Why Charlie Adam Is Not Good Enough For Liverpool

By Harrison Page. Follow him on Twitter @mrharrisonpage

• 25-year-old signs for undisclosed fee.
• Adam 'delighted' to be at Anfield.

New Liverpool signing Charlie Adam will be hoping to
make an impact at Anfield.

Scottish international midfielder Charlie Adam has finally completed his long awaited move to Liverpool for an undisclosed fee, but why has a club with aspirations of European qualification even considered to sign such a mediocre player?

The former Blackpool captain has certainly played an instrumental role in the meteoric rise of the Seasiders’ notoriety over the past two seasons, scoring 16 goals on the way to Championship Play-Off Final success in 2010 and 12 goals in the Tangerines’ subsequent debut season in the Premier League. This success however conjures up the notion of ‘a big fish in a small pond’ and in my opinion, Adam will struggle to have the same impact in the ocean of class he’ll face at Anfield.

Harrison Page believes Charlie Adam's move to Liverpool
will mirror that of Steve Sidwell's unimpressive stint at Chelsea.

It’s not too difficult to stand tall amongst the likes of Elliot Grandin, Keith Southern and Gary Taylor-Fletcher, but when the former Rangers midfielder will have to exert his presence over Portuguese international Raul Meireles, £20million man Jordan Henderson and a certain Mr Gerrard, one finds it difficult for him to be able to do so.

Liverpool’s acquisition of Charlie Adam reminds me of Steve Sidwell signing for Chelsea after a similarly two productive seasons with, no disrespect, a Premier League minnow. On arriving at Stamford Bridge, Sidwell claimed he was not simply there to make up the numbers and believed that his own game would improve through training with experienced internationals such as Frank Lampard and Michael Essien.  However, regardless of whether the former England U21 international’s footballing aptitude improved during his time in West London or not, the fact that he was no longer ‘a big fish in a small pond’ demonstrated that he was simply not good enough for a club of Chelsea’s stature and consequently made just 15 fleeting appearances.

Charlie Adam scored 12 goals in the Premier League last season, an impressive figure for a midfielder, until you mention that eight of those were in fact penalties. Yes, he provided a number of assists, but many of those were from corners and I’m sure that Kenny Dalglish hasn’t signed him for his set pieces alone. So what does the 25-year-old actually offer a club like Liverpool? Well, in my mind, very little.

Adam scored 12 goals in the
Premier League last season, but
8 were in fact penalties.

At Blackpool Adam was the talisman, the driving force behind every attacking move, the captain, a leader. At Liverpool however, Adam will be cast aside in the shadows by the players around him. His whole game is based around his influence over less technically gifted players and being the spearhead for a side like Blackpool to galvanise around. At Liverpool however, Adam’s unique selling point simply is not required, for the Anfield club already have their talismen, in the form of Jamie Carragher, Steven Gerrard and Luis Suarez.

Charlie Adam is certainly a talented individual, but what he thrives on is being that ‘big fish in a small pond’ and it was this primary attribute of influence that set him apart at Blackpool. A player of Adam’s mould needs a team to be built around him in order for him to flourish and at Liverpool, that simply is not going to happen. Of course he deserves the opportunity of playing in the Premier League again this season after his exploits over the past 12 months, but unfortunately he is not the calibre of player Kenny Dalglish should be looking for to get Liverpool back into Europe where they undoubtedly belong. Adam can undoubtedly be a talisman for sides in mid-table, but at the top-end of the league, I simply can’t see it.

What are your thoughts on Charlie Adam moving to Liverpool? Do you think he will prove Harrison Page wrong and be a success at Anfield or will he simply be Steve Sidwell Mark II? Share your views and opinions in the comments box below.

Season Review - Liverpool. Part Two.

Continuing our series of articles reviewing the past season's fortunes of teams from across the footballing world, here's the second and final part of Guest Writer Bradley Elvin's Season Review on his team Liverpool.

By Bradley Elvin

Dalglish brought in strikers Andy Carroll and Luis Suarez to
replace the Chelsea-bound Fernando Torres.

It seemed like the takeover by NESV and the appointment of Kenny Dalglish came just in time for Liverpool, as by this time the January transfer window was among us. 

With only slight improvements on the pitch with tough away games against Everton and in the F.A. Cup Manchester United ending in a 2-2 draw and 1-0 defeat respectively, Liverpool were out of another competition. However massive changes to the squad soon followed, with Paul Konchesky moving on loan to Nottingham Forest until the end of the season. But the transfer that got everybody talking, after months of speculation, was the sale of superstar striker Fernando Torres. After a illustrious Liverpool career which saw him reach 50 goals faster than any player before him in a Liverpool shirt including Rush, Fowler and Anthony Le Tallec he moved to rivals Chelsea and after some hard negotiation Chelsea had to fork out 50 million pounds, a record fee for an English club to pay.

