Report from Eurosport on Voronin which makes good reading below;
Euroscout: Andriy Voronin
Eurosport - Wed, 18 Jul 12:42:00 2007
Eurosport.yahoo.com took a look at the lesser-known of Liverpool's two new strikers in the 3-2 friendly victory over Werder Bremen, Ukrainian Andriy Voronin.
While the transfer of Fernando Torres in a club record £22 million deal from Atletico Madrid received pages of coverage in the UK press, Andriy Voronin arrived to relatively little fanfare.
A free transfer signing from Bayer Leverkusen, the 27-year-old will have none of the huge weight of expectations shouldered by his Spanish team-mate, though may just surprise a few people who assumed he was bought as one to warm the bench in the big games and strut his stuff in the League Cup.
Having seen the player perform quite regularly over the past few years, Euroscout was a little surprised that Liverpool opted to sign Voronin from Bayer Leverkusen during the summer.
After an impressive first season at Leverkusen, in which he formed a potent partnership with Dimitar Berbatov, the goals began to dry up, and a series of anonymous performances in Spring last season saw him relegated to the bench.
Being neither physically big nor pacy, and without the turn of speed of many other modern-day strikers, Euroscout feared he would struggle to make an impact in the Premiership.
Against Bremen, however, Voronin showed just why Rafael Benitez has brought him to Anfield: He is a thinking man's footballer, and his reading of the game is exemplary.
This quality was immediately evident as he had the mental alertness to seize upon a slightly under hit pass across the defence from Peter Niemayer in just the fourth minute, and round 'keeper Tim Wiese with aplomb before tucking the ball calmly into an open net. An impressive start.
Indeed Voronin proved one of Liverpool's best performers during the first half against Bremen, and almost created a goal after picking out the run of Jack Hobbs with a well-timed defence-splitting ball, only for the youngster to check his run and allow the defence to clear.
Time and again Voronin came towards the ball as Liverpool mounted attacks, linking up the play effectively, and always looking for a ball that would release a team-mate in behind the opposition back four.
He rather fluffed his lines on his next one-on-one opportunity on 43 minutes, and was shepherded clear of goal by Frank Baumann before giving the ball away to a Bremen midfielder.
Nevetheless, his showing in the first half was deemed good enough by Benitez to let him start the second half, while Peter Crouch was replaced by Dirk Kuyt.
Almost immediately from the restart Voronin was troubling the Bremen defence, and latched onto a long ball before holding off the challenge of Ivica Vranjes, only to hoist his shot over the bar.
He repaid his manager's faith on the hour mark though, springing the offside trap and keeping his composure to rifle a right-foot half-volley past Wiese to make it 3-1, before being replaced by Torres.
Job done for the Ukrainian. If he can replicate this level of performance in the admittedly far more demanding atmosphere of Premiership and Champions League football, then his future at Anfield looks bright. He will, though, need to iron out the inconsistent form that crept into his game toward the end of his time with Leverkusen.
Eurosport
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