What Lucas brings to the team. What Babel might bring.
Probably like a lot of us, when Lucas Leiva and Ryan Babel joinedLiverpool I scanned websites of both Gremio and Ajax to see what thetwo sets of divested fans felt about losing their starlets to the Reds.
The Gremio site was marked by fatalism, pride and a certainamount of anguish. But whatever the individual response to losing Lucasit was plain to see that the young lad commanded the completeconfidence of his former club’s supporters. In fact it was clear theyloved him. There were comparisons there between Lucas and Falcao, Lucasand Cerezo, even Lucas and Gerrard. Here, apparently, was a player ofthe authentic southern Brazilian style – a box-to-box midfielder whoplayed football with the high technique we expect of players from thatpart of the world and the sense of urgent purpose that sometimes seemslacking. People talked about his one touch play, his imaginativerunning off the ball, his tireless desire to close down the opposition.They talked about his combativeness and his quick thinking. And theytalked about how irreplaceable he would be and how they would miss him.No Red could scan those pages without experiencing a surge of joy (andbecause we are football romantics here at Anfield a tinge of pity forthe Gremio lads too). This was a 19-year-old they were talkingabout! But probably most Reds reading those fantastic enconiums alsofelt a blast of disbelief that it was wind-swept Liverpool - not Real,not Barca, not Benfica, not Milan (sun-kissed, the lot of ‘em) - whowere going to land the best young Brazilian to emerge since Kaka.
TheAjax site was different. Babel divided opinion in Amsterdam. For everyfan who talked up his staggering pace on the ball, there was a tiredDutch shrug at his erratic decision-making. For every supporter whomentioned his hammer shot there was another who bemoaned his shotselection and complained of his naivety. Maybe the idea of rawtalent doesn’t impress in a country where even school footballers areexpected to show something that’s been cooked. Or perhaps there’ssimply more sour grapes at a prestigious club which is perennially and– for them - boringly stripped of its best young players. But evenallowing for that there was a strata of genuine disbelief on the Ajaxsites that Liverpool had thrown such a lot of money at such a misfiringtalent.
I liked both Lucas and Babel as soon as I saw them. I also liked the ideaof them because both acquisitions seemed to signal that Rafa wasthinking beyond the functional to the decorative. I don’t mean that ina bad sense. But compared to what we had at Anfield, and certainly towhat we’d been used to under Houllier, both Lucas and Babel promisedexcitement and adventure and a readiness to take a huge punt onprecocious talent. They indicated very strongly that we hoped soon tomeet the best teams in Europe on level terms when it came to flair andtechnique. I still think that the two signings carried a colossalsymbolic value which was every bit as important as the signing ofTorres – and something which probably wouldn’t have happened were itnot for Istanbul. |
發表於 2009-1-2 09:54 PM
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