Football News: Damien Comolli's time at Liverpool
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Damien Comolli has been on the defensive lately, desperately trying to prove that his time at Liverpool was not as big a failure as it seems to the outside world. Unfortunately, for him at any rate, his claims do not really stand up to scrutiny. It is not so much the players he chose to sign, as the price he agreed they were worth that is particularly damning.
Let's start with the January transfer deadline day double swoop for Luis Suarez and Andy Carroll. There can be no arguing that Suarez was successful, even at nearly £25m paid and ended up being sold for a massive fee. Which is lucky, considering the sums wasted on the other man involved in the double deal! Comolli's claims of Carroll being unplayable on his day and that it was just injuries that stopped him making a success of his time at Liverpool, do have some, and I do mean some, justification to them.
But, and it is a big but, paying £35m for a player known to be an extremely heavy drinker, with an injury sustained falling off a bar stool while drunk, does not seem justifiable to me in any way. Especially to then hold up injuries as the reason for his failure! Surely the drinking and nature of the injury should have been a major cause of concern? I know the club were desperate, with Fernando Torres forcing a move to Chelsea, but Carroll as a replacement? It just beggars belief that anyone with an ounce of footballing knowledge could possibly see any sense in that decision.
Even so, it was not the injuries, nor the drinking, that caused Carroll to fail so miserably, it was Carroll himself and the way he plays that saw him fail. Something that Comolli, if he was half as good, or even a millionth as good, as he claims to be should have spotted and highlighted. The problem is that Damien Comolli is the footballing equivalent of a snake oil salesman. Oh he can talk about how great he is, but in actuality he is worse than useless, he is a hindrance. Anyone with footballing commonsense can see that the idea of replacing a fast, nimble striker, even one that was then struggling as Torres was, with a big lump with no mobility is going to be a problem. It requires a complete restructure of the team to get the most out of him, from passing football to route one football. It needed to surround him with quick nippy players to hare up alongside him and pick up knockdowns and get out wide to cross the ball into him.
So what was Comolli's method to provide this pace and width? Yes he went and bought a player who had successfully moved into the centre of Aston Villa's midfield, to play out wide, Stewart Downing, for £20m+! Not neglecting the right flank, for his new system, he brought in another player happier in the centre of midfield to provide width on the right, Jordan Henderson, for £16m. Very similar thinking to the madness that saw Harry Redknapp fail so spectacularly with QPR this season, with the likes of Leroy Fer playing a wide role.
Downing was a quite spectacular failure, struggling to fit in, offering nothing in terms of assists and goals, and generally looking like a player completely out of his depth. That has to rank as a failure as bad as Andy Carroll as he had not even taken the time to see if Downing's improved stats were as a result of his move central. Any scout stupid enough to not be able to see the issues in buying Downing to play on the wing by using stats based on him playing centrally deserves to be sacked and never to work in football again!
As for Henderson, he has shown that he is an excellent player, which Comolli has been extremely vocal about how he was right and that he is having the last laugh about it now. Except you were wrong Mr. Comolli, Henderson is still not good enough when he gets moved onto the right flank (please take note of that Brendan Rodgers!), which is where you, in your infinite wisdom, thought he should play. So you did not get it right at all, you, and your stats, were wrong.
At least he can recover some ground with the next on the list, as a free signing can't be poor value for money can it? As it turns out, Doni only managed 4 appearances and suffered a heart attack which sadly ended his career far too soon. Not Comolli's fault, but it was a disastrous signing for the club. It is a signing that can not really be considered as a bad signing, just unlucky, for Comolli.
Then there is the case of Charlie Adam, with his sweet left foot, looking reminiscent of the great Jan Molby. Sadly a lack of mobility and a similar build was all he shared with Jan while in a Liverpool shirt. He gave his all but he just was not up to the task required to play central midfield in a pair in modern football. Another one that failed as much because he was misused as because he was not good enough. He came to prominence playing in front of holding midfielders, with freedom to roam and create, while at Blackpool. At Liverpool he was required to chase back and make tackles, break up attacks etc, all the things which he is completely unsuited for. Again that has to placed at the door of Comolli, as he did not have the understanding to know any more than the stats were telling him, that Charlie was great at creating chances.
He did end Liverpool's desperate search for a left back by bringing in Jose Enrique, who is more interested in his Twitter profile than he is in playing football. Jamie Carragher has famously made numerous remarks about his refusal to listen to team mates and just does what he wants on the pitch. The stats claimed he the full back that had been beaten by his winger the least in his final season at Newcastle United, prior to moving to Merseyside. Unfortunately the stats seemed to have missed the fact that the winger never had to beat him as he spends most of the game out of position after another wasted forward charge which leads to him giving the ball away. Yes he is extremely quick, strong and powerful in the air, but that is all useless when you are predictable and wandering around the pitch aimlessly.
That leaves just two, that I can remember anyway, Sebastian Coates and Craig Bellamy. Bellamy's return was undoubtedly successful, despite a number of niggling injuries, but that is more down to his desperation to perform for the team he supports and make up for his previous spell at the club. To be fair though, there is no reason not to chalk this one up as a success for Comolli.
Coates, on the other hand, has been unable to break into the first team for more than the odd appearance, partly due to injury, but mostly due to him moving like a man waist deep in sand. Tall and technically excellent, but his complete lack of pace and requirement of a week's notice to turn around is a major deficiency in a defender.
So, on the plus side for Comolli, we have Suarez and Bellamy. On the minus side we have Coates, Downing, Carroll, Henderson (even though he has shown himself to be an excellent centre midfielder, Comolli can not be credited with that when he chose him as a right midfielder), Enrique and Adam. I am not sure anyone could argue that Comolli did anything but a poor job in his time at Liverpool FC. He relied on stats but did not take the time to view them in context. I am sure he is extremely successfull on Football Manager, but in real life he is a disaster.
Written by Tris Burke February 06 2015 09:27:22
