Liverpool must sell Crouch
Simple enough premise, Crouch has to leave Liverpool. I don’t think Crouch has been the root of all our problems, in fact he’s gotten Liverpool out of quite a few situations our problem has put us in. But as our first five starts have shown, we have remedied the problem. We are creative, we can finish, and our defense is still a brick wall.
Now, yesterday we had a relapse, we looked slow up front, clueless in the middle, and due to our constant, futile, attempts at getting forward, weak at the back. There was no link-up play, upfront or otherwise, and this was mostly due to our strategy of lobbing the ball forward for Crouch and hoping he’d do something with it. Usually Crouch is most effective from crosses or simply just passing to the feet, but often times Liverpool resort to a primitive strategy over all those things.
When Crouch is in form he’s a beauty to watch, ever see a giraffe stride down the field and do an overhead kick? No? Well it’s like that. However, what he takes from our game hurts Liverpool far more then the occasional tap-in or overhead kick helps us. And with our midfield scoring, Torres starting well, and even Voronin showing a knack for goal we won’t really miss him.
Hopefully Liverpool can sell him in the January transfer window, buy a young prospect or promote from our own ranks and enjoy the form we showed against Toulouse, Sunderland, Chelsea, and Derby.
- Newcastle’s move for Liverpool’s Crouch is a joke, right?
- Peter Crouch - scissor kick goal video (Liverpool 3-2 Galatasaray)
- Peter Crouch is NOT a great striker
- If he can’t keep him at Liverpool, Rafa will only sell Crouch to Everton
- Liverpool lose two good players?
Discussion - 15 Responses
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I couldn’t agree more. when Torres and stevie came on our game really stepped up but if only they played the full match?
I thought we should have sold crouch in the summer but now Benitez has to be strong and tell him to hit the road.
I think your right we should buy another (young) forward if we sell crouch. As we all know Liverpool have plenty of gifted talent at their youth academy maybe its time to give someone a run in?
Couldn’t agree more. I like him and think his is a good player, but his game doesn’t fit in with the direction i think most fans would like to see the team move in. We have a lot of intelligent footballers, Alonso, Gerrard, Torres, Voronin, Kuyt, Benayoun, Babel plus others. Stick a combination of them on the pitch and you’ll get slick fast football. For all his assets, stick Crouch in the mix and everything slows down. For a big lad he is very poor in the air too. Surely Rafa’s logic in keeping hold of him is that he offers an aerial threat. Torres looks better in the air to me. The only reason i can think to keep him would be to bring him on after 65 minutes as an impact sub. But that wouldn’t be fair on the lad so time to say goodbye. Give a young lad a crack at it. Babel can play up front also. Great article
Agree totaly. Crouch must go, and we don’t even need to buy another striker, as Babel can play quite well upfront.
[…] once were - however, if they’re not playing, Liverpool have no plan B (unless you count lobbing it up to Crouch as plan […]
I’ve defended crouch for a while now, i was always worried that he would struggled with the new lads this season. I didn’t realise Torres, Veronin & Babel would be SO good - im pleased all the same. Problem is for people like me who are “lets back the team regardless” Im finding it increasingly hard to defend Crouch. He has done a lot for and is a good lad, i personally would off load him to Juventus - im sure they stated they where interested - He doesnt seem to be able to up his game to Give the Gaffa a head ache in selection - from what we’re seeing on the pitch its a no brainer - Crouch is on borrowed time. Shame.
I have to disagree with this logic. Yes, Crouch is obviously fourth choice behind Voronin, Torres, and Kuyt. However, the man was our leading scorer last year! If you can have your former leading scorer as a back up option, why not?
The real problem is the Liverpool game plan when Crouchie comes in. For some reason, despite the fact that pretty much everyone acknowledges that the kid is better with his feet than his head, we try to treat him like Jan Koller. Stop it with the long balls!! All that creates is Crouch surrounded by several defenders with little to no support. Rafa needs to inject some more creative thinking into his players (not his strong suit, I know) to take advantage of Crouch’s abilities.
