Peter Crouch

[Swooperman]

Its hard to criticise Crouch at Villa because he didnt really get a chance. I dont think you'll find many Villa fans that'll stick up for him & say he's good because we didnt really get a chance to see him have a run to check. Graham Taylor bought him along with a winger called Michael Boulding from I think Port Vale & it was blatantly obvious that what he was trying to do was copy Ian Ormondroyd & Nigel Callaghan from his first spell, pre-England in the late 80's/early 90's. This in itself was an attempt to copy the Watford attack from the mid-80's that served him well in George Reilly &...erm, I forget, but it might have been Callaghan again with John Barnes & Blissett in the hole ??
Anyway Boulding played about 6 games & was loaned back from where he came & I see he was released by Crewe not long ago. Taylor left & O'Leary never rated Crouch, rightly or wrongly, & used to play virtually anybody up front instead of him.

None of the Villa certainly wish any ill on the lad I dont think, it just didnt go his way at our place, thats all

Ormondroyd, if I remember, ended up playing on the left wing.....now that WAS funny.........

[zonker84]

The reason for the booing, which most people seem to have missed:

http://www.soccerbase.com/results3.sd?gameid=451714
http://www.saintsforever.com/match.html (bottom half of page)


Gett1n, are the Villa fans you know blind or something? Crouch was signed for Villa for £5m, started 20 league games in two and a half years (scoring 6 goals) before being sold for £2m. He was also loaned out to Norwich during his time at Villa. If that isn't flopping badly, I don't know what is. A lot of people were surprised when Southampton paid as much as £2m for him too.

If Crouch gets to 20 England caps, something is seriously wrong with English football. If a player as bad as that gets near the squad, we have a big problem. As I said before, Crouch is a confidence player, so he may have a good couple of months sometimes, but then he'll disappear out of sight for months too. The only reason he got picked for England is that he moved to Liverpool. No one could say Darren Bent for example, has not been doing better.

Heskey and Crouch are decent yes Gett1n. They are not worth £11m and £7m respectively though, nor at they good enough for England. If Liverpool are happy to be mid-table, then those sort of players are OK. Can you imagine Crouch at Arsenal, Manchester United or Chelsea? It wouldn't happen in a million years, and Benitez has made a big, big mistake, as I said when he signed him

[Jesus]

I think that Peter Crouch gets boo'd as hes a lanky streak of piss.

[all_funkt_up]

Liverpool are playing badly.

The only way we will score is through a spectacular solo effort, an own goal or a penny...

The fact that Crouch hasnt scored is no slight on him - the service isnt there. Stick him in the Chelsea or Man U squad and he would score 20 goals a year. Stick Drogba or VanHorseyface in the LFC line up and they would be scraping the barrel too.....

We have a very bad assortment of ill matched individuals at the moment who arent played to their strenghts. Lets not blame it on lofty eh...

[all_funkt_up]

Originally Posted by zonker84

Can you imagine Crouch at Arsenal, Manchester United or Chelsea? It wouldn't happen in a million years,

Wiltord & Jeffers

Kezman & Drogba

Saha & Smith

Piss poor players at big clubs? Nah you'd never see them playing for the big 3 in a million years

[Beanie]

Originally Posted by all_funkt_up

Drogba

Piss poor players at big clubs?

Leave it christian...Leave it...

[GaNgStA kEeKs]

Originally Posted by Beanie

Leave it christian...Leave it...

Nah i want to see him come in and open his heart about Drogba again.

It really gets his emotions going

[zonker84]

Originally Posted by all_funkt_up

Wiltord & Jeffers

Kezman & Drogba

Saha & Smith

Piss poor players at big clubs? Nah you'd never see them playing for the big 3 in a million years

Wiltord: Still a French international, did a very good job for Arsenal on the right-side of midfield. Much better player than Crouch will ever be. Still doing a decent job at Lyon. Admittedly, Wiltord isn't the best finisher, but he is a good player

Jeffers: Bad signing, but had a bit of skill and good movement at Everton. Also 1 international cap - 1 goal

Kezman: Again, much better than Crouch. Knows how to score, just didn't get a regular run of games at Chelsea. Doing OK at Atletico, and had a fantastic record at PSV. Kezman @ £5m or Crouch @ £7m? I know which one 99% of people would go for.

Drogba: Can be a big clumsy at times, but no one can say he is no effective. Looking at his record in France, he got 27 goals in 41 starts for Marseille. Crouch just looked lost last night, at least Drogba knows what he is doing and knows what he needs to do to be effective. If you're saying Crouch is as good as Drogba, you're insane

Saha: Again, a pretty poor signing, but he has pretty much been constantly injured since he joined Manchester United. He certainly has some ability, but who knows if he'll ever show it.

