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      Stewart Downing (Liverpool -> West Ham)

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      bad boy bubby
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      Re: Stewart Downing Player Thread
      Reply #1587: Mar 05, 2013 10:27:59 am
      I don't 'need' Stewart to succeed to prove I was right; similarly, I don't 'need' him to fail to prove I was right. I am just happy that a Liverpool player, who's obviously being picked on merit, is preforming well and contributing to another team win. That's all we can ask.

      Long may it continue.
      bad boy bubby
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      Re: Stewart Downing Player Thread
      Reply #1588: Mar 05, 2013 10:59:39 am
      Good goal, but even when he scores (something that is sadly rare), he's the worst of our front three.
      A strange and somewhat pointless post mate. Not every player can be a Suarez; assuming, of course, you believe he's the "best" of our front three.

      If Luis is the "best" and Stewart is the "worst" does that make Coutinho second "best" or second "worst"? I'm guessing second "best".

      I mean; can I expect to read a post saying; "even when he set up two goals, he's the second worst of our front three." in the Coutinho player thread? I'm guessing no.

      Me? If I had to I'd go down the line of - "good"; "better"; "best"... it's less pointed, less snide and more supportive.   :gt-happyup:
      TheRedMosquito
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      Re: Stewart Downing Player Thread
      Reply #1589: Mar 05, 2013 02:02:21 pm
      I was actually impressed and pleasantly surprised by the run he made for the goal. Cut in, got himself into the right position in the box, anticipated Coutinho would cross, and was there for the header. Intelligent bit of play there.
      Diego LFC
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      Re: Stewart Downing Player Thread
      Reply #1590: Mar 05, 2013 02:25:40 pm
      A strange and somewhat pointless post mate. Not every player can be a Suarez; assuming, of course, you believe he's the "best" of our front three.

      If Luis is the "best" and Stewart is the "worst" does that make Coutinho second "best" or second "worst"? I'm guessing second "best".

      I mean; can I expect to read a post saying; "even when he set up two goals, he's the second worst of our front three." in the Coutinho player thread? I'm guessing no.

      Me? If I had to I'd go down the line of - "good"; "better"; "best"... it's less pointed, less snide and more supportive.   :gt-happyup:

      I'm not talking about player's qualities - in that aspect, Suarez will always be the best -, but their performances - that will vary game to game. And my comment does make sense if you know my prior opinion of the player.

      I don't think he's good enough for a team aiming for the top. He's awfully unproductive for a player of his position (Coutinho could probably surpass him in number of goals and assists in just a handful of games) and, even when he does produce something (like a goal, easy header or not), he's not even one of our best performers. At his best, he's not even that good. That's what I meant.
      Diego LFC
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      Re: Stewart Downing Player Thread
      Reply #1591: Mar 05, 2013 02:31:07 pm
      I was actually impressed and pleasantly surprised by the run he made for the goal. Cut in, got himself into the right position in the box, anticipated Coutinho would cross, and was there for the header. Intelligent bit of play there.

      Agreed, it was a nice play. But seriously, good players do that every week, every game. It says a lot about his game intelligence when a simple run and anticipation in the box has to be so praised. For a good player, it's nothing but common sense.
      bad boy bubby
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      Re: Stewart Downing Player Thread
      Reply #1592: Mar 05, 2013 03:39:17 pm
      Oh I know what you meant; I also know your hard held, prior, opinion Diego.
      My post still holds true.

      You were 'damning with faint praise' - you know it, I know it.

      You don't like him or rate him - I get that... every time. Just like I got that c'ballytard didn't like Adam.  ;)







      Swab
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      Re: Stewart Downing Player Thread
      Reply #1593: Mar 05, 2013 03:47:11 pm
      I was actually impressed and pleasantly surprised by the run he made for the goal. Cut in, got himself into the right position in the box, anticipated Coutinho would cross, and was there for the header. Intelligent bit of play there.

      I don't want to be too harsh on him, but that was a standard wingers/wide forwards run and is something that's taught from a young age.

      He scored it though, even if he didn't have to do a lot.

      I'm with Diego as far as Downing goes.
      I don't rate him and never have.
      Dadorious
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      Re: Stewart Downing Player Thread
      Reply #1594: Mar 05, 2013 09:55:11 pm
      I was pleasently surprised he headed the ball in the first place without worrying about hurting his forehead.
      AlexLFC95
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      Re: Stewart Downing Player Thread
      Reply #1595: Mar 06, 2013 12:00:58 am
      I was also surprised he went for it, I mean he could have been killed.
      bad boy bubby
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      Re: Stewart Downing Player Thread
      Reply #1596: Mar 07, 2013 10:30:16 am
      I was pleasently surprised he headed the ball in the first place without worrying about hurting his forehead.
      I was also surprised he went for it, I mean he could have been killed.

