Adam Lallana, destined to forever be one of those players. You know, forever dissected, argued over, debated and discussed. Destined for greatness one minute, discarded the next.
He's not a "Lucas", because his ability and value is clearly much higher, but he's in that category of player when fans are never quite sure about his quality, and the argument can swing on a great performance one week, and a poor one the next, with both sets of extremes being quite able to say "I told you so! HE'S SHIT" or "I told you so! HE'S ACE!" on multiple occasions.
And we've had lots of these players at Liverpool; Garcia, Sissoko, Bellamy, Baros, Murphy, and on and on and on.
I'm not in either extreme camp, because anybody who is, is wrong. He's alright. He's a good, decent, talented Premiership player. I never really wanted us to buy him, and was utterly appalled at the price Southampton extracted from us, an utterly preposterous £25m, but once he joined, well....y'know....fine.
What is he? A two-footed, skilful, lightweight attacking midfielder with no pace at all, who doesn't score much. He will probably get 5-6 goals in the league. Not exactly a game-changer, or reliable finisher. He works hard, and covers a lot of ground (and seems to be able to maintain that work-rate better than he did when he first joined), but there's all too often a total lack of end product.
He has a knack of finding space when he drifts between midfield and attack, and has a nice touch. He has a tendency to overplay, or perform tricks when it doesn't matter. He is getting much better at winning back possession and forcing the opposition to cough up the ball.
But is he a very good player? Approaching great? Is he fuck. Like all too many of his team-mates, he isn't anywhere near that, because he can't consistently reproduce the form that gets the Pro-Lallana camp screeching "I told you so! HE'S GREAT!". Because he isn't good enough to produce that consistency.
There is no flaw in the logic, or his mentality. There isn't a "missing switch" to flick that will generate that consistency. It isn't there due to his actual, definable quality as a footballer. And never will be.
Yeah, he's better than spineless, effete, twats like the hapless Markovic, but so what? Most players are. It's whether he can prove his worth in the side when there is competition like Mane and Wijnaldum - both more effective footballers in terms of obvious end product and assists - that will be key.
He has plenty of assets to his value as a footballer, and almost as many deficiencies.
He's not a "Lucas", because his ability and value is clearly much higher, but he's in that category of player when fans are never quite sure about his quality, and the argument can swing on a great performance one week, and a poor one the next, with both sets of extremes being quite able to say "I told you so! HE'S SHIT" or "I told you so! HE'S ACE!" on multiple occasions.
And we've had lots of these players at Liverpool; Garcia, Sissoko, Bellamy, Baros, Murphy, and on and on and on.
I'm not in either extreme camp, because anybody who is, is wrong. He's alright. He's a good, decent, talented Premiership player. I never really wanted us to buy him, and was utterly appalled at the price Southampton extracted from us, an utterly preposterous £25m, but once he joined, well....y'know....fine.
What is he? A two-footed, skilful, lightweight attacking midfielder with no pace at all, who doesn't score much. He will probably get 5-6 goals in the league. Not exactly a game-changer, or reliable finisher. He works hard, and covers a lot of ground (and seems to be able to maintain that work-rate better than he did when he first joined), but there's all too often a total lack of end product.
He has a knack of finding space when he drifts between midfield and attack, and has a nice touch. He has a tendency to overplay, or perform tricks when it doesn't matter. He is getting much better at winning back possession and forcing the opposition to cough up the ball.
But is he a very good player? Approaching great? Is he fuck. Like all too many of his team-mates, he isn't anywhere near that, because he can't consistently reproduce the form that gets the Pro-Lallana camp screeching "I told you so! HE'S GREAT!". Because he isn't good enough to produce that consistency.
There is no flaw in the logic, or his mentality. There isn't a "missing switch" to flick that will generate that consistency. It isn't there due to his actual, definable quality as a footballer. And never will be.
Yeah, he's better than spineless, effete, twats like the hapless Markovic, but so what? Most players are. It's whether he can prove his worth in the side when there is competition like Mane and Wijnaldum - both more effective footballers in terms of obvious end product and assists - that will be key.
He has plenty of assets to his value as a footballer, and almost as many deficiencies.
