Downing in figures
36 League games without a goal or assist this season.
£20m Amount paid by Liverpool to Aston Villa for Downing last summer.
185 Minutes per assist for England, the best in the Euro 2012 squad.
49 Downing has played 49 minutes of tournament football for England - all in 2006.
I agreeI don't get the hate for Downing. I'm clearly in the minority but I feel the lad will come good. 2012-2013 is gonna be his season.
*Runs to bed*
"The assist thing? I've constantly set up chances, as I did at Aston Villa and Middlesbrough and have done at Liverpool, season in and season out," Downing said. "I can't be criticised for not creating. I'm in the team to do that and I've done that throughout the season. I've just been unlucky that we've not finished the chances.
"Stats have taken over the game: he doesn't score this, he hasn't set up that... You can read into it as you like. If you look at what I did at Aston Villa, those chances got put away. Last season I was on a par with that, but at Liverpool they didn't [get put away]. It seemed to take us four or five chances to score a goal."
Exactamundo.Fuck off, Stewart Downing. Seriously, I can't wait.
If I'm reading Rodgers formation & style right, he plays with inverted wingers.
If so, Downing may be better on the right, Stevie employed on the left.
However, someone on TAW podcast made an argument that against teams who sit with 11 men behind the ball at Anfield, he could acvtually be used as a left back.
Sounds bizarre, but they have little defensive responsibility in that setup against that type of team, & by simply running without the ball when overlapping (which is a massive part of their game in that formation), he could stretch play to allow the left winger/AM to get more space.
It's a bit off the wall, but if you imagine that the left back position in that game sits just forward of the halfway line cos we have all the possession, it's a lot easier to envisage.
I'm torn on it, but I can see the argument, & he's played as a left back before, & we have other players who can do his role (which would be a right hand side winger as Rodgers plays with inverted wingers cutting in) much better than he, yet Enrique doesn't seem suited to this type of play.
Exactamundo.
He's certainly done a lot more than Henderson or Adam has done.We know yeah, you've mentioned it a few times.
I too don't get the 'hate', he's better than he's shown so far but I don't get the hatred. We paid too much, he had a poor season, everyone deserves a clean slate now, the club as a whole wasn't good enough for numerous reasons, but with a few more additions things might click into place, not just for the team but for individuals too. I don't rate him that highly but he's far better than what we've seen so far.
He's certainly done a lot more than Henderson or Adam has done.
Nothing from nothing means nothing....He's certainly done a lot more than Henderson or Adam has done.
Modo - That simply isn't true. Stop being so bloody blinkered. He's set up heaps of chances - If the finishing were better he would have a dozen assists at least. I'm not saying he had a good season by any means - It was poor but I've seen enough of him to think that next season he will be much better. He's notorious for starting poorly at a new club - I reckon he will be mint this coming season.Nothing from nothing means nothing....
for the bazillionth time, assists is a fucking ridiculous stat to use when trying to determine a player's worth. Downing has created tons of chances. His crossing has improved immensely in the latter half of the season.Well given that Adam had more assists than anybody in our team despite missing a third of the season and Downing had absolutely none, I'd beg to differ.