Suarez - our new hero?

[Elm0]

 

I like to think so. Discuss.

[Leo No.8]

Did you celebrate like this when Suarez scored his debut goal:

 

[redjersey]

Interesting insight on Luis Suarez here

[Mike]

stay tuned for more interesting insights into suarez and uruguay from our man on the ground in south america.

 

that's all i can say for now.

[dodgyscouser]

Too early, but initial signs look good and hope he continues to grow with the team

[Metro]

Too early, but initial signs look good and hope he continues to grow with the team

 

 

Let's just hope he doesn't play as a lone striker tomorrow, that's all!

[jimbolala]

He has a knack of standing on the outside left of the box at corners etc and curling the ball in when the oppo try and clear it

[McBain]

He has a knack of standing on the outside left of the box at corners etc and curling the ball in when the oppo try and clear it

 

Shhhhhhhhhhhh

[John am Rhein]

Suarez: beter hooren:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F2He-GE2ySo

[David Hodgson]

Suarez: beter hooren:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F2He-GE2ySo

 

 

That cracked me up.

[John am Rhein]

can't see him finding better whoring here, TBH

[David Hodgson]

can't see him finding better whoring here, TBH

 

 

He's a character actor. He could do BT ads.

[John am Rhein]

the new Maureen Lipman

[Montse]

Luis Suárez is famous for many things but to employees of Beter Horen, a Dutch hearing aid company, he will always be remembered as the face of a television advertisement promoting its discreet earpieces.

 

That oft-repeated commercial offered some instructive insights into the character of Liverpool's new £22.8m attacking acquisition from Ajax. While primarily demonstrating Suárez's capacity to laugh at himself – his hallmark pointy ears are a big reason why he was hired for the job – it also highlighted the striker's often vexed relationship with authority.

 

The Uruguayan was filmed wandering into an Amsterdam branch of Beter Horen and seeking advice about purchasing an "anti-whistle arranger". Suárez then articulated the hope that a product designed to eliminate irritating background aural interference would block out the "very annoying" sounds of referees' whistles ringing in his ears.

 

Motioned to the side of the store and asked to "sit on the bench" while an alternative prescription for earplugs was dispatched, he reacted in mock horror, stating: "Suárez is never a substitute."

 

As both a great goalscorer and a scorer of great goals he is, indeed, rarely benched but some well-documented differences with match officials do tend, periodically, to sideline him from the action.

 

At the time Beter Horen made that advert he was well known as an exponent of dodgy penalty-area dives. Last summer Suárez embellished his crime sheet with the most outrageous handball seen at a World Cup since Diego Maradona's Hand of God intervention against Bobby Robson's England. It denied Ghana a place in the semi-finals, when the penalty awarded as a result was not converted.

 

In November his hitherto glorious Ajax career ground to an ignominious halt thanks to a seven-game suspension imposed for biting PSV Eindhoven's Otman Bakkal on the shoulder. The incident, in stoppage time at the end of a league game, was retaliation for Bakkal standing on his foot. Apparently mortified, the culprit filmed a seemingly heartfelt if arguably over-acted apology and, confirming he was very much a man of his time, uploaded it to his Facebook page. "Normally I'm calm," Suárez said. "But I was a little tired, I'd done a lot of travelling."

 

By last Wednesday night social networking outlets from Merseyside to Montevideo were buzzing with the news that, despite lacking time to train with his new Liverpool team-mates, El Pistolero had scored a debut goal 10 minutes after being introduced as a substitute against Stoke City.

 

Today Suárez is likely to start at Stamford Bridge where he will be closely compared with the man he was initially supposed to partner rather than replace in Kenny Dalglish's side. With Fernando Torres expected to make his Chelsea bow, the afternoon promises to be painted as a shoot-out between El Niño and El Pistolero.

 

A creator as much as a scorer, Suárez is, in reality, a very different player from Torres. Dalglish has surely bought him not to lead Liverpool's attacking line but either to play off his fellow newcomer, the currently injured £35m Andy Carroll, as an often deep-lying secondary striker or to serve as a wide forward in a 4-3-3 formation.