Chelsea paid a record £50 million fee for Spanish
World Cup winning striker Fernando Torres.

However this left little time for Liverpool to find a much needed replacement for Torres, however like London buses you wait for 1 great striker and 2 come at once. Liverpool splashed out a club record £35 million on in form target man Andy Carroll from Newcastle United, somewhat of a risk giving his lack of experience for such a fee and the fact he was being asked to wear the famous number 9 shirt. Liverpool also splashed out a further 22 million pounds on Uruguayan striker Luis Suarez from Ajax, a player known for his controversial hand-ball that broke the hearts of the Ghanaian nation in the 2010 World Cup.

However big changes to the squad didn’t bring big changes to results, with Liverpool again losing to Blackpool and getting knocked out of the Europa League at the hands of Portuguese outfit Braga. But this certainly wasn’t going to dishearten the current mood at Anfield, there was a return of a legend and 2 new class strikers to replace 1 fading forward, and the expenditure worked out about even for Liverpool for the 3 deals. Not only was Dalglish bringing in expensive talent, but constant injuries and a lack of depth saw Liverpool bring through youngsters such as Jay Spearing, Jack Robinson and John Flanagan, players who certainly have great futures ahead of them.

Dirt Kuyt celebrates his hat-trick against rivals
Manchester United at Anfield.

By the latter stages of the season there was little to play for, with Liverpool out of every competition and very much looking to the future. This meant time for the new strikers to settle and to give Dalglish time to see what the squad he inherited could do. With little pressure on them, Liverpool were able to play some fantastic free flowing attacking football at times, beating Manchester United at Anfield 3-1 in the process, with new sensation Luis Suarez dismantling United’s defence to set up Dirk Kuyt’s close range hat trick. Again a Manchester club felt the wraith of Dalglish’s revitalised Reds with a fantastic 3-0 win this time against City. It was Carroll’s turn to take the glory with a quality double, with the ever present Dirk Kuyt finishing the scoring, with all the goals coming in the 1^st half.

It wasn’t all coming up roses however; a shocking display at Upton Park against bottom of the league West Ham with the Hammers winning 3-1 was certainly a wakeup call that Dalglish still has work to do with the squad over the summer. The last highlight of the season was with a superb 5-2 victory over an in form and usually resilient Fulham at Craven Cottage, Suarez again running the show, but it was Maxi Rodriguez who seemed to finally find his feet under Dalglish who scored a hat-trick in this game. It was certainly a performance which left Liverpool supporters lying awake at night wondering what next season can bring with these new breed of superstars. Undoubtedly Liverpool can no longer be accused of being a “2 man team”.

Raul Meireles scoring Liverpool's goal of the season
against Wolves, in the opinion of Guest Writer
Bradley Elvin.

So what was an extremely eventful season for The Reds with new owners, managers and strikers along the way, ended with the Liverpool supporters chomping at the bit for summer transfers and the new season to begin.

Player of the season: Raul Meireles.

Goal of the season: Raul Meireles against Wolves.

Surprise of the season: Lucas Leiva’s consistent performances which cemented his place as a first team regular.

If you share our passion for football and would like to share your views with a worldwide audience, Can We Play You Every Week? offers you the chance to write either a single or series of articles on a subject of your choice as a guest writer.

If you're interested in becoming a guest writer, or simply would like some more information, send us an email at harrisonpage@hotmail.co.uk or alternatively Tweet us @canweplayblog  

Season Review - Liverpool. Part One.

In the third instalment of our series of articles reviewing the past season's fortunes of teams from across the footballing world, Guest Writer Bradley Elvin gives thoughts on his team's performance in 2010/11.

By Bradley Elvin 

Roy Hodgson's time as Liverpool manager was certainly not uneventful.

What was certainly an eventful season for The Reds if not a successful one, started off with boardroom turmoil. 

With former co-owners George Gillett and Tom Hicks finally looking to sell after much demand from fans, after false promises of a new stadium, they certainly weren’t making it easy for new investors by holding out for every penny. Matters had to be settled in court with Liverpool appointing emergency chairman Martin Broughton (British Airways) and chief executive Christian Purslow to help settle matters with the current owners. Liverpool were in need of strikers so they brought in Martin Broughton as he used to have thousands of them. Yes, the club I love was certainly the brunt of all the football related jokes at the start of the season. Liverpool brought in vastly experienced Coach Roy Hodgson to help steady the ship rather than appoint a more exuberant manager the fans would have wanted.

Hodgson's free transfer acquisition of Joe Cole was seen
as the answer  to Liverpool's lack of creativity, but the
former England international failed to make an impact. 

