Jermaine Pennant - is he winning you over?

[owenthomas]

Daily Post: Pennant believes he?s proved the doubters wrong

 

JERMAINE PENNANT believes his wonder goal against Chelsea at the weekend can silence the doubters who branded him a flop at Liverpool. The winger netted his first goal for the club in spectacular fashion during the 2-0 win over the Premiership champions on Saturday.

 

Pennant struggled to find his feet at Anfield during the opening months of the season after making a high-profile £6.7million move from Birmingham City in the summer. However, the 24-year-old has shown signs in recent weeks of delivering the kind of form that marked him out as a teenage prodigy earlier in his career.

 

And Pennant believes his improved performances are proof he can repay the faith shown in him by manager Rafael Benitez. ?I feel as though I am settled in at Anfield now,? he said. ?I feel far more comfortable, and I feel as though I am proving people wrong still. I?m getting more confidence and looking forward to every game. Perhaps I?ve proved a few more people wrong with this performance. But the manager has said he has always had belief in me, that?s why he signed me.?

 

Of his goal, Pennant added: ?It is always a great moment to score your first goal for Liverpool, but to do it against Chelsea and in the manner that I did was simply the icing on the cake. As soon as the ball came down, I?d noticed that there was nothing on in the box for me to cross to so there was only one thing on my mind what I was going to do, and that was shoot. It?s been a long time coming and I was getting frustrated that I hadn?t scored, and you could see from my celebrations what it meant to me.?

 

Pennant?s performance drew praise from manager Benitez, who has reiterated his demand for the winger to be more selfish in front of goal. ?He?s been playing really well,? said the Spaniard. ?He scored a fantastic goal on Saturday and was working hard against Ashley Cole. I?ve been speaking to him before and telling him to score more goals. He needs to be a bit more selfish -? sometimes he tries to assist or cross instead. He has a lot of quality.?

 

Steve McClaren was in attendance at Anfield on Saturday ahead of naming his squad later this month for England?s friendly against Spain on February 7. Pennant, who has yet to receive a call-up to the senior national team squad, could be a consideration, but the player said: ?All I can do is just keep on playing as well as I can, put the performances in and then we will see what happens.?

 

Liverpool?s win, the eighth in their last nine Premiership games, moved them to within five points of second-placed Chelsea. And while Pennant admits it was not a terminal blow to the Londoners? title challenge, the result shows Benitez?s side can still overhaul their rivals in the table.

 

?It?s a massive blow for Chelsea, yes, especially as they don?t lose many games,? he said. ?United are on a bit of a roll at the moment, but Chelsea can still put together a run between now and the end of the season. This result is a massive boost for us. We have some big games coming up, and we can gain confidence from this win. Second place is the target now. It?s important we keep the momentum going.?

 

Meanwhile, left-back Stephen Warnock yesterday completed his move to Blackburn Rovers for a fee believed to be in the region of £1.5million. Benitez hopes to sign 18-year-old striker Jordy Brouwer from Ajax this week. He would step into the reserve team for now, with Liverpool having to just pay the Dutch team compensation. Liverpool?s reserves take on Everton in the mini-derby at Wrexham?s Racecourse Ground tonight, kick-off 7pm.

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i was one of those who was glad we signed Pennant.. i believe he can do the business here once he's fully settled.. i still think he's got a long way to go but he's getting there - and i'm not for one minute convinced he's totally won everyone over, far from it.. i'd like to see him have a bit more convinction in his tackling, tracking back a bit more (particularly when he's lost possession) and also having a bit more belief in himself.. but he's doing well lately..

 

what are people's thoughts now??

[scoose]

not yet for me. He has had a couple of good games and fair enough his goal was outstanding. To me he has talent but he has to stop being a sh*thouse and also perform more consistently. Hopefully he will do it

[HK]

5 goals and 10 to 15 assists by the end of the season will do for me.

Edited January 23, 2007 by HK

[McBain]

Is he winning me over? Not really no

 

I dont think his form of late, whilst better than before, is particularly great. And besides his goal against Chelsea I didn't think he had that good a game

 

I've no doubt he has the talent to be a good player here but i'm not sure he's got the mentality

 

One thing he has to work on in the immediate future for me is his physical strength on the ball. He's the most lightweight player in the squad at the moment

[Mondavi]

slowly. really want him to do the business, you can tell he's got it. A small part of me keeps thinking that's what he was like at arsenal, and maybe why wenger eventually let him go, in that what you could see periodically, never fully materialised.

 

if he keeps improving, and grows in confidence then he may well do it. it would help if a) people didnt groan excessively when he fecks up. b) people didnt judge his performance on that stunning goal. rafa's giving him every chance, and rightly so.

