Reds hero Ronnie Whelan has questioned Brendan Rodgers' decision to substitute Joe Cole during Liverpool's frustrating 2-2 Europa League home draw with Young Boys last night.
Cole put in a man of the match performance during his 75 minutes on the field, and although Whelan conceded that Cole has 'not shown his quality' often enough for Liverpool, the former Reds midfield believes Rodgers made the wrong decision to remove Cole. He argued:
"It was disappointing that Cole that he didn’t stay on until the end.
"Sometimes, when things are going well for you and things are starting to turn you want to stay on.
"He [Cole] looked as if he was enjoying it; he scored a goal, and was getting in on goals, so leave him on!"
I am not a fan of Cole in the slightest, but he definitely deserved to stay on the field, and it's hard to see the logic in removing one of the top performers on the night for no apparent reason.
In any event, was there really a need for Raheem Sterling to come on during the game? Why not just give him a well-earned rest. It's not like Cole is overworked, is it? If someone had to come off, why not remove Stewart Downing?
Cole grabbed a goal and assist during the game, but I doubt that will secure him a starting place for the Swansea game this weekend.
In the recent Europa League game against Anzhi, Downing scored the winning goal, but found himself out of the team for the next game, and I'm sure the same fate will befall Cole.
When asked in his post-match press conference if Cole has a future at Anfield, Brendan Rodgers gave a cagy, non-committal reply:
"He’s certainly working hard. He knows it’s difficult because he’s been away from the club on loan. Joe’s a fighter and he’s working very hard. That’s all he can do.
Despite Cole's performance, it seems clear that he's on the way out of Anfield, and for me, the sooner the club rids itself of his massive wages, the better.
In an interview with The Independent recently, Newcastle midfielder Johann Cabaye - who was replace at Lille by Cole last season - urged the Reds outcast to return to Ligue 1. He said:
"It's difficult for him [Cole] at the moment because he's not playing so much. He did well for Lille and maybe it would be a good choice for him to go back there.
"He is not playing a lot with Liverpool, so if he wants more games, he can play more there. They like him at Lille – the club, the manager and the fans".
Cabaye is not the only one urging Cole to leave Liverpool. Speaking to Isvestia.ru last week, Manchester United legend Andrei Kanchelskis argued that the London would be a good fit for Spartak Moscow. He said:
"Cole is the perfect midfielder. He is quick thinking, a real organiser, and he's able to take the initiative and lead the whole team. He would be a useful midfielder for Spartak Moscow"
Jaimie Kanwar
Cole put in a man of the match performance during his 75 minutes on the field, and although Whelan conceded that Cole has 'not shown his quality' often enough for Liverpool, the former Reds midfield believes Rodgers made the wrong decision to remove Cole. He argued:
"It was disappointing that Cole that he didn’t stay on until the end.
"Sometimes, when things are going well for you and things are starting to turn you want to stay on.
"He [Cole] looked as if he was enjoying it; he scored a goal, and was getting in on goals, so leave him on!"
I am not a fan of Cole in the slightest, but he definitely deserved to stay on the field, and it's hard to see the logic in removing one of the top performers on the night for no apparent reason.
In any event, was there really a need for Raheem Sterling to come on during the game? Why not just give him a well-earned rest. It's not like Cole is overworked, is it? If someone had to come off, why not remove Stewart Downing?
Cole grabbed a goal and assist during the game, but I doubt that will secure him a starting place for the Swansea game this weekend.
In the recent Europa League game against Anzhi, Downing scored the winning goal, but found himself out of the team for the next game, and I'm sure the same fate will befall Cole.
When asked in his post-match press conference if Cole has a future at Anfield, Brendan Rodgers gave a cagy, non-committal reply:
"He’s certainly working hard. He knows it’s difficult because he’s been away from the club on loan. Joe’s a fighter and he’s working very hard. That’s all he can do.
Despite Cole's performance, it seems clear that he's on the way out of Anfield, and for me, the sooner the club rids itself of his massive wages, the better.
In an interview with The Independent recently, Newcastle midfielder Johann Cabaye - who was replace at Lille by Cole last season - urged the Reds outcast to return to Ligue 1. He said:
"It's difficult for him [Cole] at the moment because he's not playing so much. He did well for Lille and maybe it would be a good choice for him to go back there.
"He is not playing a lot with Liverpool, so if he wants more games, he can play more there. They like him at Lille – the club, the manager and the fans".