 

When, in 1999, a deceptively angelic-looking Carroll began starring for Low Fell Under-11s in Gateshead, Suárez – two years the English boy's senior – had already left home for Montevideo and a place in the "nursery" of the leading club Nacional.

 

Born in Salto, a city close to the border with Argentina and famed for its thermal baths, Suárez is the fourth of seven sons – (his elder brother Paulo is also a professional footballer, playing in El Salvador) – brought up by a single mother. When he was four, people started noticing that he ran fastest with a ball at his feet. By 11 Nacional's scouts had arranged for him to be transferred to the care of Montevideo‑based grandparents while joining their junior academy.

 

If his talent always seemed likely to transport him one day to Europe, love accelerated the process. As a young teenager in Uruguay's capital Suárez had fallen for a girl called Sofia. Their romance was destined to feature a wedding which dominated the glossy front page of Caras – (South America's answer to Hello!) – but temporarily seemed doomed when her family relocated to Barcelona. Desperate not to lose Sofia, the by now 19-year-old striker engineered himself an €800,000 move to Groningen. While Dutch football's purist soul undeniably appealed, the Netherlands' situation, a short-haul hop from Spain, was even more attractive.

 

"I had the girl of my dreams back," says the 24-year-old. "But in career terms I always had it clear in my mind that this was the big chance of my life. At the beginning it was not easy, I could not speak Dutch or English and communication was incredibly hard but I knew I could not give up."

 

Ten goals in 29 appearances for Groningen were sufficient to prompt a €7.5m switch to Ajax, where he began a metamorphosis from capriciously gifted hothead to Dutch football's 2010 player of the year. Along the way he joined Johan Cruyff, Marco van Basten and Dennis Bergkamp in scoring more than 100 times for Ajax in all competitions.

 

Although slightly stronger on his right side, Suárez is essentially two‑footed. Allied to both an adhesive first touch and a vision and awareness that makes it hard to credit he is not wearing wing mirrors, such dexterity makes life immensely tough for defenders.

 

Throw in superb mobility, rapid change of pace and Carlos Tevez-esque determination and it is easy to appreciate how Suárez registered 35 goals in 33 Eredivisie appearances last season.

 

"Luis is going to bring Liverpool alive because he is a street fighter," says Rik van den Boog, Ajax's managing director, who was not surprised by Martin Jol's decision to make the Uruguayan captain. "Luis was not a big player when he arrived here but he soon stood up in the dressing room and became a leader."

 

Sometimes controversial, his captaincy style combined admirable personal discipline – Suárez unfailingly returned to training the day after flying back from international duties performed half a world away – with a heart-on-the-sleeve passion sometimes unpalatable to referees and managers.

 

Back in the days when Suárez routinely attracted blizzards of yellow cards, Van Basten managed Ajax. Their relationship, often emotionally charged, frequently proved tense but the former Holland striker still cannot hide his admiration. "Luis is unpredictable, he's hard to influence but that makes him special," Van Basten says.

 

Happily the chemistry with the now similarly departed Jol was considerably healthier. "Martin made me a better player," Suárez says. "He made me feel important." Aware that his star striker's still beloved Sofia struggled to settle in Amsterdam and returned to live in Barcelona before giving birth to a baby daughter, Delfina, last August, Jol was, importantly, always available to place a reassuring arm round his shoulder.

 

Dalglish, realising that behind the swashbuckling facade the Uruguayan needs to be needed and nurtured, made sure his first words to Suárez were "Hola ... Bienvenido" (hello and welcome). "Those basics impressed me," he says. "Now I do not want to disappoint Kenny Dalglish in any way."

 

The eyes of a betrayed African nation bore into him in South Africa last summer. Who can forget his handling of Dominic Adiyiah's goalbound header in the Ghana v Uruguay World Cup quarter-final and subsequently defiant celebration as Asamoah Gyan missed the ensuing penalty? (Dalglish may prefer to see it as a decent save reflecting Suárez's penchant for pulling on a pair of gloves and livening up Ajax training sessions by showing off some surprising skills between the posts.)

 

He remains happiest tormenting goalkeepers but, while Liverpool fans are already convinced his transition from Dutch to English football will prove as seamless as Ruud van Nistelrooy's, the unhappy experiences of other Eredivisie exports including Mateja Kezman, Afonso Alves and Jon Dahl Tomasson – brought, incidentally, to Newcastle by Dalglish – suggest judgment should be reserved.

