But I also see him make first touches. Giving the ball away is a poor first touch. Anything else is just salad dressing. Kuyt wins back more than he gives away.
We didn't play the Barca way at all, we played on the counter attack, defended pretty deep and closed Barca players down when they were in our half. Kuyt hasn't been good enough for Barca throughout his career, whether he's been playing with Robben and Van Persie or Ngog and Riera, he's still not good enough to play pass and move football. Kuyt having a poor first touch is a media cliche? Maybe you should actually watch Kuyt playing next time. And the only reason Kuyt wins so many balls back is because he's usually the one that loses it in the first place with a heavy first touch or wayward pass.
The first touch thing. How many players actually have a good first touch?Most players usually use their first touch to steady themselves and a second to distribute.This is something Dirk Kuyt is very good at.
Torres has a poor first touch aswell, but he used to have the pace and acceleration to make up for it, Dirk doesn't. And IMO, every Barca player has a quality first touch, that's why they hardly lose the ball, and that's why Dirk wouldn't suit their style of play.
I'm not saying he's got sticky toes like Messi. But to me the first touch thing is like zonal and Andy Gray. It became something journos and early critics of Kuyt used to knock him, so now when he does make a poor first touch that loses possession it's noticed more than when other players do it, in the same way as soon as we leaked a setpiece Andy Gray would jump on it as proof zonal is rubbish, despite Reina getting 3 Golden Gloves with a zonal defence.