Cabaye is not the only one urging Cole to leave Liverpool. Speaking to Isvestia.ru last week, Manchester United legend Andrei Kanchelskis argued that the London would be a good fit for Spartak Moscow. He said:
"Cole is the perfect midfielder. He is quick thinking, a real organiser, and he's able to take the initiative and lead the whole team. He would be a useful midfielder for Spartak Moscow"
Jaimie Kanwar
He was absolutely knackered you could see that. Sterling's legs against a tired defence, simple really
ReplyDeleteJoe Cole had by miles his best game for Liverpool, he really was very very good.
ReplyDeleteWhile he's had a good game and deserved to stay on, the 'early' substitution brought him a round of applause which couldn't have done his confidence any harm at all. There are always at least two ways to look at it. And I agree with Diega that Cole looked pretty knackered towards the end.
ReplyDeleteDid anyone watch the game last night??????? Cole was receiving treatment on the bench from the physio and walked to the dressing rooms with his hamstring bandaged at full time!!
ReplyDeleteJoe Cole done ok last night, lets not get excited, he is still way too off the pace for me, every time I have seen him for LFC he seems to struggle for fitness, partly do do with match fitness and lack of games but still at times he looks like he is struggling for second wind after 10mins.
Hopefully we will get him off the wage bill in January 2013 as he aint good enough, I would rather bed a youngster in. I doubt he will make the 18 man squad for sunday.
I think he got a bit to much praise actually, fair enough he scored and assisted but he didn't exactly light up the game... Show's how far he's fallen if last night constitutes a good performance by JC.
ReplyDeleteAlso why would he bring a LB off when we are looking for that decisive goal? Not as if we had Gareth Bale on the bench!
Didn't see the game last night so may be unfair to comment but maybe he got hooked becuase he was knackered. He has looked seriously short of fitnmess in the other games he has played, puffing and panting after a 10 yard burst and looking exhausted after 60 mins. As much as they liked him at Lille, he had the same issue, subbed after 60-70 mins in a lot of games.
ReplyDeleteI thought they said he had tight hamstrings, and that was why he went off?
ReplyDeleteReally annoying that we didnt hold on for the win. We should have been about 3 or 4-0 up by half time.
The way we started the match we were lucky to not be behind within the first 7 seconds of the match let alone not behind by 3 or 4 by half time.
ReplyDeleteCole played very well, but he was knackered and probably only seconds away from yet another injury. A quick intelligent player like Sterling against a tired defence was a good substitution.
ReplyDeleteThe bad substitution was replacing a right back with a central midfielder, that cost us the goals and possibly a place in the last 32.
True, they came out of the blocks pretty quickly, but after about 10-15 minutes we were in control. Henderson should have scored, Suso should have scored, Cole should have scored. They were all clear cut changes. I dont think there changes were as clear cut, they were a bit more hit and hope.
ReplyDeleteDo you think we will be linked with that Bobadilla guy now, seeing as we seem to get linked with everyone who scores against us.
ReplyDeleteWe scored the opening goal only seconds after that happened...
ReplyDeleteI second every word of Mikearms on Cole. You could see from his facial expression he was spent + it was good for his confidence to walk off the pitch on a high. As for Henderson coming on for the injured Wisdom I just wonder what choice Brendan really had. Bringing on Agger and move Carra out to the right? Could've worked but then again we're all aware of Agger's proness to injuries. Playing Enrique in an unfamiliar RB position? I don't think so. All in all, the reason we dropped points was our inability to bury the 3 sitters we produced in the first half. We should've been up at least 3-0 before they equalised.
ReplyDeleteOther than that I'm quite critical of the original article. Stirring the pot for the sake of it?
Sterlings speed against a tired defence would make sense had it not been that Rodgers says on lfc.com today that Assaidi should not have been chasing the ball and that we should have stayed back to keep our lead. Cole needed to go off but I would have thought he'd put Coates on.
ReplyDeleteWhat is it with us and conceding everytime an opposition player winds up his boot?! 2 Wonder strikes again and it's starting to really p me off! Fortress Anfield my A$$!!
ReplyDeleteAw, damn. I forgot I'm not allowed to have my own opinion without asking for your permission first.
