Moved from another thread where it was off topic and no one replied. There are some pretty obvious examples of defenders, midfielders, and goal keepers who were bad their first season that went on to be good... Thinking back over the recent history... I can't really think of any strikers we've had at Liverpool who were bad their first season (or half dozen games even) who didnt stay bad. Or good their first season who didn't continue being good (except under circumstance of injury robbing them of pace... or age over time). Closest we had was Crouch who took his time to start scoring... but even in his initial barren stretch he was contributing to the team and looked good. Fowler, Owen, Torres, Suarez, Kuyt,Sturrisge (perhaps)... They all were immediately useful and stayed good. (Until age or injury stole from them) No matter how many games Voronin, Morientes, N'Gog, El Zhar, Le Tallec, (suspect Borini) had... they never got to the level we needed... never got good enough. There are exceptions at other clubs... Drogba at Chelsea... where a player starts awful and gets better... but they are exceptions. I have a lot of patience for defensive players... terrible defenders can adjust and get better... but I really don't see this with attackers very often. Wondering if anyone can think of a decent striker or forward at Liverpool who started off awful... I can't. If a striker is going to be good.... he's going to be good early on.
He never managed much more than a one goal per 5 appearances in any season with us.. even when Torres was injured and he got a lot of starts. He filled in as best as he could and didn't deserve quite as much criticism as he got but was never in the category of a "good striker".
Was only kidding but possibly, Florent Sinama-Pongolle? I thought he could have been used more before being shipped out. Hmm, really have to think on this one a bit, Baros... how did he start out? I know he was inconsistent but did he start out really **** or just ok, hot? Can't remember.
Thought fsp was always underrated... Don't think Baros was ever anything special... OK but not great. He was forgettable... in fact I had forgotten about him until your post.
Baros started well if I remember but got worse in that,although he was still scoring, he missed loads and his finishing got worse. Always gave his all though.
I know - you weren't born then but John Toshack was no great shakes in his 1st season. Found a yard in pace by the start of his 2nd and TOSHACK IS OUR KING
Heskey was a dog in his first half season, but went on to be slightly less of a dog in his second. Actually, to be fair Heskey had a pretty good season in 00/01. Tho' he seemed to scare himself with how many goals he scored and promptly went back to being rubbish again. "Oh my god, I've scored against Germany. **** it, that's my career highlight, I'll just go back to hanging around the area again"
Ian Rush of course.... And In recent years Peter Crouch, didnt score for ages then did some great work for us. Was sad when he left
We had Gary Birtles, Peter Davenport and Alan Brazil who were all really **** in their first season but by the second season they were................., oh yeah. Still ****.
I can think of plenty accomplished strikers who should have expected to have been at least half decent but were awful: Morientes, Keane, Babel, etc
Babel had the potential but could not produce for us He had his moments but to far in between shame really thought that he would go on and do better for us.
I think it would have been interesting to see Torres and Babel up top (before Babel been deemed ****)
To be fair to Heskey, not that I would expect you to see it being a manc supporter obviously but he played a lot, in fact far more often than not, as a wide left player, Cisse played wide right, both were in the box down the middle and ball over the top players, both were never used as they had been at previous clubs