Goals, Goals, Goals

[Ronnie Whelan]

Now that the Rafa has his squad, our initial ideas of him building Valencia II seem relatively close to what has actually happened. Our top scorer in the premiership last season was an attacking central midfielder, as was Baraja during Rafas last La Liga victory. He has brougt in quality on both flanks and plenty of good cover in defence. But the one main difference is the type of strikers he has gone for:

 

God - No doubt brought back because of his desire to play for the red jersey, but in my opinion and when used correctly, could we weigh in with 5-10 in the premiership this season.

 

Bellamy - Versatile. Will be an excellent link man by pulling out wide and getting quality ball into box ala last Sunday. Personally I can see him doing well in the assists count and weighing in with 10+ himself.

 

Crouchy - Working alongside any of our other strikers Crouchy too will do well in the assists and i expect a little more from him this season in terms of hitting the net. He knows what its like to play for Liverpool Football Club now. 10+

 

Kuyt - I will be first to openly admit i have not seen as much of him as i would like. But going on all counts he seems to be good in the air and given the service he will get from our wide boys and from Bellamy I can see him causing some serious problems for defenders. He also seems pretty good on the deck. When playing off a central midfield like ours he will get the chances. Just think of the 1 on 1s spurned last season, going on the limited amount i have seen, Kuyt seems pretty effective in these situations. Im being pretty reserved; 10+

 

 

If SG, Luis, HK, Pennant, Gonzalez, Riise, can weigh in with 30 goals between them, which is not asking a lot, then we are looking at hitting, in excess of 65 goals. We only scored 57 in the league last season, another 8 goals would have really ran the chavs close.

 

 

Thoughts?

 

 

 

 

On another note, I love this Rafaism from todays' press conference:

 

"It's one thing to spend big money on players who don't do a job, but another when you spend it on quality players.

Edited August 18, 2006 by Ronnie Whelan

[Falconhoof]

It was our failure to score goals early in the season that cost us the league. Take the first month of league games out and we won the most points over the rest of the season.

 

As you say, this time, Rafa has players that will score goals from the off. All over the pitch we have players who will weigh in with their share. Crouch took about 10 games before he hit the net last year but he's settled now and grown in confidence and he knows his team mates better. He'll get onto loads of crosses from our new wingers and Gerrard is finding Crouchy with ease.

[Keita]

1-0

[DJM]

It's going to be a great season