Smith: A very average player, never will be a top striker, so I'll probably give you this one. Cost the same price as Crouch, but that's just an example of Ferguson's terrible judgement in the transfer market. At least Smith runs about and hacks people down, Crouch just stands there and does nothing.


My point was that the top 3 clubs would never sign an absolute donkey like Crouch for such a big fee. I'd rather have Smith than Crouch and I think Smith is a waste of time too

[GaNgStA kEeKs]

Got to say a signing that could've really benefitted Liverpool and Crouch and one i thought was going to happen would have been Luis Figo.

He has such quality of a cross that he would set many chances up for Crouch on a plate and the other strikers rather than the lack of creativity we are seeing at Anfield at the minute.

[crowie]

Originally Posted by Kiko

Got to say a signing that could've really benefitted Liverpool and Crouch and one i thought was going to happen would have been Luis Figo.

He has such quality of a cross that he would set many chances up for Crouch on a plate and the other strikers rather than the lack of creativity we are seeing at Anfield at the minute.

But why sign someone like Figo when you can play Cisse or Steve Finnan wide right, ehhh Rafa??!!!

[all_funkt_up]

I think Rafa made the right moves as far as the transfer market it concerned.

Benfica wanted too much (in his books) for Simao and Benitez opted not to buy at that price.

Similarily - too much was asked for Owen and Figo and he didnt buy. In the days when Chairmen seem only too happy to dish out money left right and centre, I think its refreshing that he wont be rushed into buying someone or pressured through the media into paying £3 mil too much for a player. Figo is good for the here and now, I would rather we invested for the future in good talent than give Figo £100k+ a week for a year or two. Thats around £10 million on wages in 2 years!!

Noble, stout leader that he is....

[crowie]

Figo took a big pay cut to go to Inter though AFU.

Originally Posted by AFU

I think its refreshing that he wont be rushed into buying someone or pressured through the media into paying £3 mil too much for a player.

But he did pay about £5m too much for Crouch.

Sorry if I sound down on Liverpool, I remember watching them in late 70's and early 80's and they played some absolutely brillant football. Always remember the game where they beat Spurs 7-0 and McDermott finished off a superb team move - that summed up Liverpool. Players like him, Ray Kennedy, Heighway, Case, Dalglish, Souness, Rush, Hansen, Lawrenson, Whelan, Houghton, Barnes and Beardsley played some lovely to watch football and I hate what they have become nowadays.

[GaNgStA kEeKs]

Originally Posted by all_funkt_up

I think Rafa made the right moves as far as the transfer market it concerned.

Benfica wanted too much (in his books) for Simao and Benitez opted not to buy at that price.

Similarily - too much was asked for Owen and Figo and he didnt buy. In the days when Chairmen seem only too happy to dish out money left right and centre, I think its refreshing that he wont be rushed into buying someone or pressured through the media into paying £3 mil too much for a player. Figo is good for the here and now, I would rather we invested for the future in good talent than give Figo £100k+ a week for a year or two. Thats around £10 million on wages in 2 years!!

Noble, stout leader that he is....

Thats fair play mate but if you geniunely want your side to go out and compete week in week out your going to have to pay that extra few million too much to get some real quality in otherwise you's will be stuck with players who aren't capable of playing at the top level.

[all_funkt_up]

kiko - nah dont agree. Wenger never did it at Arsenal...

If you are a massive club with unlimited funds then you can pay over the odds for players because whether they flop or not - the club will be ok. Liverpool cant afford to over spend and cant afford to make expensive mistakes.

TBH, we probably wouldnt have been doing that bad if Benitez was able to bring in 'his' players - Gonzalez - Simao and Kuyt were 3 that he wanted in August but didnt get for one reason or another. Safe to say, if Dirk had signed - Crouchy wouldnt be playing in the red of LFC.......

[all_funkt_up]

Originally Posted by zonker84

Wiltord: Still doing a decent job at Lyon.

Jeffers: Bad signing,

Kezman: Again, much better than Crouch. Knows how to score

Drogba: Can be a big clumsy at times, but no one can say he is not effective.

Saha: Again, a pretty poor signing,

Smith: A very average player, never will be a top striker,

Well its a game of opinions and there's no right and wrong. Though you are clearly wrong with a capital "W"

Drogba may be effective as you say, but in the best team in Europe who wouldnt be? He takes 5 chances to bag a goal and skews shots left right and centre. He is fortunate that on either side of him he has 2 of: Cole, Robben, SWP, Duff, Gudjohnsen and Lampard snapping away off his shoulder.


Crouchy (bless him) has finnan, potter, warnock, pongolle, garcia and kewell crossing for him. The team dont play with the same confidence and he doesnt get as many clear opportunities per game as Drogba.

We shall never know, but I would say Crouch or a scarecrow for that matter could score as many as Drogba. God help the rest of the Prem if they ever sign a decent striker like Robbie Fowler....