Cevap: # Ryan Babel
Ryan Babel: a Liverpool failure not of his own making
Babel ile ilgili bir değerlendirme yazısı ve Galatasaray'ımızla ilgili söylentilere ciddi boyut katan bir yazı kaleme alınmış.
After arriving at Anfield two summers ago from Dutch club Ajax for a hefty £11.5 million, Liverpool fans had high hopes regarding their new acquisition, and Babel was presented to the media on the same day as Fernando Torres. How their two fortunes have contrasted at the club. With Babel tipped to be heading for the Anfield exit, Aboutaball.co.uk assesses his impact at Liverpool and suggests that his failure to shine isn’t entirely down to him.
Perhaps when assessing Babel’s impact at Liverpool his two seasons should be viewed separately rather than together, as a return of four goals in 32 matches this season clearly isn’t the sort of form that would warrant any sort of praise. His first season in the Premiership was far more productive when he hit 10 goals in 49 matches, so whilst this was still not outstanding it did at least represent a respectable first season in what can be a difficult league to acclimatise to.
So where has it gone wrong for Babel this season at Anfield? The first major issue actually arose during the course of his first season, and may have to do with the fact that Liverpool simply bought the wrong player, as Benitez shoe-horned him into a left wing role that simply isn’t Babel’s natural position.
Babel at Ajax has always grown up in a traditional 4-3-3 formation playing generally on the left side of the attacking three and occasionally through the middle as the centre-forward, but never as a left-winger. As such in Liverpool’s four-man midfield, Babel was often expected to track back and contribute in defence as well as push forward and supply balls into the box. Tasks that simply aren’t associated with the role he grew up with, which is more involved in working in the inside left channel and looking to exploit space between the right-sided centre back and right-back.
This frequently manifested itself in his first two seasons when Babel after receiving the ball would cut in field running into defenders, who quickly worked out his intention and anticipated his one-dimensional movement. It simply never occurred to Babel that in fact what his manager wanted him to do was get down to the by-line and put some crosses in from deep.
With Gerrard tasked with running the channels between centre-backs and full-backs, Babel has found himself quickly marginalised, and last summer Liverpool moved for Albert Riera, a more natural left-winger. The Spaniards arrival at the club has also played its part in Babel’s downturn in form and resultant loss of confidence. The young Dutchman is the sort of player that needs an arm around the shoulder rather than a kick up the pants, and as soon as he sensed his manager’s loss of confidence then his form rapidly deteriorated.
With Liverpool now looking to actively sell players before dipping into the transfer market the departure of Ryan Babel would come as no surprise. The club are unlikely to generate the sort of fee they shelled out for him just 23 months ago when he arrived at Anfield for £11.5, but may be hopeful of recouping around 50% of the outlay. Galatasaray are rumoured to be in the market for him, and he would join his fellow Liverpool rejects Milan Baros and Harry Kewell at the Ali Sami Yen, both of whom have made good impressions since arriving in Turkish football.
It would be no surprise to see Babel, if he does make the move to Turkey, start to flourish again under Frank Rijkaard, the new Galatasary coach, who should understand Babel’s best position. Whilst Turkish football isn’t of the same standard as the Premiership, it’s no soft option – just try playing your football on a frozen pitch in somewhere like Sivas with 20,000 excited fans on your back at about 10 degrees below freezing.
Liverpool have made great progress under Rafa Benitez, but the demise of Ryan Babel is a salutary lesson for the Anfield management team to make sure that the player purchased is actually what you want, and not what you hope he can become.
Posted by Walter Townsend on Thursday, 25th June 2009
https://www.aboutaball.co.uk/footballnews/View.php?ArticleID=894
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