Towering Babel unawed by Liverpool's football temple

[Herbie von Smalls]

'scuse the format etc. some nice insights into Rafa's methods too

 

 

Ryan Babel still lives alone in Liverpool - or accompanied only by

the Lord, as he sees it - but he needs company. "We're still deciding

whether my mother will join me, or my girlfriend," the footballer

confides. "In Holland I hadn't moved out of my parents' home yet.

That's a big step." Can he boil an egg? "No, that doesn't work."

..TX.-

Though Liverpool paid {GBP}12m for him this summer, the Dutch striker

still seems something of a nai{"}f. Above that big body is a little

boyish face, with slight buckteeth and the faintest beard. His hair

is shaven into a neat square.

..TX.-

Babel is 20, but you would guess him to be younger. Talking in the

Dutch national team's beach hotel beside the dunes the other day, he

offered a refreshingly innocent view of England and its football - a

game he has all the qualities to conquer.

..TX.-

Babel was born in Amsterdam, but his accent reveals family origins in

Surinam, the former Dutch colony on South America's northern tip.

There are only 70,000 Amsterdam Surinamese, but they produce more

footballers per capita than possibly any other ethnic group in the

world. Their stars - Ruud Gullit, Frank Rijkaard, Clarence Seedorf,

Patrick Kluivert and Edgar Davids - would staff half a world 11, and

behind them are many other Dutch internationals and hundreds of good

professionals.

..TX.-

Babel joined Ajax Amsterdam aged 11. Everyone saw his gifts - the big

kid who moved like a gymnast and did wonders with the ball - but he

rarely scored. Nobody could quite work out what he was for. Criticism

was unceasing. Two Ajax youth coaches told me about a kid by the

weird name of Babel, who, when the legend Marco van Basten had

arrived to help coach his team, remained entirely blase{'}. "Aren't

you pleased Marco has come?" one coach asked him. Babel just shrugged

beneath his baseball cap. "Mwaaa," he said.

..TX.-

Nonetheless, by 18 he had become the youngest man to score for

Holland since the war. Yet when Van Basten, by this time Holland's

manager, inquired after his career plans, Babel replied: "I'm going

to go into music, coach." A devoted rapper, he has approximately

5,000 songs on his iPod.

..TX.-

In the beach hotel, Babel recalls the chastisements of Ajax's coach

Henk ten Cate, another Surinamer. If Babel got too intricate trying

to dribble past a defender, Ten Cate would scream: "Ryan, you're the

fastest in Holland, dammit! Just kick the ball and run."

..TX.-

Babel never became a key player for Ajax, but over this summer he

improved quickly. "Purely because of confidence," he told me. In June

he led Holland to victory in the European Under-21 Championships,

during which the Dutch football journal Hard Gras noted this

vignette: Babel, at a gymnastics training session, standing on a

balancing bar with a ball on his foot.

..TX.-

Rafael Benitez, Liverpool's manager, had had Babel watched since the

boy was 16. This summer Benitez signed him. Entering Liverpool's

legendary Anfield stadium, Babel was unawed. "At first it did nothing

to me. It still doesn't." Doesn't he like legendary grounds? "It

doesn't matter to me. I feel happiest if the stadium looks decent."

He does admit to touching the legendary "This is Anfield" sign before

taking the field, but only because his team-mates do.

..TX.-

His bigger priority in Liverpool was finding a church. "I drove past

a couple, but in principle you can't understand people in Liverpool.

It's a very strange dialect."

..TX.-

Stranger still were British taboids. Benitez, who is "like an uncle",

instructed him: "If they ask something, they want to hear A, but you

think B, and you say C."

..TX.-

In training, Babel noticed that Liverpool's players didn't berate

each other as was customary at Ajax. If he screamed, "Where's your

control?" everyone looked at him uncomprehendingly. Another surprise

was how much Liverpool practised defending. "We are very compact, and

then we come out with two, three passes, like madmen, and shoot."

..TX.-

Yet judging by his first, good performances, he has Benitez's licence

to run with the ball. "Of course. When it comes to attacking in

matches, he has said almost nothing to me. I have tasks only when we

defend."

..TX.-

At Ajax, Babel had learned his trademark but ineffective "hip shot",

struck from underneath the body with almost no backlift, from Gaston

Sangoy, an obscure Argentine reserve. At Liverpool, he imitates a

more celebrated team-mate. "I just use Steven Gerrard as my shooting

coach. He really can shoot."

