Landing The Big Fish : Stewart Downing

                     Following the Manchester United post in the "Landing the Big Fish" Series, we move onto Liverpool for this one. We welcome Sriram Viswanathan for this great piece, as he talks about King Kenny's most valuable deal this summer in his own witty style.
 

                Exactly a year ago, the Red side of Merseyside was brimming with a sort of uneasy anticipation. They had the unenviable job welcoming a certain Paul Konchesy to Anfield. Also the fact that they considered Joe Cole their best signing, told their somewhat miserable story.

              Since then, an entire legacy has been wiped out. That of Roy Hodgeson. Paul Konchesky, Christian Poulsen, Joe Cole and Raul Meireles, have all left the club. Raul Meireles, threatening to silence all the Hodgeson-critics by breaking into fine form, has moved to Chelsea in one of the more bizarre Deadline Day activities. AVB apparently spoke to him in Portuguese, and offered something King Kenny could not offer him ( A bit like Moyes not being able to offer Arteta Champions League football? ).

Can Downing be the new Kop-hero???

SIGNING OF THE SUMMER :

Certainly not Craig Bellamy. What the hell is he doing there? Oh well, anyways, in my book, the signing of the summer has certainly been Stewart Downing. Simply because he brings something new to the table. Liverpool needed someone on the right to make the game-changing runs, and now, as and when Gerrard returns, there will no doubt on where he will play. Under Rafa, he sometimes played on the right, and didn't do too well to be honest.

         Talking about other acquisitions, Charlie Adam is a Lucas Leiva 2.0, who is good at set-pieces. I would've let Spearing come into his own, rather than bring in Adam. Moving on, Kenny showed the Arsene Wenger in him, by signing Jordan Henderson. Decent signing, although I had also hailed Fernando Morientes as one. Remember him?

Sebastien Coates has come in, and will probably ensure that Carra is already negotiating with John W Henry on a possible place in the coaching staff this season. He apparently thought Luis Suarez is the manager at Liverpool, until he saw Kenny Dalglish.

           Looking more closely into the Downing move, he appeared in all 38 of Aston Villa's league games last season, which suggests he's likely to get more opportunities at Anfield than a certain Alberto Aquilani did. Even though he's primarily a left winger, he played on the Right-wing at Villa for large part of the last campaign, due to the excellent form of Ashley Young on the other flank. Liverpool haven't really had a world-class left-footer in the side for long time now. They had Albert Riera a couple of years back, but then, Riera is hardly what you call a World-class player. More of a Rafa Benitez rather than Kenny Dalglish, to be exact.

Stewart Downing can prove to be the most cunning piece of business by Dalglish this summer...

           Downing could also prove to be a valuable asset, should Kenny decide to play Andy Carroll (Liverpool's own version of the current Fernando Torres) in a traditional No. 9 position. He's an excellent crosser of the ball. In fact, the stats show he has completed more crosses in open play than any other player in the EPL over last 3 seasons. 135, to quote the exact figure. You don't need to be a genius to realize Carroll's best time at Newcastle was when they launched the ball from literally anywhere towards his monstrous frame.

         All in all, I think Stuart Downing is a great addition for the Kop. 19 million Pounds is an awful lot of money. But, Liverpool are buying a statistically reliable footballer for that amount. He may not be the most exciting buy, but certainly a solid and reliable one. For a club who passionately boasted about being the most successful club in English history till last year, this approach is certainly an interesting one.

But then, the times are certainly changing at Anfield, and for the good ! 




Written by-
Sriram Viswanathan