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A nice little article from Kopblog. I happen to be a big fan of Dirks but whats the general consensus. Would you sell him to Hamburg in January and bring in for example Bentley. Not sure how to do a poll Kuyt - The Flying Dutchman Written by Gerry on October 14th, 2008 ▪ 16 comments so far As we are in the middle of this international break I thought it might be a good time to get stuck into the Dirk Kuyt debate that has regularly come up in previous blogs. There’s no doubt he is a player that divides opinion among supporters. Some love him, some think he’s ok to have in the squad but shouldn’t be a regular starter in the side and others feel we should just get shot of him as soon as we can. It’s strange that one player can engender such a diverse range of opinions but that seems to be the case with Kuyt and I thought I would throw my two cents worth into the mix. For the record, I am a big fan of the guy for a number of reasons. Sometimes I think the type of footballers we like says as much about us as it does about them. When I was a kid the first Liverpool team I watched in those days contained players like Keegan, Heighway, Toshack etc and they were brilliant, but whenever anyone asked me who my favourite player was back then I would immediately answer, Tommy Smith. He was the toughest player in the game who would run through walls for the club and somehow you always felt that no-one would dare beat us or even score against us when he was in the side. However the hard-man reputation he gained overshadowed his whole career and in some ways did him more harm than good because he was also a very good player, but that side of his game was very under-rated outside of Anfield and he became one of the great unsung heroes of the side. I would always support any player wearing The Red but over the years I’ve always had an extra bit of affection for the players, like Smith, who played a vital role for the team but were in many ways unsung heroes. Players such as Kennedy, Whelan, Nicol, Johnson, Houghton to name but a few and more recent examples would be Hamann and even Jamie Carragher, all great players but often criminally under-rated outside of Anfield. To me Dirk Kuyt fits neatly into this category with one exception, it appears that unlike the others, his doubters do not exclusively exist outside of Anfield and there are a number of Reds fans who also question his worth. There are some who just have him down as a failed striker and view him as a square peg in a round hole on the right and I’ve even heard some people claim that Rafa only plays him there out of stubbornness! I remember 30-odd years ago when Bob Paisley bought a striker with a big reputation from Arsenal called Ray Kennedy but he never really worked out as a forward for Liverpool. However Paisley saw something in him and eventually converted him into a midfielder. In that position he excelled, became a regular in the England side and regarded as one of the best midfielders in Europe. Paisley was rightly regarded as a genius for this vision and I find it strange all these years later that when Benitez does something similar some people regard him as nothing but pig-headed! I accept the fact that Kuyt was bought predominately as a striker but we all know that the boss has a preference for versatile players and he would have been very well aware that Kuyt could also do a job on the right having previously played there for both club and country. So he can in no way be regarded as a square peg in a round hole. However I’m not saying the guy is perfect and I can understand some of the points that are raised by people on the other side of the argument, but all players have their strengths and weaknesses and Kuyt is no different, but to my mind his strengths far outweigh his weaknesses. He is the embodiment of the oft used expression, “playing for the shirt”, and I can honestly say that I have never seen a player from any era that so consistently puts 100% effort, energy and commitment every time he puts on the shirt. No matter whether he is having a good game or a bad game, his head never drops and he just keeps going. Whether we are playing Barca or Barnet his performance level never drops and he puts so much energy into every game that I sometimes feel bolloxed just watching him! That’s not to say his only value to us is his effort. I think we’ve seen plenty of players at the club in recent years who’s effort couldn’t be questioned but who were simply not good enough. Kuyt’s all-action style is one of his big plus points but he is not just a Durcell bunny that “takes a lickin but keeps on tickin”, I think he is a much better player than people give him credit for. Last season wasn’t one of his best which is understandable considering his Father passed away after losing his battle with cancer and this was bound to have an effect on his form as they were very close. But even so he still managed to score some important goals for us and he showed plenty of bottle to step up and successfully take our two penalties at Goodison Park to give us a 2-1 win. This season his form has looked a lot better and he has been one of our best players in the games we have played so far. Against Standard Liege after almost 120 minutes when the game was about to be decided by the lottery of a penalty shoot-out, many players were already suffering with cramp but when Babel swung over a cross from the left it was Kuyt that was still full of running who finished at the far post to secure our place in the CL. Against the mancs it was Kuyt once again that made a great run in from the right side to pick up the cut-back from Mascherano and slide the ball to Babel to score the winner. At Goodison it was Torres who was the hero for scoring two goals against our little neighbours but he was quick to praise Kuyt for his unselfish running which drew away some of their defenders and created space for Nando to do his thing. When Keane scored his first goal in a Red shirt against PSV, there was a lot made of Torres’s great run and cross from the right as well as Robbie’s great finish. But the fact that Kuyt received the ball when surrounded by four PSV players and not only held on to it but got it to Torres to start that move was largely ignored almost as much as the fact that he scored the opening goal in that game. And of course it was Dirk who was on hand to score the injury-time winner to seal our brilliant 3-2 come-back victory against City in our last game. I know there are some who would prefer to see us have some twinkle-toed South American dancing down the right, but they should be careful what they wish for. Such players may look great in a two minute compilation on You Tube but the reality of a lot of those type of players is often a lot different. Such players can offer an extra bit of quality in attack but often do little or nothing for the team defensively and can unbalance the whole side. I found it telling that when Rafa was recently asked if Robinho was a player that Liverpool might have been looking at, he said no, he is not the kind of player that would have been of interest to us. In Kuyt we have an unselfish team player who does as much work defensively as he does in the attacking third and he suits us just fine. He has scored three goals for us already this season and I’ll wager that barring injury he will finish the season with about 15. That’s not prolific enough for a striker at the top level but for a midfielder it would be a pretty decent haul. If we manage to achieve anything this campaign you can bet that the Flying Dutchman will play a significant role. We should celebrate the fact that we have a player who will always cover every blade of grass and always give it absolutely everything he has every time he pulls on The Red shirt. Dirk Kuyt is a hero and, in the modern game, players like him are as rare as a blond virgin. He is the kind of player we should always want to have in our team and I wish we had a few more like him, but for now I’ll settle for the one we have and I hope that I will see him battling away on our right wing for many years to come. Keep The Faith time saved time saved

PorStoke0809.flv - Video - Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting Fucking hell, another one.