 

"There will be pressure on me to succeed every time I step on the pitch," Suárez acknowledges. "But I want to enjoy the experience. There is no point me being here if I don't have fun."

Grauniad

[surf]

Van Persie was a bit of a hothead and there were doubts whether he would make it because of his character. I'm sure Suarez will be just fine.

[Chili Palmer]

I don't have heros any more, not players anyway.

 

Kenny is my hero.

[anfield11]

That cracked me up.

:lol:

[Tosh]

Good bit on him in the Sunday Times today - so if anyone has paid Mudoch to get beyond the paywall....

 

It ends something like..."A good example of Dalglish's man management could be seen as he was preparing to come on the other night: Sammy Lee was giving him instructions and explaing what to do using his clipboard when Kenny came over, tapped him on the shoulder, nodded towards the pitch and smiled at Suarez as if to say the stage is yours"

 

(or something like that)

[redjersey]

Moments of truth in life tend to just materialise. Luis Suarez had been playing for Liverpool for 16 minutes before, sudden as sneezing, he found himself one-on-one with a goalkeeper, facing the Kop.

 

The ball would have bobbled off Ryan Babel's shins. Milan Baros would have slammed it against the keeper's legs. Djibril Cisse would have been offside. Suarez? Control, round Stoke City keeper Asmir Begovic, goal. Yes, Andy Wilkinson helped his shot in but the other imponderable strikers need, as well as readiness, is luck.

 

For seven years since Michael Owen left, Liverpool have had only one other scorer with the class and sheer self-confidence to do as Suarez did on Wednesday and his shirts have been burnt or dumped in charity trucks. Suarez, not £35m Andy Carroll, may be Fernando Torres' heir. Carroll is a different type. Suarez is the one with the Latin guile, greyhound pace and merciless mindset, to truly supplant Torres. He will walk where Torres walked, sleep where Torres slept. Literally. The Uruguayan is to move into the south Liverpool home the Spaniard is vacating.

 

It is in a gated community where Jose Reina, Fabio Aurelio and Mikel Arteta live. Their new neighbour is same-but-different from their old. Like Torres, Suarez is a low-key family man with a young daughter but while Torres (even after his calculating transfer) cultivates the image of El Nino, the simple kid who loves his friends, the fans and ice-cream, Suarez was The Cannibal in Holland, after biting PSV Eindhoven's Otman Bakkal, and Most Hated Man In Africa, for his cynical World Cup handball against Ghana.

 

"I'm sure that if you did a survey of other players many would have done the same without thinking," he said of the handball. "Regarding Bakkal, I've made a few statements and given quotes on that subject, enough not to have to talk about it now. I'd be delighted if people recognised me for my goals, football abilities and work I put in for my teams. Now I'm here in England, people will get to know me for those and not anything else."

 

Arnold Muhren, who coached him at Ajax, says Suarez is not averse to buying penalties. A Dutch colleague estimates around one third of the numerous bookings Suarez received in Holland were for diving. But he also said he has never seen a more dedicated player. Suarez is simply a dead-eyed professional, a "very smiley guy" as Kenny Dalglish says, but who gets on a pitch and becomes someone who would not just kill his grandmother for a goal, but shoot her in the back.

 

How Liverpool, who had become rather too nice to play against before Dalglish's return, will enjoy those qualities — and when Carroll is fit, too, opposing defenders may need counsellors. "Both are strong characters. Luis is Uruguayan, went to Holland and learnt Dutch, which is a really difficult language. For a foreigner to be captain of Ajax, there has to be something about the guy. One-on-one for the goal, it wouldn't have fazed him," said Dalglish.

 

Suarez grew up hungry and ragged, with six siblings and separated parents. At 14, he left his humble barrio in Salto to live in Montevideo, 300 miles away, and join Nacional's academy. He won the Uruguayan championship aged 18 and was at Groningen, suddenly adjusting to small-town Holland, at 19. No wonder he's tough.