      I was glad he scored a goal for my team and helped them to a win... all you can ask really; isn't it? I know it would support some people's PoV more if he'd have missed and if he'd been playing sh*te of late but sadly neither are the case.

      It obviously sticks in the craw that Stewart has been picked on merit, playing well and contributing - F**k only knows why it should but there you have it.

      He may not be here this time next year but whilst he's still a Red and is still being picked surely it's better that he's playing well and contributing to a winning team? Surely if that remains the case, he, like all other players, should be given credit when due? After all; Isn't he now doing what we all wanted him to do?  :confused-smiley-013:
      srslfc
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      Re: Stewart Downing Player Thread
      Reply #1597: Mar 07, 2013 03:45:43 pm
      It obviously sticks in the craw that Stewart has been picked on merit, playing well and contributing - f**k only knows why it should but there you have it.

      Agree 100%.

      I'm not sure why some find it so difficult to give a Liverpool player even the slightest bit of praise without a subtle, or sometimes not so subtle, dig behind it.
      Roddenberry
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      Re: Stewart Downing Player Thread
      Reply #1598: Mar 07, 2013 04:23:27 pm
      I'll give praise when he deserves it, but for me, as improved as he has been of late, I don't think he has hit the form or the consistency he showed in his last 6 months at Villa.
      FL Red
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      Re: Stewart Downing Player Thread
      Reply #1599: Mar 07, 2013 06:33:44 pm
      Never been his biggest supporter if I'm being honest, but his play has warranted his spot on the first team. The only way I would want to see him leave this summer is if he was being replaced by or helping to fund a bigger talent. He's done well as of late when given the chance, just about all you can ask of him. Everyone can't be Suarez (in terms of technical ability).
      Diego LFC
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      Re: Stewart Downing Player Thread
      Reply #1600: Mar 07, 2013 06:40:28 pm
      After all; Isn't he now doing what we all wanted him to do?

      Not really... that's my point. I don't think he should start every game as he's been starting. I want him to do well as part of LFC, can't hide my frustration with him though.
      fields of anny rd
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      Re: Stewart Downing Player Thread
      Reply #1601: Mar 07, 2013 07:22:26 pm
      Downing is stepping up this season, and could prove to be a worthwhile squad option. For me though when Sturridge regains fitness it is still Stuart who will be taking his place on the bench sadly for him.

      Good to have the competition though.
      KopiteLuke
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      Re: Stewart Downing Player Thread
      Reply #1602: Mar 07, 2013 08:06:15 pm
      While I understand the point regarding a player playing in a winning team there is still the case to be made for having a weakest link. Considering the lack of results against the stronger teams in the league we clearly have weaknesses and for me Stewart is clearly one of those.

      The same way mistakes often carry more important lessons in life than successes, so do I find it easier to find the passengers in the team when we get defeated than when we're winning. I suppose another way of phrasing that might be that it's much easier to play well in a team that is winning, but it is much harder to try to play well in a team that is not performing. This is where Stewart has a serious problem, because even in games we're winning, his impact is minimal, in games we're losing he has absolutely no impact whatsoever and disappears from sight.

      So yes his improved form does merit some credit, but this small uplift should not hide the pain we've had to endure of watching Stewart in a red shirt for the many months before and I wont be disappointed if and when he's replaced in the first XI.
      racerx34
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      Re: Stewart Downing Player Thread
      Reply #1603: Mar 08, 2013 11:15:16 am
      Has turned into a 7 out of 10 player.
      One of those players that rarely excites but is consistently performing.

      Sure I'd like to see a world class player in his position instead,
      but he's been solid recently.

      I know it's probably terrible to label someone that forms part of the attacking 4
      of the team as reliable, but that's what he is.

      Sturridge, Suarez and Coutinho are grabbing the headlines.
      Downing, with 4 goals and 7 assists, seems to finally have gotten over the price tag
      block he seemed to have last year. Maybe being written off cleared his head.


      I'm not saying he should keep his starting berth next season,
      but it's no harm to have consistency in our team right now,
      given how lacking it was early in the season.
      indlfc
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      Re: Stewart Downing Player Thread
      Reply #1604: Mar 09, 2013 01:25:21 am
      Stewart downing Twitter Q&A turned into shambles.

      When Liverpool came up with the, perhaps not carefully thought out, idea of hosting a Twitter Q&A with Stewart Downing they obviously didn't think it would become a field day for the haters loitering in cyberspace.