However turmoil off the pitch was reflected by poor performances on it. Liverpool under Hodgson made their worst start to a league season for nearly half a century. Poor signings like Christian Poulsen and Paul Konchesky certainly did not look good for Hodgson. He did however get out of favour Chelsea playmaker Joe Cole on a free transfer; however he never really got going in a Liverpool shirt and constant injuries made it hard for Cole to settle into the side. Also deadline day signing of Porto’s Raul Meireles proved to be a great acquisition, perhaps the only saving grace of a poor stint at Liverpool for Hodgson. 

There was more bad news when new signing Cole was sent off on his debut against Arsenal in a heated 1-1 draw which saw the in-form David N'Gog find the net from an acute angle, however a rare mistake from ‘keeper Pepe Reina handed Arsenal a point. Hodgson, apart from in the Europa League against lesser opposition, couldn’t buy a win. More poor performances and results followed soon after, losing at home to the likes of Wolves, Blackpool and even League One side Northampton Town in the Carling Cup were starting to turn the usually faithful Liverpool support against Hodgson.

New Liverpool owner John Henry aimed to bring some
much needed financial stability to the club. 

A good 2-0 home win against champions Chelsea did help calm the nerves of relegation worries, with a usually uninterested Fernando Torres turning up and bagging a brilliant brace. However Liverpool were unable to really build on that and talks of Torres’ exit were soon brought up again. When boardroom court matters were finally resolved and Martin Broughton managed to get rid of cowboys Hicks and Gillett, Liverpool football club were delighted to see the back of Americans. With much interest and speculation on whom the new investors would be, Liverpool believed they finally brought the right people to the club with the NESV sports group run by John Henry (yes, more Americans) and again Liverpool were the brunt of jokes by this time.

Of course fans were somewhat and understandably edgy at more Americans taking over, but Henry’s work with Baseball outfit the Boston Red Sox speaks for itself, so at least Liverpool were getting an American with experience of transforming a struggling sports team and bringing them back to winning ways.

Kenny Dalglish was appointed to turn the tide on
Liverpool's poor first half of the season under Hodgson.

Of course with new owners, speculation of Hodgson’s early Anfield exit grew bigger and with the new owners’ first game at Anfield being a Merseyside derby against bitter rivals Everton it really was do or die time for Hodgson’s reds from the fans and owners points of view. Having witnessed a lacklustre 2-0 away defeat to their bitter rivals amongst a string of poor results, Liverpool decided enough was enough and parted company with Roy Hodgson after just 6 months in charge. Liverpool fans had for months been singing from the terraces for the legendary Kenny Dalglish to return as manager and throughout Hodgson’s time at Liverpool Kenny never ruled himself out of taking over. So when all the manager and boardroom fiascos had settled there really was only one candidate to takeover a desperate Liverpool. Yes King Kenny was back!

Make sure to check back tomorrow for the second and final part of Bradley Elvin's Liverpool Season Review.

Season Review - Newcastle United. Part Two.

Continuing our new series of articles reviewing the past season's fortunes of teams from across the footballing world, here's the second and final part of Guest Writer Tom Galley's Season Review on his team Newcastle United.

By Tom Galley @tgalley91

Andy Carroll's January transfer to Liverpool did not result in the predicted
negative repercussions on Newcastle's aim of Premier League survival.

January marked a difficult month for the club. A brilliant start saw the Magpies win compellingly against West Ham 5-0, a game in which Leon Best managed to become another Newcastle player to score a hat-trick in the league this season. However, a cup upset at the hands of Stevenage in the FA Cup 3rd round and conceding stoppage time equalisers when in leading positions against Sunderland and Tottenham, left a sour taste in the mouths of players and fans alike. 

However, it was the end of the month and closing of the transfer window that rocked the club most. With Chelsea pursuing their chase for Liverpool frontman Fernando Torres, Liverpool were looking for a replacement and they had shortlisted Andy Carroll to be their man and were adamant in their chase for the England prospect. So much so, that after receiving £50 million from Chelsea for Torres, they were willing to pay £35 million for Carroll, an offer that just seemed too good for the board at Newcastle to turn down. So with all this movement going on so late in the transfer window, this didn’t leave any time for Newcastle to find a replacement for their number 9 striker, leaving them to finish the season with their current playing squad.

Cheik Tiote celebrates his stunning equaliser
in Newcastle's 4-4 draw with Arsenal.

A Newcastle United squad without Andy Carroll seemed like they were going to lack goals and confidence up front to try and successfully survive in their first season back in the Premier League. Yet, when Arsenal visited St James Park in February 2011, it was a match that would go down in the history books. Arsenal had taken an early lead in which they were 3-0 up within 10 minutes, a lead which became 4-0 by half time. However, the turning point of the match happened about 15 minutes into the second half, when Arsenal midfielder Abou Diaby received a straight red for raising his hand to Joey Barton. Newcastle players and fans inside the stadium saw this as a chance to stage one of the most remarkable comebacks football has ever seen. Two Joey Barton penalties either side of a Leon Best strike had brought Newcastle back to 4-3 with less than 4 minutes to go. Then up stood Cheik Tioté, who had been Newcastle’s star player for most of the season, to volley the ball into the corner of the net and complete the comeback. 4-4!

