David N'gog: "I can't waste my time"

David N'gog today stated how he has to break into the first team soon to further his development. He says how he cannot waste his time on the bench, and must play games regularly. N'gog is rumoured to be one of the players who Purslow told Hodgson to get rid of during the summer, and since then he has scored 8 times in 12 starts this season. The full interview is in the Irish Independent.

http://www.independent.ie/sport/soccer/i-cant-waste-my-time-at-liverpool-ngog-2456984.html

DAVID NGOG, whose surname is pronounced like the shampoo, doesn't entirely understand why fans and headline writers keep going on about Wash 'n' Go and if some of his Liverpool team-mates have made this brand his nickname, as has been suggested, then it's ahem gone right over his head. "I'd not noticed," he says. "Someone told me about this, but I don't really follow it."

Ngog hardly has much call for shampoo, as our portrait reveals, but the player's two-year struggle for recognition and prominence in the shadow of the once floppy-haired Fernando Torres has made him seem like the player soon to be on the go from Anfield.

Ngog is probably one of the players Roy Hodgson will have had in mind yesterday when he spoke of how Liverpool's former managing director Christian Purslow was always in his ear, telling him which young players he should move on.

If the 21-year-old, who has started only 35 games for Liverpool in two and a half years, does not get a more substantial role at Anfield, then he will wash up elsewhere, of his own volition.

"I am young but I can't waste my time," he says. "The quicker I can succeed the better. Of course, if I see that I don't have a chance to play and don't play I will try to think about another option. I am ambitious and I want to be at the top and to play, and to be one of the best. If things don't happen I will have to make decisions."

But for now he will wait. "I don't really have a target for when I want to break through. I work hard and I am confident in myself and I hope I will do it when I get the chance."

What Ngog doesn't say is that an extended period out of the spotlight has probably suited him just fine. He and his great friend Gabby Obertan, of Manchester United, are the two great hopes of their year-group in France and when Ngog broke through into the first team so early at Paris St-Germain -- he was training with the first XI from the age of 16 -- there was a formidable weight of national expectation to deal with. The suspicion has always been that a desire to escape the spotlight contributed to his decision to leave so early for Anfield. Too early, according to Paul Le Guen, his coach at PSG.

Ngog says Le Guen never gave him any compelling grounds to stay in July 2008. "I think he knows that we had an agreement. He let me leave," the player insists -- but Torres' overwhelming dominance at Anfield since has left France wondering whether their great young hope had made a mistake.

Ngog is often compared with Nicolas Anelka, but by the time he had reached 21 he had already made his name at Arsenal and moved on to the Bernabeu.

As characters go, these two strikers stand no comparison. Ngog's shy reserve is as far removed from Le Sulk as you could get and his general reluctance to give interviews has faintly contributed to a view among some French commentators that he lacks the ruthless traits of a world-class finisher. Ngog simply insists that he has preferred to keep his counsel until he has something to shout about. He cautioned: "With journalists there is a danger. I prefer to prove my value on the pitch."

Progress

In his early Parisian days, Ngog was not at all strong in the air, but his flying finish past Brad Friedel on Monday -- his eighth goal in 12 starts this season -- suggested something has changed in that respect, with his positioning and touch also clearly developing. "En grand, grand progres" (making great, great progress) is how the France U-21 coach Erick Mombaerts described him after a recent display.

There is no doubt that while quietly waiting for the main chance, Ngog has been quietly watching his club's main striker, too. "I think we have a good working relationship and on the pitch yeah, I try to learn from him because he has good quality as a striker. We can play well together," he says of Torres.

It is precisely what Ngog did back at the Parc des Princes where, while trying to establish himself for PSG, he found himself in the shadow of Pedro Pauleta, Le Guen's own 25-goal-a-season man. It helps that Ngog's air of quiet contemplation is allied to a strong work ethic.

This was imbued in him by his father, a Cameroonian immigrant who settled in Paris as a 20-year-old to study automobile engineering and met his soon-to-be French wife, who was up in Paris from the south of France, working as a commercial assistant. (Ngog's reticence includes a reluctance that their names be published.)

Ngog, an only child, was a mere 12- years-old when he joined PSG's academy, leaving his parents behind at their modest house in Paris' 95th department in the north of the city while he lodged at the club Mondays to Fridays.

"That was hard for my family, especially my mum," he says. "But you knew that you had to work. You had perhaps a 20pc chance of succeeding at PSG -- maybe less. It wasn't easy and the coaches weren't easy with us. They were always pushing us."

Ngog is one of those players who never seems to stray off the rails and the fastidiousness seems to run in the family considering that his second cousin Jean-Alain Boumsong -- his father and the former Newcastle player's mother are cousins -- was similar. Boumsong, with whose family the Ngogs often holidayed, is one of the few professional players with a degree in mathematics.