 

He sees similarities, playing and otherwise, between himself and Carlos Tevez. "If Tevez can do it in England, I have a chance," he has said. Nothing, not his limited English, or the difficulties compatriot Diego Forlan had in the Premier League, induces self-doubt. "I hope I can settle very quickly on and off the pitch. I've never been the type of person to let pressures off the field affect my game," he said. "It will be different for me than for Diego. He was a young lad when he came here and arrived from playing in Argentina. I'm more experienced, have more knowledge of how the Europeans do things and it went through my mind that now I've scored my goal, the pressure has eased a little."

 

Torres' autobiography is full of hokum about the Kop, the Beatles and being Liverpool's No 9. Suarez was asked about wearing the equally hallowed No 7 shirt. "I've got to be totally honest. I looked at the list of available numbers and chose No 7 because I like the number. After, people told me it was important but I didn't know at the time," he said. It was as refreshing as the flask of mate (a hot South American herbal drink) Suarez was famous at Ajax for carrying around.

 

Liverpool might never sign a better pure frontrunner than Torres but they probably now have a better team. Torres, the player, is a loner. His inability to dovetail with David Villa led to Torres spending much of his time on the bench at the World Cup. Suarez's taste for combination play was evident on his debut — and linking is a strength of Carroll's. Most impressive, against Stoke, was how quickly Suarez adjusted his style. The first time he got the ball, he loitered, and was smashed by Wilkinson's tackle. After that he played fast, nimble, one-touch. "Diego said nothing I've seen will prepare me for the Premier League. It was amazing just watching from the bench and when I came on, well, if you take longer than a split second to think the ball is gone," he said.

 

Suarez has a belief in Liverpool that Torres lost. He even thinks a top-four finish is still possible. "Any player would make the same choice as me given the opportunity. Not only are Liverpool normally in the Champions League but they're one of the favourites to win it. From where we are now I can see the team is going to grow and improve very rapidly."

 

The acumen shown by Damien Comolli, Liverpool's director of sporting strategy, and the club's owner, Fenway Sports Group (FSG), bodes positively. Liverpool's net spend in the transfer window was £1.8m and their dealings look even more prudent given the fees agreed for Carroll and Suarez are inflated by add-ons and the pair's annual wages are around £2.5m less than those of Torres and Babel. By spending their £50m Torres windfall before the financial year closes, they have also saved tax. There is more — perhaps even another £50m — already budgeted for further transfers.

 

"The money coming in [from Torres] was irrelevant, there was money there for us," said Dalglish. "We've signed two young players anybody who knows anything about football would have signed. I never thought we'd be losing Fernando. But we did lose him, his choice. Everybody's gotta move on. The club will always be there but [individuals] won't. United sold [Cristiano] Ronaldo, they moved on. What do you do — sit and moan or react positively?"

 

Grinning, Dalglish ducked whether fit-again Jamie Carragher will return to mark Torres. His happiness is striking. The more FSG see of him, the more they are minded to make him manager permanently. Suarez's personality and work ethic have won him over already. He rates Carroll and Jack Wilshere as England's best prospects. His belief, replicated throughout Liverpool's staff, is that last week was a great one. Remarkable, given it involved losing Torres. That doesn't mean Chelsea have a bad deal, just that Carroll and Suarez in return for a player who wanted to leave, wasn't playing at his best and whose attitude annoyed teammates, was a coup.

 

There was a wonderful piece of Dalglish man-management on Wednesday. Preparing to go on, Suarez was confronted by Sammy Lee with a clipboard and babble of tactical instructions. Dalglish tapped Suarez's shoulder, nodded towards the pitch and Kop, as if to say: "Go on son, all this is yours," and empowered him with a smile.

 

[Elm0]

well, that was going well until he mentioned the world cup. does he not realise he was injured?

[Tosh]

whatever

[JonShar]

 

Djibril Cisse would have been offside.

 

 

That made me laugh.

[Hassony]

Cisse also scored a decent goal on his debut

[Montse]

I think Luis will be a breath of fresh air to the team, no more crap about nandos attitude and will he wont he go. We now have 2 lads that will scare the bejeebus out of any defence

 

I feel (almost) as good as when kenny came back

[Farmer's Tan]

if he comes on in the second half and scores the winner he will be.