The season has begun with some of Liverpool‘s brightest players from last season finding themselves second in line to the new faces at the club. Is Kenny Dalglish making a mistake persisting with youth over experience?
We are only five games into the new season, but there are murmurings of discontent on Merseyside at the patience being shown to a number of new faces at the club. The likes of Jordan Henderson and Andy Carroll are starting week in week out, at the expense of players who are vastly more experienced and have shown a lot more in a Liverpool shirt over the years.
Liverpool seem to have lacked the spark shown at the end of last season, and it is no coincidence that players who did well during Dalglish’s first few months in charge, like Maxi Rodriguez and Dirk Kuyt, have not been in the starting line up during the club’s indifferent start to the season.
A lot of money was spent over the summer on new players, but surely a new face should have to earn his place in the side and not just be thrust straight into it, ahead of established first team players. Regardless of how hefty the price tags they arrived with, the likes of Carroll and Henderson have no automatic right to start every game. They were bought with the future in mind, and so they should feature more as squad players at the present time and be gradually integrated and phased into the starting eleven.
Dirk Kuyt is just one of the experienced players who has had to content himself with a role on the bench so far this season. He linked up well with Craig Bellamy, Maxi and Luis Suarez in Liverpool’s Carling Cup win over Brighton. Together they showed a fluidity that has been lacking from Liverpool’s displays so far this season, which makes it difficult to understand why they aren’t featuring in the Liverpool side every week.
Kuyt offers Liverpool a different option, and should be in the starting line up whether as a right winger or a striker. He isn’t the most natural right winger, but he certainly offers more in that role at this time than Henderson, who has looked completely out of his depth and has not really done anything of note. Kuyt gives 110% every time, chases everything down, and can fit into the Liverpool pass and move system. He also seems to be on the same wavelength as Suarez, something which Carroll hasn’t quite yet mastered. Liverpool look more inventive, aggressive and fluid with Kuyt alongside Suarez.