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Neil Mellor & Sinama Pongolle


Hooch
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I've just watched the 04/05 season review dvd again and I can't help wondering what could of been with these 2.

 

What awesome back ups they were to Cisse and Baros that season. Obviously the dvd only shows goals and good missed chances so I'm sure there was a lot of poor aspects to the two that weren't shown. The season is very hazy in my memory and it was only 4 frigging years ago! But I can't help thinking these two could of made it here, especially Mellor. He was just an out and out goal getter wasn't he?

 

Nothing better than finding a bit of time to re-watch old games/seasons though.

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Don't think Mellor had enough in his locker to make it here. Great finisher but his all round game was pretty poor.

 

Sinama was a perfect impact sub, but again i don't think he would ever have been more than that.

 

Both better than N'Gog though.

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One of the last canny things that Dalglish did was bring in Rosenthal - he wasn't that good but he was fast and urgent, and just shook things up enough to help the team get through the season at the top. A real pity we don't have anyone now who can come on and inject the same kind of energy.

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I've just watched the 04/05 season review dvd again and I can't help wondering what could of been with these 2.

 

What awesome back ups they were to Cisse and Baros that season. Obviously the dvd only shows goals and good missed chances so I'm sure there was a lot of poor aspects to the two that weren't shown. The season is very hazy in my memory and it was only 4 frigging years ago! But I can't help thinking these two could of made it here, especially Mellor. He was just an out and out goal getter wasn't he?

 

Nothing better than finding a bit of time to re-watch old games/seasons though.

 

They were both mediocre. So were Cisse and Baros though, come to think of it. European Champions though, astoundingly.

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Some folk seem to think we need another Torres to come on if Torres is out. That's just not reasonable. The backup is always going to be lesser - ideally you would have one experienced head/prospect who could play the occasional full game or fill in for injuries. The other one would be an impact player a la Rosenthal or a big hold-up player to kill off games.

 

I don't think we really have anything like what we need for backup at the moment.

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I think Pongolle was (and still is) a more effective player than either N'gog (clearly) and Babel. The problem is keeping somebody with quality happy with their role as 'back up'. As AS says above, it's unrealistic to think that Torres' understudy is going to be as good, or even nearly as good, as Torres. If he were, he would be in the first team here, or somewhere else looking for regular football.

 

Either need somebody young enough to be happy to bide their time (Pongolle, until he'd had enough of this), or at the other end of their career, happy to still be getting a chance at a decent club side (Riedle comes to mind...although I don't think he was that old when he came to us). Tricky balance to arrive at, but I am sure that both Babel and N'gog will be gone this summer - the former to a club of slightly lower quality than us, the latter to a club with good deal less quality than us.

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Don't think Mellor had enough in his locker to make it here. Great finisher but his all round game was pretty poor.

 

Sinama was a perfect impact sub, but again i don't think he would ever have been more than that.

 

Both better than N'Gog though.

 

That's the thing though, we sold Mellor and Pongolle because they weren't good enough but they've been replaced by other players who aren't good enough. We should have kept them until a time when genuine better players were available.

 

I'd rather have had Mellor or Pongolle as back up than N'gog or Voronin.

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Everyone raves about Gerrard's goal against olympiacos that took us through, and indeed it is a classic. But for me, I'll never forget the contributions of Mellor and Pongolle that went before it. Without their goals, his would have meant nothing.

 

When I saw the starting line up on Saturday I was remembering how in that first season Rafa had a squad of players he didn't necessarily rate and was hit with injuries amongst his strikers, but he showed real quality as a manager by getting the best out of what he had.

 

He seems to have lost that over the past couple of seasons and puts a lot of emphasis on needing to improve his squad. I'd like to see him get the best out of Babbel and Ngog now as back up for Torres.

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One of the last canny things that Dalglish did was bring in Rosenthal - he wasn't that good but he was fast and urgent, and just shook things up enough to help the team get through the season at the top. A real pity we don't have anyone now who can come on and inject the same kind of energy.

 

Kuyt did it against Portsmouth

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Without Mellor and Pongolle, that night in Istanbul would never have happened. That game against olimpiakos they were brilliant, people forget how good they were becuase of Stevies winner but without them two we wouldnt have won in my opinion, Rafa threw them on and they scored two goals between them and changed the game, simple as that.

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