..TX.-

Physically, surely, Babel is already complete? "A big body doesn't

mean you're strong. I understand from Robin van Persie at Arsenal

that Julio Baptista isn't strong at all, even though he's a massive

guy." Is Babel strong? "I feel strong."

..TX.-

Are Liverpool, top of the league, strong enough to win their first

title since 1990? "At first, when people said we had to be champions,

I thought, 'Well, I don't know about that.' But now we're growing."

Not half as fast as Babel is, though.

[Herbie von Smalls]

thought i was in the LFC forum

[Kahnee]

some nice insights into Rafa's methods

 

Interesting insight into your methods as well

[Herbie von Smalls]

Interesting insight into your methods as well

'spam while you can while you're busy at work', as my grandmother used to advise.

[Kahnee]

'spam while you can while you're busy at work', as my grandmother used to advise.

 

That's my motto

[Guest ziggystardust]

sounds like a nob

[DazzlaJ]

sounds like a nob

 

Micky Quinns faster

[Hieronymus Bosch]

Uncle Rafa

[Coyler]

God I love Babel. And I love these pathological anti-hero footballers ... is it Agger that never supported a team because he's not really into football? Mascherano can't enjoy himself; Anfield does nothing for Babel. Hansen was a frustrated golfer.

 

I'm smitten by that and reckon it's a vital element of yin to the well-documented yang we have.

[Armin_Tamzarian]

If he screamed, "Where's your

control?" Riise looked at him uncomprehendingly.

 

[Knox_Harrington]

God I love Babel. And I love these pathological anti-hero footballers ... is it Agger that never supported a team because he's not really into football? Mascherano can't enjoy himself; Anfield does nothing for Babel. Hansen was a frustrated golfer.

 

I'm smitten by that and reckon it's a vital element of yin to the well-documented yang we have.

Carson definitely doesn't support anyone. Which is just plain weird.

[Coyler]

:deadright:

[CarraLegend]

I think he's going to be massively inconsistent for a couple of years like most 20 year olds but after that he'll be brilliant. Hope he starts tomorrow although he played 90mins in both Holland games and one in Albania so doubt he will start.

[Rimbeux]

God I love Babel. And I love these pathological anti-hero footballers ... is it Agger that never supported a team because he's not really into football? Mascherano can't enjoy himself; Anfield does nothing for Babel. Hansen was a frustrated golfer.

 

I'm smitten by that and reckon it's a vital element of yin to the well-documented yang we have.

 

 

I'm with you on that. There's freedom to it, playing for their own sense of satis facit, not frozen by any of that piinch yourself awe

[Kahnee]

SiGn MoRe AnTi-HeRoEs

[McBain]

Sylar?

 

Is he any good?

[Kahnee]

Sylar?

 

Is he any good?

 

Can move the goal nearer the ball

[Mascherano]

In training, Babel noticed that Liverpool's players didn't berate

each other as was customary at Ajax. If he screamed, "Where's your

control?" everyone looked at him uncomprehendingly. Another surprise

was how much Liverpool practised defending. "We are very compact, and

then we come out with two, three passes, like madmen, and shoot."

..TX.-

Yet judging by his first, good performances, he has Benitez's licence

to run with the ball. "Of course. When it comes to attacking in

matches, he has said almost nothing to me. I have tasks only when we

defend."..TX.-

 

I have to say that this worried me at the time and it has been playing on my mind since. We are extremely well organised when defending, we don't even need Kaizer to show us the stats, but going forward I often wonder what is happening, especially without the quality that Torres brings.

 

I wonder, why is Reina hoofing it?, why are the defenders hoofing it? Why does Kuyt always play so deep? why arn't more players committed to getting into the box? Why doesn't Pennant take up goal scoring positions? is it because he is clueless or because no one has mentioned it? Maybe Babel has told us. Can it be that there is a minimum level of instruction when it comes to going forward?

[Cam]

Reina's distribution quality, normally so fantastic, has dipped significantly. Against Portsmouth it may have been the worst I've seen from any keeper.

[Mascherano]

Reina's distribution quality, normally so fantastic, has dipped significantly. Against Portsmouth it may have been the worst I've seen from any keeper.

 

I think that Pepe is quality too Cam, so maybe Riise would have been a better example.

 

You are right about Pompey though, I couldn't understand what was happening with Reina in that one.

 

As a follow on from my initial post in this thread, I am concerned that Babel is getting knocked by one or two people when it seems clear that he hasn't had the instruction that he should be getting AND his favoured position is as a forward. Thats double bad from Rafa IMO, in that Babel will further suffer because we have not addressed our wide areas appropriately so Babel will continue out of position, on top of only really saying what is required from him defensively.