The work paid off for the young striker. He impressed at every level in the French set-up, but it was displays at the prestigious international Montaigu Tournament for U-16s in France five years ago -- Ngog scored twice in the final against Japan -- that alerted the football world to his ability. "Before that PSG didn't used to use young players. They just bought players in and it was difficult to make it in Paris," Ngog recalls. "Afterwards it was different for me."

At Liverpool, he has demonstrated that he can score against any opposition. His goal which sealed the 2-0 win against Manchester United at Anfield last season was his favourite, he says. "I came on and there was pressure but when I scored at the end of the game it was a relief for every fan and I really connected with the crowd." The strike against Arsenal which set the Premier League campaign under way on the opening day of this season sent a message, too, although Monday's opener against Gerard Houllier's side came with the Liverpool team under even more pressure. "This week's was more important in a way, as we have been under a lot of pressure," Ngog says. "Every goal is important in its own way."

The chances to score have become more frequent because of Roy Hodgson's inclination to play two strikers. "Of course when you have two strikers, you have two seats," Ngog reflects. "I think we are doing well with this system. I think we are improving with our passing and are more confident. It is good to have different options and this is one."

Ngog does not give the impression of being star-struck. His most persistent point in a half-hour interview is that he does not want his own imprimatur to be lost, simply because Liverpool happen to have one of the world's most famous strikers on their books.

Belief

"When you are in the team you have to adapt with other players as you are just a part of the team but for me I just try to be myself," he says. "But I don't want to think too much about being someone else's strike partner. I have to be my own player. I can play with Fernando or whoever. For me it's just about being on the pitch every week and showing what I can do."

That quiet self-belief seems to have persuaded Ngog that opting to forge an international career with Cameroon is not something he will do for now, despite a request he received before the World Cup from his old PSG manager Le Guen, who left Paris to manage the Indomitable Lions.

"My father is a Cameroonian and I could play for that country," he says. "But yeah maybe (I'll wait). I've not spoken to (Laurent Blanc) so I don't really know (about my prospects of playing for France.)" Wait, not go: the epithet seems to apply to every aspect of Ngog's footballing life. The events of the past week reinforce the sense that Hodgson, as much as Blanc, has good reason to be glad of it. (© Independent News Service)

That's fair enough there is no vendetta with him, the majority are fed up waiting for a glimpse of what was promised and that lack is to the detriment of LFC.
If he can do the business regularly the result will be a consistent place in the starting eleven as has always been the case.

He has only shown small glimpses of what he MAY be capable of. Needs to hit his peak soon otherwise he'll be shipped out i think.

very difficult to say wether he will break out he is our leading scorer and give him time cant blame him really. 

As for the title he did waste his time tonight

I don't think he is going to make the grade,in my mind he is too lightweight and lacks vision.If he can prove me wrong that would be fantastic but sadly I cannot see it.

I would pick him before Torres at the mo - at least he tries.
Lad is a good player, and will get better.

I don't think he is going to make the grade,in my mind he is too lightweight and lacks vision.If he can prove me wrong that would be fantastic but sadly I cannot see it.

HERE HERE.

I think he is improving match after match and I believe in him to become one of the league top strikers 2 or 3 years in the future.

Now the problem is : his actual level don't make him reliable enough, he's still making newbie errors (like the handball against the spurs) or is invisible, in the pocket of the defender marking him, for some matches.

So if a new quality striker is recruited, and Torres stay, N'Gog will logically be on the bench most of the time (even if considering Torres recent performances, Nando probably desserve to be out of the starting 11 more than him, I doubt it happens) and here is the problem : he need to play often to continue to improve.

In this scenario, I think the best move for David would be to accept to be loaned out and spend a season in french ligue 1 or in a second half PL club where he can expect to start all matches.

The above might not be a bad idea, it would give him experiance.

I don't get this article.

He's our top scorer this season.  I'd hardly say he was a periphery figure in the team.

Perhaps he should spend some of that time learning how to control a ball ,which i think is pretty poor ,and personally dont think he will be grade a for us. If he proves me wrong i will be happy not for me but for lfc.

This really should read David N'gog: "He can't waste our time"

I don't know but something tell me that striker like Ngog will be a quality striker in the future, I just felt that.

He's not Thierry Henry or Torres type of striker but more like Anelka or Trezeguet, and imho this kind of striker often play best after they learned much enough experience and built enough their strength which are not often fulfill at younger age like 21.

So it's seemed reluctant for team like us, we cannot play him every game as main striker at his age 21 because he still during development stage than he got less games and tend to unhappy, but the team also don't want to loss him, it's really need good management for this.