteEnrique is great. But I think he knows he can do even better. The guys a Spaniard after all and play like the Spanish do. Give him time and he will improve to greater heights, he has the commitment and drive to be better. Its a defence man's greatest aspect. Agger and Skrytl are another example of that. Great performance vs Wolves.
ReplyDeleteCan you guys just leave him alone?
ReplyDeleteEnrique tends to block his way and use his strong feet to get the ball. He prefers the safe pass than to hoof it. When he does hoofs it, the accuracy is suspect but once it's on target, it's a hot pass. That Enrqiue for you. So far, only Eagles got to him. Did you see what he did to the Wolves winger.... he got no wings to play in.
ReplyDeleteBrilliant player this season. I'd rather he didn't hoof the ball up the pitch we have carra for that. He has the right idea in keeping possession of the ball and for me he's the hardest player to get the ball off. Keep it up pal.
ReplyDeleteAre you kidding me?? He is AMAZINGG!! From a defender you can expect a couple of slip ups but his form is excellent.. Definitely the best buy of the summer.. And he is playing alongside the best Centerbacks.. no wonder liverpool is in 6th even though they are struggling to score goals..
ReplyDeleteplayers will make mistakes sometimes and on the whole enrique has been immense, did we slate aldo for every game he did not score in or every sitter he made, no!!!
ReplyDeleteAs much as I like his calmness and the way he plays his way out there are times when you have to play the percentages and he got it wrong against valencia. He was overstretching to get to the ball and so lost momentum. It was not the time to do it, he was facing the wrong way with a man close even if he'd kept control of the ball what were his options in that position.
ReplyDeleteAfter Rafa kicked out Steven Warnock and Riise left this has been a problem position for us. The turkeys include Dosena, Aurelio and Insua and not too long ago was Rigobert Song.
ReplyDeleteI think the stats about Enrique's passing in the final third aren't as bad as they seem. For a start, it does not consider the fact that Enrique will at least attempt passes, dribbles and sometimes crosses considered risky in his attempt to be more creative. After all, we wouldn't expect nor would we want someone like Spearing, Lucas, Skrtel etc trying to be creative. (I appreciate these are defensive players, but the stats compare Enrique to every player so the comparison is surely valid). Then there is Downing, who might do well in the stats (I don't know) because, frustratingly, he doesn't try enough in the final third in my view.
ReplyDeleteEnrique's crossing does need to improve however.