Is Benteke good enough?
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The problem was that he turned bad after season one because of Owen. I remember he would delegate and support owen from the wings both lfc and england.
Yup. I feel it is quite unfair on Heskey whenever Balotelli and Benteke is compared to him. He was brilliant in his first season and did quite well in his second. I do think his game suffered because he was asked to sacrifice his natural game more and more so that Owen could flourish. Once his game slipped, his lack of arrogance and belief meant that it was a downward slope. Similar to Bellamy and Shearer but Bellamy had the self confidence and appropriate amount of selfishness needed for a striker.
I also think a lot of fans did not appreciate what he did for us as he was a more agricultural striker compared to Fowler and Owen who were rolls royce of strikers. We truly were spoilt at that time with respect to strikers. Heskey turned in some massive performances for us - against Roma in the CL on Houlliers return. He tormented the Roma defenders on that day like Drogba.
Balotelli and Benteke haven't come close to being 25% as good as some of Heskey's top performance for us.
I have to sound out a voice of dissent. In my view, Heskey was NEVER 'brilliant' than for a few games at a time, if that. Maybe someone will produce video evidence to disprove that, but I've seen Keegan, Dalglish and Aldridge, actually I'd add Toshack to that, and Heskey wouldn't come close to any of them in any season.
Of course if you are using brilliant in the context of Keegan, Dalglish, yeah then Heskey was never at that level. I shouldn't have used brilliant in my post. But at the same time comparing Balotelli and Benteke to him also is unfair.
Comparing Balotelli to Benteke is also unfair. Balotelli could control a football and pass it to a teammate.
He couldnt score though
The only time he tried to score was from 40 yards out. He didn't miss open goals and one on ones every other week.
So think it through, there is a quantum mechanical chance that he might score when the chances arise.
You can easily imagine a composite of Balotelli and Benteke will be one awesome goal scoring, ball controlling talent of a footballer.
Shame we've got the other.
Shame we've got the other.
WTF?! Balo only does one on one scenarios off the pitch. He is way too lazy to ever get one on it.
He missed the biggest sitter this decade when he was here btw.
The hunt for Benteke is off the wall at this stage imo.
Benteke certainly needs to work on his movement and has been very lazy. Its frustrating. But the service we provide him with is awful, in general.
We cant hit a cross to save our lives. Nearly all our players go for that floaty shite cross 95% of the time.
Corners, crosses and set pieces. We're horrendous.
Depends on fee and who wants to sign him for me re letting him go this summer.
Selling him to a top 4 rival would be stupid.
We cant hit a cross to save our lives. Nearly all our players go for that floaty shite cross 95% of the time.
Corners, crosses and set pieces. We're horrendous.
Depends on fee and who wants to sign him for me re letting him go this summer.
Selling him to a top 4 rival would be stupid.
This ignores the Treble season when Owen spent long stretches of time out with injury, Heskey played as our main striker instead of him and absolutely terrorised opposition defences. He was never that good again afterwards, but I completely disagree that "unplayable" is an exaggeration of his form during that season. It may be that the defences he was up against weren't of the standard that some of our previous strikers have had to cope with, but Heskey was dynamite for those 12 months. I remember Shearer raving about him at the time, and he should know.
One thing about Heskey is that he's certainly a real fan. It was funny yesterday on the BBC's coverage of the Leicester v Spurs game when Lineker said 'We're now going over to talk to that Leicester great Emile Heskey,' and then the interviewer also billed him as 'Leicester legend, back at his spiritual home today,' and then said, 'I guess there's no surprise what team you want to win?' and Emile answered: 'Liverpool! Er, I mean Leicester'.
Indeed. That comes through in his occasional interviews on radio - he's invariably supportive of LFC when the subject comes up. Wasn't he an actual (as opposed to opportunistically claimed) boyhood Liverpool fan, or was that his dad (or maybe both)?
As an aside, when Leicester hit financial trouble years ago Heskey sent them a large donation which may well have helped to keep them afloat. One of the good guys, despite the (unfortunately well merited) stick he's sometimes shipped on here.
As an aside, when Leicester hit financial trouble years ago Heskey sent them a large donation which may well have helped to keep them afloat. One of the good guys, despite the (unfortunately well merited) stick he's sometimes shipped on here.
Yes, both he and his dad have always been reds. He was desperate to re-sign with us for years after he left. And as you say, a genuinely decent bloke.
I find the revisionist attitude to Heskey quite odd. He was a major part of one of our most successful teams for 15-odd years. He was unplayable on his day, he scored a goal every three games and did a huge amount of work for the team, allowing Owen and others time and space. He won three major trophies, a charity shield and a European Supercup when he was here, and played for Ing-ur-lund over 60 times. I'm not sure why he gets such a shoeing on here.
I did some work for him and he was an inveterate gentleman.
On the pitch though although he had all the ball skills and was built like a brick shit house it used to drive me mad how easy he would go down for a foul when he should have been bullying defences with that physique like, say Duncan Ferguson used to. He would crumple at the merest touch shame really because if you combined the two you would have had one amazing player
On the pitch though although he had all the ball skills and was built like a brick shit house it used to drive me mad how easy he would go down for a foul when he should have been bullying defences with that physique like, say Duncan Ferguson used to. He would crumple at the merest touch shame really because if you combined the two you would have had one amazing player
Season 2000/1. Liverpool won the FA Cup, League Cup and UEFA cup.
Emily Heskey scored 22 goals: 14 in the Premiership, 5 in the FA cup, and three in Europe.
He was fucking brilliant.
You're welcome.
I should add that the season I have highlighted is probably the only one in which Heskey could be described as 'fucking brilliant', but I think most people are aware of that.
On the point of the thread: Benteke will have to be good enough as he's all we've got left.
Houllier it a top man and proper gent, but that narrow 4-1-3-2 of his to get the best out of Owen, using Heskey as the supporting act, resulted in some horrific football.
Agreed, and I also can't help wondering whether such a concentration exclusively on Owen (who was admittedly mustard in those days) as the attacking weapon in our side was itself a factor in aggravating his injuries.
It was pretty great in that treble cup season, and the following season was good too, we finished one place higher in second, and we had some quality players in the squad too: Anelka, Owen, Gerrard, Babbel, Heskey, Hamann, Carragher, Riise, Gary Mac, Barmby, Hyypia, Henchoz, Murphy, Litmanen, Berger.
Not really good enough to win the title, but we've had a LOT worse, but yes there was a HUGE burden on Owen to supply the goals, which he did, as usual.
Its funny though when we talk in hindsight about the burden of goals, because Berger, Murphy & Riise were all more than capable of weighing in with 8-10 goals a season. Hell, even Hyypia, Macca, Hamann and Babbel scored more than their successors do. We'd kill for that right now.
Oh Yes Mark - I remember those days where you knew that players from the back to front were all capable of getting at least 3-4 goals a season for the team, and yes we would kill for that now. It is so strange how difficult it is for so many non attacking players to understand the art of scoring and finishing. It was almost expected of players to be able to score when presented with a chance but these days even if such chances come up they are looking to pass the f*cking ball to the recognized goal scorer like it would hurt them to try and score.
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