Robbie Keane...

[Code]

Cheers, RIS. I know that the discussion on wingers has polarized opinion on the forum. I can only guess that there probably wasn't a winger that contributed 10 or more assists in any league either. So I struggle with the opinion on how a winger is the silver bullet for either effectively supporting our attack or removing part of the goal scoring burden on our forwards or strikers.

 

You cant expect a wide player to score more than 10 league goals, but 6-8 league goals should be expected from a top wide player.

 

When it comes to assists the best wide players should get more than 10 assists in the league.

 

Our wide men are sadly nowhere close to that.

[Josef Svejk]

Still think he was expensive, and that Rafa will regret the signing. Which isn't to say that he's a bad player, but that he's an unnecessarily risky signing in the circumstances (that is, considering our budget and positional requirements).

 

Do these thoughts make me a bad person?

[George Costanza]

Still think he was expensive, and that Rafa will regret the signing. Which isn't to say that he's a bad player, but that he's an unnecessarily risky signing in the circumstances (that is, considering our budget and positional requirements).

 

Do these thoughts make me a bad person?

 

No. I agree with your thinking.

 

Keane himself is not a bad player, he's a very good one in fact and he'l no doubt do well for us. I persoanlly think he was the wrong signing, not arsed about how much he cost, but I'd much rather have spent some/all of the money on at least one quality creative attacking player who is comfortable playing outwide (note I did not necessarily say winger)

 

If Rafa can add that player to the signing of Keane then great, you can't have enough attacking options. I'm just a little concerned we still haven't improved on our weakest areas while also disrupting a fanatastic partnership that was developing between Gerrard & Torres.

[Jerry St. Clair]

Thought he was one our better players today if not the best.

[RedKnight]

He's trying way too hard. He needs to relax and things will click into place for him.

[Code]

Thought he was one our better players today if not the best.

 

Keane has played 7 matches for us now and I`m not sure he has hit target with a finish 5 times in these 7 matches, I`m not even sure he has had 5 finishes at goal during these games to be honest.

 

Being a striker who needs a fair deal of chances to get a decent amount of goals I can see him struggling to live up to the expectations some fans have got.

 

I dont expect more than 10 goals at best in the league personally so what we have seen so far is about what I thought we would get.

 

Good on the ball but will struggle being played out of his preferred position and £20mill is a lot of money for such a player.

 

Torres is a £20mill player and he is on a completely different level.

[AmerScouse]

the signs are clearly there though that he's going to be a very effective player for us. his link play at times today was excellent. he comes deeper for the ball and his first touch has been pretty much spot on. he's good on the distribution and he's been effective getting into the channels as well and holding the ball up.

 

obviously the end product is missing right now, and you can clearly see that his understanding with gerrard and torres etc is a work in progress at the moment. yes he's had 7 games with us and anyone who thinks that's enough to be fully integrated into the team is expecting too much. i fully expect us to be singing his praises as his form goes up a notch in about a month or two's time

 

i would agree with others in the thread who say that we still need that creative threat out wide, but if we look at keanes signing outside of other team needs i think its been a very astute purchase.

[Liquid football]

In the 1st half today i thought he was very good. The 2nd half passed him by but i would say that the 2nd half passed the whole team by, really.

[James Dean]

Keane has played 7 matches for us now and I`m not sure he has hit target with a finish 5 times in these 7 matches, I`m not even sure he has had 5 finishes at goal during these games to be honest.

 

Being a striker who needs a fair deal of chances to get a decent amount of goals I can see him struggling to live up to the expectations some fans have got.

 

I dont expect more than 10 goals at best in the league personally so what we have seen so far is about what I thought we would get.

 

Good on the ball but will struggle being played out of his preferred position and £20mill is a lot of money for such a player.

 

Torres is a £20mill player and he is on a completely different level.

 

Torres was a bargain though. His market price now would be closer to £40m.

[Code]

Torres was a bargain though. His market price now would be closer to £40m.

 

Fair point that, I still think we paid too much for Keane considering other options in that price bracket.

 

It might sound like I have something against him, but I certainly dont, my expectations just are not very high and everything above 10 goals in the league will be a huge bonus for me.

[steven-lowry]

At times today, their link up play was fantastic. Hope to see it continue to develop in the coming weeks.

[Jerry St. Clair]

Keane has played 7 matches for us now and I`m not sure he has hit target with a finish 5 times in these 7 matches, I`m not even sure he has had 5 finishes at goal during these games to be honest.

 

Being a striker who needs a fair deal of chances to get a decent amount of goals I can see him struggling to live up to the expectations some fans have got.

 

I dont expect more than 10 goals at best in the league personally so what we have seen so far is about what I thought we would get.

 

Good on the ball but will struggle being played out of his preferred position and £20mill is a lot of money for such a player.

 

Torres is a £20mill player and he is on a completely different level.

 

I know what you are saying mate but since I first started watching Keane it was obvious to me that he was never going to be a great goalscorer but a scorer of great goals. The job he did today in the first half is exactly what I expect from him and if he can hit double digits playing that role then everyones a winner.

 

The big problem I have with our side at the moment is that I just don't see how Keane and Benayoun can play in the same team. Keane is a far superior player but Benayoun tends to drift into the areas where Keane is dangerous.If we can get a quality winger I really believe Keane can reach the top of his game at our club but if this doesn't materialise I expect to see more days like today where one of our strikers tries his best to create openings while the other is smothered.

[23_Carra_Gold]

Keane is worth 19 million.

 

His link up play is brilliant and when we get this partnership with Nando working at full strength his value will be realised.

 

They had some good moments together today.

[elvis]

Fair point that, I still think we paid too much for Keane considering other options in that price bracket.