      Instead of gentle questions such about who was the biggest dressing room joker or who is the most difficult defender to play against (probably all of them), the #askdowning thread was besieged by fans making fun of the player even we refer to as LEFT WING JESUS in our MirrorFootball Twitter feed.

      Downing has had a torrid time at Anfield since his £20million move from Aston Villa, which included failing to score a single goal or assist last season and being publicly criticised by manager Brendan Rodgers at the beginning of this campaign.

      Here are a selection of some of the wise cracks aimed at the Reds winger:

      @DualeAdam1 If you were a footballer, what would your preferred position be?

      @Liam Payne ?Payny_01 How did you feel last season knowing Tim Howard was closer to lifting the golden boot than you?

      @BillHansen28 So you left Aston Villa for Champions League football. How's that working out for you?

      ?@McFarlaneJordan A re you the only professional footballer to be neither footed?

      @Notcarlcole On a scale of 1 to Jesus, how good are your crosses?

      @Dave B MUFC ?Bowsy_How did it feel to have more arrests than assists last season?

      @arpan_manutd Do you know any footballer (except you) who is neither footed?

      @Jon Barbuti Which Premier League bench is the comfiest?

      @Fergie's Hairdryer How do you get to the other side of the road when you don't know how to cross?

      @marc sepetowski ?sepo_efc Do you consider yourself to be just as bad as jordan henderson?

      @?JacobCampbell5 Did you pick number 19 because you knew it would take about 19 months before you did anything of any kind of use ?

      @?Abdn_Horror_Guy If you were to transfer away from Liverpool, how many goats and cows would your new club receive in the dowry to take you?

      @?lloydturner1 How do you ignore all this abuse and carry on day to day ? #respect
      QuicoGalante
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      Re: Stewart Downing Player Thread
      Reply #1605: Mar 09, 2013 01:00:14 pm

      Feel free to delete if posted before .Pretty old, but still think its funny (or sad, take your pick)

      http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/tottenham-hotspur/3775479/Spurs-must-lose-Gareth-Bale-to-land-Stewart-Downing-Football.html
      what-a-hit-son
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      Re: Stewart Downing Player Thread
      Reply #1606: Mar 09, 2013 07:59:56 pm
      I was glad he scored a goal for my team and helped them to a win... all you can ask really; isn't it? I know it would support some people's PoV more if he'd have missed and if he'd been playing sh*te of late but sadly neither are the case.

      It obviously sticks in the craw that Stewart has been picked on merit, playing well and contributing - f**k only knows why it should but there you have it.

      He may not be here this time next year but whilst he's still a Red and is still being picked surely it's better that he's playing well and contributing to a winning team? Surely if that remains the case, he, like all other players, should be given credit when due? After all; Isn't he now doing what we all wanted him to do?  :confused-smiley-013:

      Spot on again Bub.

      There's a few who haven't been playing half aswell as him of late. Effort's been there, he's tracking back and covering at the right moments, putting in some decent crosses, passing the ball well and is a good option for us at the moment.

      He's never going to be a £20 million player but it seems that it is unfashionable to aim any praise in his direction for some. Not his fault somebody thought he was worth that.

      The lad owes us some performances for sure and he is only now starting show glimpses of any quality but he's got to start somewhere. Better late than never ay?

      Hope he kicks on and proves a lot of people wrong, myself included.
      what-a-hit-son
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      Re: Stewart Downing Player Thread
      Reply #1607: Mar 09, 2013 09:27:03 pm
      Downing is not Bale, but that shouldn't matter
      by Kristian Walsh

      Sometimes, something is so obvious it needs to be stated: Stewart Downing is not Gareth Bale. Nobody would argue otherwise, not even Downing himself. That, in part, is his problem. Downing receives the ball, Bale finds it; Downing waits for his moment, Bale provides them. The cocktail of confidence and ability is a balance Downing is yet to strike fully, properly, consistently.
       
      But Jermain Defoe is not Luis Suarez; Kyle Walker is not Glen Johnson. Very few players in the world, over the past decade, are Steven Gerrard. This is the construct of football, this is how it works. This is not some virtual, utopian world where one side possesses the best 22 players in the world, no matter how hard some very rich men try.

      That Downing is not at the level of Bale should be acceptable, but it isn't. It should not disparage Downing, but it does. Utopia is constantly sought in football, yet this is a game far more dystopian than most.
       
