Poll What happened to Clyne?

[rurikbird]

I want to know what you people think about Clyne. Last season he looked like an absolute lock for the RB position, his quiet consistency was such a breath of fresh air after the maddeningly inconsistent and injury prone RBs of the years past. I looked at Morse's Player of the season votes from last season and Clyne had 7 second place votes and 7 third place votes, which means he was selected in the top 3 in roughly a third of the games he's played – pretty good for a full-back! This season, however, he only got one single 3rd place vote and finished near the bottom of the pile, even below Gomez and Stewart and his "understudy" Trent Alexander-Arnold. What changed?

I see 3 main explanations:

1. Clyne has actually regressed compared to last season. That happens – even Messi has some worse seasons than others. If that's the case, hopefully he'll bounce back.
2. Clyne stayed in the same place, but the rest of the team improved, so he now looks worse in comparison. There is a decent case that can be made for this explanation – it's undeniable that the team overall has found a new gear compared to last season, with a 16 point improvement and far more consistency and maybe that made Clyne's consistency stand out less and kind of get taken for granted.
3. The league has adjusted to playing against us, giving up more possession and forcing us to work the ball to the flanks time and time again – which exposed Clyne's attacking limitations. Also last season his opposite number on the left was Moreno who played pretty much as a wing-back, so Clyne's role was to stay back and protect, whereas now with Milner being a competent defender the flanks are now less lopsided, which puts more onus on Clyne to go forward.

What's your take?

 

[Farkmaster]

I think it's just that last year you say, well, that's a solid core group of skills for a RB, he adds a bit to that and we're sorted for a while. Now you think, well, that might just be it, and we're sorted till he loses even a foot of pace. He's still young though and it's hardly a big priority. Be happy if he surprised me next year, he still has time.

Side note/thread highjack...

This thread got me thinking about Steve Finnan, which in turn made me think of:

Finnan -- Carragher - Hyppia - Riise

Every single one of those players has a better song than ANY of our players now. I mean, I get people aren't singing songs about our valiant defenders this year, but Coutinho even? Is Mane the only decentish song we have? What the fuck has happened? I say when scouting we look for players whose name rhymes with a stereotypical alcoholic beverage in their homeland, above all else.

 

[Markeh]

In de Clyne?

 

[rurikbird]

In de Clyne?

In deed. Thread titles are not my strength.

 

[Shadey]

He's on a plane to the Seychelles apparently.

 

[Skullflower]

He doesn't seem to be able see what's going on around him in the final third. Could be fog on the clyne.

 

[Judge Jules]

My theory about Clyne is that the RB we signed from Southampton, who was noted as much for his attacking as for his defending (as he had been at Palace before that), was knocked off course at the @rse end of Rodgers' reign when everything was unravelling. Rodgers panicked and tried to tighten things up, and it was noticeable that all of a sudden the buccaneering RB whom we all saw as one of Rodgers' best signings (perhaps the best) wouldn't even cross the halfway line any more. I think Clyne lost his bearings at that point, and I just hope it can be coached back into him.

 

[superchimp]

He's frightened to attack at times which is odd given he has pace and is a good athlete.

Top defender but we all know that anyway.

 

[Dreambeliever]

I think he's great and haven't a problem with him.

 

[Judge Jules]

I like him too, but he's clearly underachieving. The player we bought was a potent attacking weapon as well as a sound defender. The current version isn't.

 

[rurikbird]

My theory about Clyne is that the RB we signed from Southampton, who was noted as much for his attacking as for his defending (as he had been at Palace before that), was knocked off course at the @rse end of Rodgers' reign when everything was unravelling. Rodgers panicked and tried to tighten things up, and it was noticeable that all of a sudden the buccaneering RB whom we all saw as one of Rodgers' best signings (perhaps the best) wouldn't even cross the halfway line any more. I think Clyne lost his bearings at that point, and I just hope it can be coached back into him.

Hmm, the facts don't seem to support that theory as the de-clyne seems to have happened this season rather than last season under Rodgers and Klopp when he was actually quite good.

 

[Hansern]

He's still one of the best right backs in the league, young and solid defensively. He's also never injured and we need to find, and play a consistent back four.

Wouldnt replace him regardless of having a "Worse" season then the last one.
We've got other more pressing needs.

 

[Judge Jules]

Rurik: as a defender, yes. As an attacker though, I don't agree. For me he's been way short of his original offensive level since the tail end of Rodgers' time here.

 

[Rosco]

He's on a plane to the Seychelles apparently.

That makes sense to me. I just thought he wore down as the season went on and that might not be surprising given he's played 150 games in the past three seasons.

 

[Squiggles]

I still really like him. He will be fine when Mane is back in the team and less is expected of him. I don't think it's a coincidence that the criticism of Clynes attacking play has intensified since Mane has been out.

 

[gareth_thomas]

There's no doubt that he needs to improve... The fact that the ball always ends up at his feet is no coincidence, teams are aware that he isn't going to create problems and allow him time and space. The thing is... he shouldn't have to be Cafu and he's never going to bomb past players on the wing and create endless scoring opportunities. If he had the defensive and attacking ability that many expect of him he'd easily be the best right back in the league.

Our talented attacking players should be the ones taking flak as they are the ones that often take the easy way out, passing to an isolated Clyne with the option of two motionless midgets in the box. He will start to look good again once others step up and he's not expected to be some kind of play maker

 

[LarryHagman]

Too often the Patsy, Clyne.