 

It might sound like I have something against him, but I certainly dont, my expectations just are not very high and everything above 10 goals in the league will be a huge bonus for me.

 

I will only agree if those are important goals, otherwise 10 goals for 19 mill. is way too steep. imo.

[James Dean]

I will only agree if those are important goals, otherwise 10 goals for 19 mill. is way too steep. imo.

 

If his presence result in the 4 points extra needed to win the league, I don't care how many goals he scores. He'd be worth every penny.

[OnizukaEikichi]

Torres was a bargain though. His market price now would be closer to £40m.

 

With the current market condition, doubt he will be worth only 40 m.

[havarantagain]

he looked a bit sharper yesterday, only got in the way twice and managed to leave the ball for Gerrards goal when he was tempted to touch it. Their is no doubt we need him to contribute goals as well as assists otherwise why change a good system to accommodate him.

[Royal Family]

Is anyone else worried about the effect Keane is having on Torres? The only time Fernando has come to life this season is when Keane went off versus Sunderland. Suddenly he had more space, and - dare i say it - Dirk was more intelligent in playing behind him than Keane was. It reminds me a little of Torres in the Euros when playing with Villa - he looked less of a threat until the final when he played up front on his own.

 

I cannot understand breaking up the Gerrard-Torres partnership, especially to accommodate Keane, whom I just don't think is good enough or clever enough to play at the level we need to challenge for the title.

[Anubis]

It takes a little bit of time for two strikers to get used to each other, but there have been some encouraging passages of play between the two, and they are starting to gain an understanding.

[taliesin08]

Suopport your team fcuking knobheads we won ugly so fcuking what at least we got six points when previously we would of had two and yes the whole team played shite not just one.

[George Costanza]

Is anyone else worried about the effect Keane is having on Torres? The only time Fernando has come to life this season is when Keane went off versus Sunderland. Suddenly he had more space, and - dare i say it - Dirk was more intelligent in playing behind him than Keane was. It reminds me a little of Torres in the Euros when playing with Villa - he looked less of a threat until the final when he played up front on his own.

 

I cannot understand breaking up the Gerrard-Torres partnership, especially to accommodate Keane, whom I just don't think is good enough or clever enough to play at the level we need to challenge for the title.

 

I don't agree witht he last bit but I do with everything else you've said.

 

Its all about balance IMO, I've said and will continue to say it that I do think Keane is a very good player and will do well but I fear his signing has given us an imbalance and i'm not sure how we'll line up. For a start where do we play Gerrard - the last 18 months or so he's shown (no matter who's he's partnered) that he's now not an orthodox central midfielder - he needs a free license, ability to roam and do his own thing. I finally though Rafa had found his place, playign just off Torres. It worked really, really well with still plenty of scope for improvement. What was required from last season was more of an impact/more support/more attacking influence from the two players either side of Gerrard.

 

I think Rafa's missed a trick this summer. Just my opinion like.

[hamstrung]

He's trying way too hard. He needs to relax and things will click into place for him.

 

Yep. Saw a few positive signs between him and Torres yesterday,.

 

Keane has played 7 matches for us now and I`m not sure he has hit target with a finish 5 times in these 7 matches, I`m not even sure he has had 5 finishes at goal during these games to be honest.

 

.

 

He's played 3 matches. You might as well count the number of goals he has in training, if you are going to count the friendlies.

[Code]

He's played 3 matches. You might as well count the number of goals he has in training, if you are going to count the friendlies.

 

I`m not really worried about the fact he has not scored yet so it does not matter if we only count competitive games or include pre-season matches.

 

I`m a bit worried about the lack of goalscoring positions and the lack of goalscoring opportunities he has got so far though, going from what I have seen myself and what Spurs fans I have talked to suggests as well Keane need many chances to keep his goal ratio up there.

 

He got that at Spurs where he played in front of Berbatov feeding of his flicks and passing, will he get that with us?

 

Nothing I have seen so far suggest he will and this is what worries me when it comes to Keane and the money we paid for him.

 

Maybe it would have been wiser to use this kind of money on a specialist link player if this is the role he is going to get or at least a more clinical finisher.

 

Keane will improve us as he is better than both Crouch, Kuyt and Voronin as a striker, but as a second striker I`m not sure if he is so much better than Voronin as his price tag suggests.

 

£20mill is a hell of a lot of money and in our current situation we need to spend our money absolutely spot on, it remains to be seen if we have done so in this case.

[sir roger]

A Spurs fan in work said to me when we signed him that he is was notoriously 'streaky' in his goalscoring & from nowhere will suddenly score the likes of 8 goals in 6 games.

[Woo]

I`m not really worried about the fact he has not scored yet so it does not matter if we only count competitive games or include pre-season matches.

 

I`m a bit worried about the lack of goalscoring positions and the lack of goalscoring opportunities he has got so far though, going from what I have seen myself and what Spurs fans I have talked to suggests as well Keane need many chances to keep his goal ratio up there.

 

He got that at Spurs where he played in front of Berbatov feeding of his flicks and passing, will he get that with us?

 

Nothing I have seen so far suggest he will and this is what worries me when it comes to Keane and the money we paid for him.

 

Maybe it would have been wiser to use this kind of money on a specialist link player if this is the role he is going to get or at least a more clinical finisher.

 

Keane will improve us as he is better than both Crouch, Kuyt and Voronin as a striker, but as a second striker I`m not sure if he is so much better than Voronin as his price tag suggests.

 

£20mill is a hell of a lot of money and in our current situation we need to spend our money absolutely spot on, it remains to be seen if we have done so in this case.

 

That would be because we are 3 games into the season.

 

Judge him at the end of the season.