Kelly has had a few injuries in the short time since he broke into the Liverpool first team, one of them being long term at the end of last season. My concern is, most players injury records are worse when they get older, and with Kelly being at such a young age, this could be a bit of worry. If he doesn't shake off these injuries seen it could affect him more in the long run. I feel Kelly has it in him to become one of the best defenders around. But is any one else concerned about his injury record?
Well, not completely because we have Flanagan who I think is going to come on in leaps and bounds in the next few years. He has it in him to be a great defender, I see it as an Aurelio and Insua type of situation, but with better players. If Kelly is fit, he plays - if not then Flanagan plays. They both get decent amount of games, and we don't suffer too much.
I wouldn't be too worried. Kelly is still developing physically. At the moment his power/weight ratio is all out of kilter. It's the same problem United have with Wellbeck. As their anatomy develops then they can more easily handled the increased power that they have developed. With careful medical advice and management he should be OK. Perhaps it's Johnson that we should be more concerned about.
He's young enough to recover and move on, I don't think all this up and down the wing is much good for him with the size of the lad. I'm sure he'll move to center back eventually.
Yeah the Johnson thing is a worry especially as the less games he plays the less time Kelly has to develop at the right pace and the more pressure gets put onto his body. We need a fit Johnson in the short run to have a fit Kelly in the long run.
i think the point on johnson is a very good one. We've gotten one season out of a 17million buy with the rest of his time seeing 50% injuries. thats disasterous really. to rafa and mainly parry for that millstone. should have gotten hi for less than 10mil before he signed that contract at pompey. Kelly, I think the claim for him to be still growing is a decent one. I'd add to that saying two years ago he dived into a goal post to block a shot o nthe line in the CL and did his ankle. that can happen to anyone. That said though the point made about careful management is a MUST. If he's not over played, and is kept fit and developing i nthe next two years by playing say half the games with flanagan for example we would end up with carraghers replacement plus flanagan developed for RB. again billy el makes the point concenring johnson having a knock on effect on kelly which is ok but at least now flanagan and skertl are there to help that.
Johnson was a foolish buy at the time because we were competing with Chelsea. If they hadn't bid for him he would have been a good 5 mil cheaper.
Given Portsmouth's financial situation we clearly weren't going to get the money they owed us for Peter Crouch, so fitting that into the Johnson buy was probs the best way to cut our losses. Johnson is also a class player, just injury prone unfortunately.