The Toon Army will be hoping that the money from the
Andy Carroll transfer will be used to bring in new players.

St James Park had witnessed two great games during the season that would remain classics in Geordie folklore, and although without a great home record by Newcastle’s standards, their Premier League safety was guaranteed with a home victory over Birmingham, three games before the season ending.

So, with the end of the season and survival guaranteed, optimism is even higher for next season. With Alan Pardew reportedly having the vast majority of the Andy Carroll transfer money available to him, he has a lot at his disposal to build his legacy at St James Park and try to establish Newcastle as a consistent top half club and potential contenders for Europe, something that arguably the Toon Army deserves.

If you share our passion for football and would like to share your views with a worldwide audience, Can We Play You Every Week? offers you the chance to write either a single or series of articles on a subject of your choice as a guest writer.

If you're interested in becoming a guest writer, or simply would like some more information, send us an email at harrisonpage@hotmail.co.uk or alternatively Tweet us @canweplayblog

Britain Bow Out of Europa League

The passports of players at Liverpool, Manchester City and Rangers can all be locked away ‘til next season as all three British sides went out at the last-16 stage of the Europa League last night.

In a fortnight that has seen three British clubs – Chelsea, Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur – progress through to the quarter-finals of the Champions League, their compatriots could not do the same in the Europa League and now have to turn their attentions to other competitions in the hope of silverware this year, or in the case of Liverpool, wait until next season for the chance to win a trophy.

We start off at Eastlands were Manchester City faced a strong Dynamo Kiev side with a 2-0 advantage from the first-leg. City boss Roberto Mancini put out a strong side that included the likes of Carlos Tevez, Mario Balotelli and David Silva and the Blues looked dangerous against a Kiev team that had clearly come to Manchester with a game plan to sit back and protect their two goal aggregate lead. It was certainly going to be a tough ask for City to progress in the competition and their task was made even more difficult when fiery Italian striker Mario Balotelli was sent off for a challenge on Kiev defender Goran Popov, a challenge that made the tackle made by his City team-mate Nigel De Jong in the World Cup Final look like child’s play. Although Balotelli’s athleticism to raise his foot to such a height was impressive, it was a horrendous tackle and the Macedonian Popov was lucky not to be seriously injured.

Manchester City's Aleksandar Kolarov celebrates his
goal against Dynamo Kiev at Eastlands.

Following a short interval for the kung-fu antics, Manchester City’s dominance of the footballing kind was rewarded six minutes before half-time when Aleksandar Kolarov fired in a low drive past the unsighted Oleksandr Shovkovskiy, a goal which give Mancini’s men a glimmer of hope at the break despite the prospect of having to play the entirety of the second half with just ten men. City continued to press after the restart and with twenty minutes to go brought on Edin Dzeko and Adam Johnson in the hope of taking the tie to extra time, but in the end Kiev’s one man advantage paid dividends and their one goal advantage was enough to see them progress to the quarter-finals. No doubt City fans will be wondering what would have happened if Balotelli would have kept his feet on the ground and the Blues played the entire game with their full contingent of eleven players, but unfortunately their previously impressive Europa League run is behind them and they will now have to turn their attentions to the FA Cup semi-final against inter-city rivals United to realistically keep this season’s dream of silverware alive.

Andy Carroll made his first start for
Liverpool against Braga.

A 0-0 draw at Anfield was enough to see Portuguese side Braga through to the quarter-finals after a 1-0 aggregate win over Liverpool. Reds boss Kenny Dalglish blamed his side’s lack of creativity as they struggled to break down a well organised Braga outfit. Dalglish commented after the game “you need to be really strong creatively if you are going to break down a very organised side” and a Liverpool team without injured captain Steven Gerrard and the ineligible Luis Suarez looked lacklustre in attack. Although the game saw Andy Carroll make his first start in a Red’s shirt, the big striker looked short of match fitness and Dalglish will know his side will have to perform much better in order to qualify for the Europa League next season.

Rangers, the last remaining Scottish team in Europe, lost 1-0 at home to PSV Eindhoven in front of over 35,000 fans at Ibrox. A 13^th minute goal from Jeremain Lens was enough to see the Dutch side through to the quarter-finals in a game of poor quality that only managed four shots on target. The Glasgow side had a second half penalty appeal turned down after the referee – and amazingly the extra official behind the goal – failed to spot a hand ball on the goal line by Canadian international Atiba Hutchinson following a shot by Rangers midfielder Maurice Edu, but in the end it was PSV’s dominance over the two legs that sees them deservedly progress in the competition.