http://www.liverpoolfc.com/news/latest-news/it-s-demanding-but-i-enjoy-it I didn't think he was that impressive, however the article goes on to say how he is willing to play anywhere and do what he can for the team. Is he a lost cause and should we offload him in January if an offer comes in or do we stick with Downing if he is willing to give his all?
I think he was solid and did help us attack more in the final third. I do think he is a good player but just lacks the confidence. Plus we can't afford to offload anymore attackers. We need to add to the squad now.
Agreed. Our squad is currently 6 players short, I doubt it if we'll be letting anyone else go until we fill the 25 quota. Its a matter of only letting anyone go until we've signed 6+ players.
I'm really unsure, I hope he knuckles down and improves but I don't have faith in his ability. What would we get for him 5-6 million? Big loss again.
I can see him playing as a wing back, he looked good there - widened the pitch, calm on the ball in deep positions, good outlet.
he has the ability to take on players and get passed them easily but he doesnt do it, dont know if its a confidence thing or not but he needs to step up his game or risk becoming another flop and sold for peanuts. i mean 0 assists and 0 goals is woefull for a player of his caliber. he has been replaced with a 17 year old who cost 500k for god sake, that should be enough off a kick up the arsher for him to prove his worth.
WTF has that got to do with it...? Should the rest of the squad be ashamed that they don't play ahead of Gerrard? Afterall, he was a free!
he cost us 20 mill and we paid that amount for him to create chances which he did not do thus why i regard him as a flop, i just made a comparison with him and sterling to show how bad he actually is, remember he is a full england international who we pay 80k plus every week. gerrard has proved his worth over the years if he wasnt good enough he would have been sold along time ago,downing on the other hand has proved he is kak
Its a confidence thing with Downing for me imho... If he keeps getting picked at full back instead of a winger/wide position it will erode that fragile mind of his more... He must know himself he is on promised time, unless that is his performances get better and he starts showing why so many people rate him...
Gareth Southgate said he's a confidence player and he's managed him so he should know. I could see the justification for signing him, but as a confidence player last season wasn't going to do him any good. We created a lot of chances, which he was a part of. If nobody scores nobody gets an assist. He didn't score but then that was a team-wide problem so it's unfair to single him out, yet he has been singled out as the least effective of last season's signings, partly because of the size of the fee, which feeds into his lack of confidence. I don't have much hope for him this season for that reason.
Downing hasn't been as good as he should have, especially for the price paid, but the 0 assists is getting a bit boring and doesn't really tell the whole story. He did actually create quite a few chances, especially early in season when we were playing some decent football, but difficult to judge a player on assists when the team/strikers are struggling to score. I feel he should chip in with some goals though as he had some decent chances to score last season which were missed, so although defending him I do still think he needs to improve a lot, especially now Stirling is performing and putting pressure on him, and with some good preseason performances from Suso and Pacheco I could see BR giving them a chance before January window.