[aka Dus]

He hasn't really been the same since the Commodores.

[Bootle Buck]

I never really rated him that highly before he signed for us, so I wasn't expecting much. He's kind of like Garcia, very frustarting at times and them pulls something off that looks really good. He's a decent addition to the squad but IMO not a definate starter.

[Guest RedLegend]

He's been doing better recently but I think we need better as first-choice in his position.

 

Useful squad member though.

[nvdm]

I think he's totally underestimated. Went missing a few times earlier on in the season, which is understandable, but has started to show his real quality. He very rarely wastes possession, is good on the ball, tries hard and is capable of real, matchwinning quality.

 

I really rate the lad.

[Mike]

he's above average at the mo.

[jimmylibel]

Well his crossing, general passing and workrate has definitely improved. You can also visibly see he is getting more confident.

 

That said I would still be critical of his pulling out of challenges, choosing the wrong options at times especially when he's dawdling on the ball and the way he looks for Gerrard first and foremost for any pass he's about to make.

 

Basically I think he's come on a good bit in the last month or so but there is still a good deal of room for improvement.

[owenthomas]

One thing he has to work on in the immediate future for me is his physical strength on the ball. He's the most lightweight player in the squad at the moment

totally.. that's another thing i'd like to see him improve on..

[Guest RedLegend]

True in really tough games he looks alarmingly lightweight.

[Will]

He's started to deserve his place in the side, for sure

 

Would like him to be stronger in the tackle - I'm not expecting Momo or Xabi-style tackling, but he ought to be capable of the levels of commtiment in the tackle that Luis shows. Even replicating Vlad's efforts would be an improvement...

[Rich Gobey]

he looks like a £6.5m winger to me!

[Alonso]

One thing he has to work on in the immediate future for me is his physical strength on the ball. He's the most lightweight player in the squad at the moment

Agree there. I'd also like to see him take on the full back more often and really try to committ people. That'll come with the more confidence he gets tho and for me he is showing promise. He certainly has the ability.

[fyds]

He's consistantly improving, that will do me for now. He actually looks like he's starting to help us win games rather than simply occupying a shirt.

Edited January 23, 2007 by fyds

[D.Boon]

Not yet.

 

Still seems terrified of taking on a full back

[trowie]

Thought he would be a good signing when he came, but arrived at a point ovewr a month ago where I thoought the crowd had got to him and didn't think he had the mentality to overcome the lack of confidence through that.

However I think he's showing that he has the bottle to keep going and am sure all aspects of his game will improve.

[fyds]

Not yet.

 

Still seems terrified of taking on a full back

Oh, I dunno - I reckon he's begun to improve in that regard in the last few games. Not the full Monty, maybe one and a half Ashley Giles'...

[Toni]

he has a good cross in him, good technique. only thing he h s half a yard short in pace.

 

For him to become a regular first-teamer in the years to come he needs to consistently beat opposing full-backs and whip in dangerous crosses from the byline. when i consistently see him doing that, then he will win me over. until then he remains a decent squad player in my eyes.

[Guest Kaizer]

No not even close.

 

I have never questioned Pennants ability as a technical gifted player, he is skillful and he can deliver a decent cross, but thats about it.

 

He is a disaster when it comes to defending, he does not track back enough to cover his man something that often leaves Finnan more exposed than he should be, he needs to score more goals, he needs to get into the box and on the end of crosses from the left a lot more, he needs to sometimes play on the shoulder of the defense and try to get in behind the defense instead of always move backwards to collect the ball, and he needs to improve his decision making, when he adds these things to his game and improves other parts of it, he will win me over.

 

His comments about his goal on Saturday just highlights the problem, it was a cracking goal, but according to Pennant the reason he actually tried a shot was because he did not see any players in the box. Whate the hell is that all about, it was a cracking opportunity to shoot, and if he had not taken it he should have been shot himself.

 

I dont think Pennant has got what it takes to be a great winger, mostly because he lacks pace and he does not score enough goals, something that is vital for a player in such an advanced position, at least a great one.

[liverbird04]

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/tm_headline=e...-name_page.html

 

 

anyone read the interview he gave to the mirror today ?

[Guest TheRedBull]

He is a disaster when it comes to defending, he does not track back enough to cover his man something that often leaves Finnan more exposed than he should be, he needs to score more goals, he needs to get into the box and on the end of crosses from the left a lot more, he needs to sometimes play on the shoulder of the defense and try to get in behind the defense instead of always move backwards to collect the ball, and he needs to improve his decision making, when he adds these things to his game and improves other parts of it, he will win me over.

Can you list us some name that can do all that and also good at defending?

[Toni]

only saw alves play once but acc. to comments from people on here he can do all that.

Edited January 23, 2007 by Toni