ReplyDeleteRodgers got most things wrong last night starting with his team selection. Firstly why is Carragher starting in front of Coates? Not only is Coates a better player than Carragher now he's better on the ball and also a threat in the opposition area. How many free kicks/corners did we put in to the box last night? How many was met by a Liverpool head? None. We had a chance to put qualification for the next round to bed last night, Rodgers said so himself. So then why didn't he put out our strongest side. We knew they'd be pretty good after they beat Udinese home and away so what did we do.... Started with a left winger at left back, a midfielder up front and no natural holding midfielder. What must Jack Robinson be thinking this morning knowing that our manager would rather play a player out of position than play him. Robinson is still a young lad but has a bit of experience now and is an England u21 player. He surely is our future left back. Shelvey up front? Don't get me wrong, I'm a fan of Shelvey but playing up front and attacking midfield are two different things. Up front you have to play with your back to goal more, make different runs and hold the ball up. Rodgers wanted to rest Suarez and that's fine, I agree but again what will Yedsil, Morgan or Ngoo be thinking today. I've been impressed with Ngoo recently. Why couldn't we have played our best team but replace Suarez with Ngoo or Morgan and kept Suarez on the bench just in case? I'm a fan of Sahin, he's a good player but he doesn't seem very mobile and tends to dive in to tackles, so everytime Young boys attacked they just played round Sahin and got at our shaky back four everytime. Cole had a decent game but looked tired by the time he got substituted, I doubt very much that he'll make the squad for Sunday though. I was very disappointed with Rodgers last night, I thought he showed Young boys a lack of respect with his team selection and now we've got to go to Italy and win. Now you will have to play your strongest team Brendan.. Well done!!
ReplyDeleteZulu i kind of agree but that side on paper should have beaten Young Boys i think it is that the Europa league comes a long second behind EPL games.
ReplyDeleteAlso not sure whether Udinese will send out much of a team their race is run.
Zuly, it's hardly the end of the world we need to play the entire group stage out given it's arguably the toughest group of all, now is it? We can all have our in's and out's on team selection but the fact of the matter is I'd rather play that extra game to have a relatively fresh squad available ahead of the next two awaygames over the next 5 days, wouldn't you?
ReplyDeleteAltho we were naive and sloppy on their second it remains a fact that we should've been up, at least, 3-0 at half-time with the game buried. Now it didn't happen and that is disappointing. Yet it took two career best goals to steal a draw. The second was avoidable altho a tad unlucky as I think Reina would've gotten it hadn't it been for that slight touch on Skrtl. Their first was sheer class an little you can do anything about.
Jaime, I don't question your right to form an opinion. Why so defensive? I just think a substitution doesn't motivate an article on its own, at least not when it was so obvious that the player subbed had run empty.
Fair enough mate but can we rely on Udinese not being bothered if they win or lose? If we really want to progress to the next round we have to play our strongest team. If we had done that last night then we could have just sent our u21 team to Italy safe in the knowledge that we'd already qualified.
ReplyDeleteCole had a great game...but the real hole in the line-up was Henderson. He let Bobadilla shoot almost unmarked. The other guy had a clean shot in a place where Henderson should have been. Henderson tries hard but he's slow and doesn't have the quickness required at this level.
ReplyDeletehe should have moved carra to right and brought on coates. end up with two midfielders at fullbacks. dont think this man is clever enough to manage us . you play ur strongest team and put the group to bed. notgood enough
ReplyDeleteWhy do our ex-players feel they have to comment on everything. They seriously need to piss off. Don't ruin your legendary statuses as players by talking crap when you have no idea how the players train everyday and on the fitness of each player!
ReplyDeleteI hate the fact that at points yesterday we were making them look like Barca. Quick one touch passing, they seemed to be able to cut through us. Even worse was the incessant chanting from their fans, it seems we get out sung by everyone these days..........
ReplyDeleteGo fúck yourself, you bástárd and get off my page!
ReplyDeleteIf they're hired as pundits they have to talk about the players on display and manager's decisions.
ReplyDeleteOf course they could go along and say everything that happens is hunky dory, and any failures are from the referee alone, but it doesn't make for the most interesting programming...
It reminds me of the Chris Kirkland days - we don't see any special saves from LFC keepers anymore. Every decent shot on target ends up in the back of the net, with everybody going on about the keeper having no chance.
ReplyDeleteThe need for a new keeper is rising to be almost as much of a necessity as the need for a new striker...
Henderson isn't a right back so that explains his failure to be in the correct position for the first goal.
ReplyDeleteThere is less excuse for the failures of Sahin & Shelvey to be in position to help prevent the second goal though.
Well then he shouldn't have been there in the first place, but I guess you agree that he is too slow and plodding to play at this level. Shelvey seems to be in love with the idea of playing for Liverpool. He just doesn't want to do the work to earn the place. I think he's just a step better than Hendu...but not much. He has been in the right place at the right time in a few games, but you're right, I do see him walking a lot.
ReplyDelete