Liverpool's defeat to Arsenal on Saturday once again underlined the serious need for Kenny Dalglish to buy a striker capable of *regularly* scoring goals. I've argued several times this season that the club should try and sign Fulham striker Clint Dempsey in the summer, but given Kenny Dalglish's player preferences, it's unlikely that he'll make a move. Having said that, Anfield legend Steve Nicol is also a big fan of Dempsey, so maybe he can have a word in Kenny's ear.
Dempsey bagged another two goals against Wolves at the weekend, to bring his creative tally to 18 goals and 4 assists, which is a brilliant return, especially when playing in a team with comparatively inferior players to Liverpool.
Speaking to ESPN, recently, Nicol - who discovered Dempsey in the US, and managed him at New England Revolution - argued:
"If you look at Chelsea, Liverpool and Arsenal, the way they play would suit him [Dempsey] down to the ground, and for me, there's no reason why any one of those teams shouldn't be looking at him.
"If you look at the stats - and no disrespect to Fulham - those numbers tell you he should be playing at a high level.
You don't need to tell Clint Dempsey to get into the box; he just does it; that's where he wants to be. He wants to score goals".
Dempsey is 29 next week, but he is agile, athletic and rarely gets injured for Fulham. Additionally, his creative return this season is not just a flash-in-the-pan; his premier league average over the last 4 years is 18 goals/assists per season.
Dempsey cost Fulham a comparatively paltry $4m, but is now reported to be worth £10m, and if Liverpool came in with a decent bid, I'm sure they could prise him away.
I would love to see Dempsey at Anfield; he's everything Andy Carroll *should* be: No nonsense, physically and mentally strong, with good technique and a keen eye for goal.
Jaimie Kanwar
Dempsey bagged another two goals against Wolves at the weekend, to bring his creative tally to 18 goals and 4 assists, which is a brilliant return, especially when playing in a team with comparatively inferior players to Liverpool.
Speaking to ESPN, recently, Nicol - who discovered Dempsey in the US, and managed him at New England Revolution - argued:
"If you look at Chelsea, Liverpool and Arsenal, the way they play would suit him [Dempsey] down to the ground, and for me, there's no reason why any one of those teams shouldn't be looking at him.
"If you look at the stats - and no disrespect to Fulham - those numbers tell you he should be playing at a high level.
You don't need to tell Clint Dempsey to get into the box; he just does it; that's where he wants to be. He wants to score goals".
Dempsey is 29 next week, but he is agile, athletic and rarely gets injured for Fulham. Additionally, his creative return this season is not just a flash-in-the-pan; his premier league average over the last 4 years is 18 goals/assists per season.
Dempsey cost Fulham a comparatively paltry $4m, but is now reported to be worth £10m, and if Liverpool came in with a decent bid, I'm sure they could prise him away.
I would love to see Dempsey at Anfield; he's everything Andy Carroll *should* be: No nonsense, physically and mentally strong, with good technique and a keen eye for goal.
Jaimie Kanwar
Dempsey would do a job at Liverpool but his age will prove to be prohibative under the new regime. They will look towards players under 25 rather than somebody who will be 30 next year.
ReplyDeleteNot sure if there was any need to have another pop at Carroll in this piece mid, the lad is improving and just needs confidence now and as fans we have to play our part in getting Andy's confidence up by backing him and beliving in him. The more people choose to scapegoat Carroll the less likey he will make it at the club.
Definitely worthy of a shot at a bigger club and hope he gets it, as he is a player i do like.. Would suit a interchanging attack, as he can play right up top, behind the front man or on the wings, as well as he naturally picks up really good and troublesome pockets of space and positions.
ReplyDeleteand how good was dempsey at 21 years old?? I hate all the Carroll bashing that goes on. Yes we paid £35m for him, but not for a season but for 5! How many other 21 year olds are doing the business in the Premier league week in week out. I can name possibly two - Aaron Ramsay and Joe Allen.
ReplyDeleteFor £35m, one would expect some meaningful and substantial contribution in the short term, as well as the long term. For that amount of money, I may not expect him to be the finished product at 23 but he should certainly be doing far more than he has done, that is for sure. To be fair, i thought it was a strange signing at the time for that amount of money as he has played very little top tier football and is hardly a technical genius either which one would expect for that amount of money for a player of his age. He was better off staying at Newcastle and developing in that bubble over there and than maybe moving on later.
ReplyDeletebut dempsey never cost 35m and we should swerve him and get that fulham player who scored a hatrick who would be a better deal
ReplyDeleteThat "bubble" you mention is above us in the league and likely to stay above us!
ReplyDeleteYep, there is a good chance of that happening this season and maybe next season too, if things don't change for the better at Anfield. Its not as if they have missed Carroll this season!
ReplyDeleteFulham have a pretty decent looking team at the moment. I don't think that any of their attacking players are being outshone by our attackers and midfielders at the moment. Even taking Pogrebnyak out of the equation, cos no one was calling for him when Fulham signed him, they have Johnson looking decent, Duff, Dempsey, Dembele, who looks like a great creative player, Murphy, doing a decent job, and now Diarra comes on and creates a goal in his first game. Their attacking players are showing more than ours. They look like they will have a strong end to the season and, the results we are getting, it is not a foregone conclusion that they won't get pretty close to us or even overtake us. Even Everton are a derby win away from being too close for comfort. Stoke, West Brom, Swansea, Norwich, Sunderland, we are leading the group of also rans. A loss against Sunderland and things could take a huge turn for the worse.
ReplyDeleteCarroll isn't worth 35m but he is by no means the worst of the signings and is one of the few that looks as if he is improving. Thought that Arsenal might have been ideal opposition for him, with their weaknesses but Kenny thought otherwise and decided against using his substitutes until it was too late.
Isn't Balotelli 21? Even with his regular suspensions and late night partying he is scoring more goals this season. He cost around half of what Carroll cost as well. Of course, he would not fit into our team, but that is the standard that a club can get for 20 million or so and that is what we should be expecting if we pay out 57 million for two strikers. We should be looking at a minimum of 25 goals from the two of them by now, not 15 or so.
ReplyDeleteAnother example is Pato. Before this season, Pato despite the injuries and people saying he is still not fulfilling potential, he still contributes with goals and assists too.
ReplyDeleteThe thing about Pato and Balotelli is that they have very good technical/vision attributes, which is typical of expensive young attacking players, whereas with Carroll, one struggles to find that something special attribute that makes him stand out. Certainly isn't technically great, thats for sure.
yeah we should buy more overrated and over priced british players
ReplyDeletewe sign him at our peril
ReplyDeleteHe's American, but I take your point
ReplyDeletedecent player but we should be setting our sights higher but then again if we miss out on champs league we won't be able to attract top players.
ReplyDeleteIf Fergie and wenger were not in the champions league would they be trying to buy Dempsey....or Carroll, Henderson and Downing? .....NO! LFC it is high time we employed some scouts.
ReplyDeleteYes, not to mention the Arsenal keeper, I think he is 21 as well. So, in fact, there are a lot of players better than our 21 year olds!
ReplyDeleteYes, I think any team in the world would take those youngsters over Carroll, unless we are talking about rugby teams now.
Dempsey is great, but only because of the experience. Perhaps Carroll will be just as good or even better at that age. Different players progress differently. Would be great to sign Joe Allen or give Shelvey more games if or when we do sell Aquilani. Ultimately our strikers are only going to be effective if we have a playmaker to make them dangerous.
ReplyDelete