No, he is not going to press for inclusion in the Reds’ top XI, but he is a viable option off the bench and with the fixture list crowded as usual this season, Rafa will need someone to spell Torres and Kuyt. Babel cannot play as a lone striker, so don’t try and bring him into this conversation. Crouch is the depth that Rafa craves at every position. Also, he is a positive, hard-working bloke who has struggled before and come out of it looking better. Give it some time, the formula still looks good to me.
[…] looks as if he has one eye on the door, and there are murmours about whether or not we should sell him in the January […]
I think this one’s obvious at this point. Crouh isn’t good enough to start, and he has a terrible record as a sub. Sell him for 10m, move Babel up front, where he has more potential anyway as a support striker (and Steel Scouser, he may not be able to play as a lone striker, but who said he was going to play on his own? and the other three can play as centre forwards) and sign a quality young defender that can cover RB and CB (I’m thinking Vincent Kompany) with the money plus a little extra. Then let Riise be the assumed starter on the left, with Benayoun and Aurelio (and maybe Kewell–we can always hope!) backing him up, with Arbeloa, who no longer has to cover RB, at LB with Aurelio his primary back up. Sounds good to me, no?
Ok, so when Crouch wass our leading scorer last year, was scoring overhead goals (galatasaray nd bolton) or hatricks against assenal, evry1 defended him. now he lacks in form 4 1 match nd suddenly hes public enemy number one. ironic isnt it…..
but evn though it might be, i cant help but agree..i myself defended crouch once but only cuz he scored goals. no matter how many goals he scores, crouch has never quite fitted in with rafa’s style of play, i cant see him linking up with anyone, not kuyt, not voronin, not torres. he makes a good lone striker and is brilliant at crosses and corners when playing alone up front, BUT THAT IS NOT HOW LIVERPOOL PLAY!!! fine he comes on with half an hour left, puts in a match-winner but in the process, we sacrifice the beauty of our game.
therefore i say we give crouch till december. if he proves himself worthy of the red shirt, he stays with my best wishes. if not, we sell him off, save the money 4 summer and bring in lindfield
This is exactly what I mentioned somewhere else. Crouch is undoubtedly a wonderful player. He, nonetheless, a surplus to this side. He must realize that this will be good for him too to wave Liverpool goodbye. Maybe it is good for the club to have him in their bag. But it is certainly not favorable for Crouch to play a substitute-only role. After all, when the last year’s leading scorer isn’t getting enough first team chances, what should he expect? Kuyt-Toress partnership is so good that Rafa is unlikely to consider him (Crouch) unless one of the two is out.
Crouch is a great player, modest at times and I like the lad. However, i have to agree that it is time for him to leave. Yes he had done his part in helping Liverpool to 3rd place for 2 years in the League and helped in last season’s Champions League run to the final..But now..Benitez is bringing in more technical player, players who are creative and with speed, which unfortunately Crouch does not really have them (except for the robo-dance and bicycle kicks)
Time to let him go, buy in some young strikers, like Pazzini or Huntelaar. German League has some great forwards too.
Crouch should of cource stay, it will be a long season and we will get injuries at some point. 4 strikers is a minimum some strikers can also loose form. He has proved that he is good enough to play for us, he was bad against Portsmouth, but he was not the only one.
I thinks its way to early in the season to start saying Liverpool should ditch Crouch, he’s had one bad game but every player has off days at least give him a chance to show whats he’s capable of.
I am a big fan of Crouch, but yesterday was a bad game for him. Considering he has had so few opportunities to play this season, I forgive him. The game yesterday was just bad in general. No creativity. All long-balls. We gave away so much posession.
Lets see what he does in some of the other games coming up and make a decision about him near Christmas. We have him for another 3 1/2 months anyways, so its no use talking about dumping him. For Crouch’s sake, he needs to leave to get first team action. The Russia game proved this urgency for him.