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TLW

By TLW •

Crouch: I wish I had stayed at Liverpool

Easter is often seen as a time of reflection and former Liverpool striker Peter Crouch has done just that.

The former English international was a crowd favourite in his three year spell for the club.

When in form, the beanpole forward was a absolute nightmare for opposition defenders and contrary to the impression that target men are one-dimensional, Crouch had a terrific technical ability and scored many memorable goals with his feet.

In looking back at his career, Crouch spoke of one regret in his long and distinguished career.

The Mirror (via The Mail) reported Crouch as saying:

“Things happen for a reason and I accepted many things in my career, such as losing the Champions League final in 2007.

“The one thing that niggles away at me is leaving Liverpool in 2008. Rafa Benitez was happy to let me go and I was only ever going to be a Plan B.

“One of the reasons I went to Portsmouth was because Steven Gerrard and Fernando Torres were such a dynamic partnership.

“But, 18 months later, when I saw Andriy Voronin and David Ngog getting opportunities, it made me wish I had stayed.

“You don't leave a club like Liverpool easily."

 

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After leaving Pompey, Crouch went on to play for Tottenham and Stoke before ending his professional career with a very brief spell at Burnley last season.

In all, Crouch scored 42 goals in 134 appearances for Liverpool while for England, he had an outstanding ratio of 22 goals in just 42 appearances.

Crouch narrowed down what his favourite three goals in his career were:

“The first would be the goal that completed my hat-trick for Liverpool against Arsenal in March 2007; the technique, the move that led to it and putting it away in front of The Kop was special.

"For emotion and an adrenaline rush, scoring against Manchester City to put Tottenham into the Champions League was incredible. If I think about it now, I can still see the away end going mental.

“Last but not least, I'll pick my first goal for England, at Anfield, against Uruguay in March 2006."


 

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The Guest

Should have been starting with Torres most games but was barely getting on the bench while Voronin was ahead of him.  It was another Benitez complete bollocks up that gets completely forgotten. We might have won the league if he had stayed.

 

I remember he had left Crouch out for the majority of the season despite us crying out to let the shackles off and struggling in so many games playing one up front.  The one time he didn’t shit himself before the game was the arsenal champions league game at home.  He played Crouch and Torres up front and they were brilliant.  We battered them.  He reverted back to type against Chelsea and left him out and we went out.  He should never have been put in the situation he was by the manager and it was embarrassing watching him playing well for spurs in the CL while we were struggling with shite finishing 7th.

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joe_fishfish
14 minutes ago, Barnesey said:

Always thought it a strange decision to leave him out of 2007 CL final. Changed the game when he came on.

With Crouch up front, Kuyt moved out left (or if Bellamy played there) I think we'd have scored first. And if we'd have scored first we'd have almost certainly won.

 

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dockers_strike
37 minutes ago, Barnesey said:

Always thought it a strange decision to leave him out of 2007 CL final. Changed the game when he came on.

Totally agree, a bizarre decision to leave him out in my opinion. And when he was introduced,  he should have been on earlier.

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aws
54 minutes ago, Barnesey said:

Always thought it a strange decision to leave him out of 2007 CL final. Changed the game when he came on.

I think the problem was the way he was getting whistled every time he jumped for the ball in the CL games. The European refs were closing down his game. 

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Stickman
5 hours ago, Barnesey said:

Always thought it a strange decision to leave him out of 2007 CL final. Changed the game when he came on.

 

Rafa did the same in the World Club final when in the semi Crouch had scored twice but instead he started with Morientes who missed a glut of chances.

i honestly think if we had kept Crouch instead of getting Keane in 2008 I think we’d have won the league that season he would have made the difference in a lot of those drawn games .

 

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