      Since returning to the Liverpool side in December, Downing has improved. For some, his status has been upgraded: No longer is he an expensive flop who embodies the financial anarchy under Damien Comolli, Kenny Dalglish, and whoever else blame sets its scattergun sights upon. Instead, he is now a competent wide player who has found that something, anything, required to feature for Liverpool. A competent wide player worth nowhere near the 20 million pounds paid, granted, but such stricture should not fall solely on him.
       
      His performance against Wigan last Saturday felt like his moment, though it was typically understated. If he was to leave tomorrow, Wigan would be upon the chronicle cover. This is a player who has been assigned as an attacking dupe, a patsy, the distracting puff of a magician's smoke. After months of carrying out thankless tasks, he seized his chance for a thank you all of his own. Less than two minutes in, he produced a run all-too-rare in his Liverpool career. It was intelligent, gutsy. It was goal-scoring, too. Rare indeed.
       
      Suarez and Philippe Coutinho were the headline act at the DW Stadium, their names sung to garish pop songs throughout, the perfect distortion to the dour Lancastrian night beyond the stadium exit door. But Downing had started the party long before and kept it going, keeping his position on the right while those to his left slalomed through blue and white statues.
       
      But the issue remains: He is not Bale. With Tottenham visiting Anfield on Sunday, the reminder could not be less well-timed. Downing is improving; he is beginning to resemble a player capable of adding to a squad that finishes in the top six. But he is not Bale.
       
      He is not that six foot-plus footballing machine, with shoulders six foot wide and a left foot that could have brought down the Berlin wall. He is not Bale, who has scored 34 goals in the past two seasons and combines natural talent with unerring confidence. Downing is quietly becoming a good option for Liverpool, but he would not elicit interest from any top club in England, let alone world football.
       
      How things can change. In 2008, Downing was impressing for Middlesbrough. Tottenham asked the north east side to name their price. The reply of 15 million pounds and Bale in exchange is one that does not stand up to the test of time. It is hard to know what is more disbelieving: Middlesbrough's chutzpah or Tottenham's contemplation.
       
      But five years ago, Bale was not Downing. Bale held an inexplicable hoodoo over his club, failing to be on the winning side in 24 Premier League games. Those powerful strides, so synonymous with the Welshman, used to be meagre surrenders of the ball, a routine relinquishment by a player not fulfilling his potential. The marching dragon of the present was just a small scapegoat from the valleys. Downing was anything but -- he was the local boy doing good, safeguarding the future of England's left side.
       
      This is not necessarily to launch a defence of Downing, though the shield becomes more steadfast with each passing game. This is not even to apotheosize Bale, for he has already become a deity to hyperbole.
       
      This simply a cautionary tale of how rapidly things spin in the whirlwind of football. The narrative is never written for long. That includes Downing and Bale of 2013.
       
      Liverpool should remember that. A few decent performances does not make Downing irreplaceable, but nor is it necessarily a brief expedition away from deadening mediocrity. For Bale, the story is far from written; there is plenty of ink left in the quill. The upward trajectory of his performances since the arrival of Andre Villas-Boas in the summer, aided by shifting central and roaming free, will no doubt continue -- but he can be stopped, certainly for 90 minutes, certainly on Sunday.
       
      It is not a notion to be limited to just those two players, either. That is not to suggest every player should be persevered with in the face of brow-furrowing incompetence. But there is clearly value in not overhyping or underappreciating players. In this season alone, the revolving door of favour has swung viciously at Anfield. In to favour came Downing, Jordan Henderson and Jose Enrique, a trio previously consigned to the Dalglish/Commoli waste land; out flew Fabio Borini, Joe Allen and Raheem Sterling to take their places, for it is a space that always must be occupied, a rats' alley where the dead men lost their bones.
       
      Brendan Rodgers will have been tempted to scrawl 'stop Bale' upon the Melwood whiteboard in the lead-up the game. So long as it isn't permanent marker. Nothing is ever permanent.
       
      Though Bale is the main reason they currently rest third in the league, he is not the only reason. Much like Liverpool, all talk of one man teams should cease. This game is about more than Bale or Suarez. It isn't about the recent histories of the two clubs, seemingly intertwined at every turn and transfer window; it isn't about the promises that were kept, broken and never uttered to the likes of Gylfi Sigurdsson, Clint Dempsey, Villas-Boas and Rodgers, all of whom could have been wearing a different shade of kit if things concluded differently.
       
      Sunday will rest upon 22 players -- 26 if all the substitutes are used -- and two men sitting in the dugout. With this game the only one to feature those realistically in the chase for European football, a victory for Liverpool would put them sixth, just two points behind Arsenal. A chance to put pressure on those above them. A chance, but nothing more, particularly given their season so far.
       
      If Downing's contribution is similar to his recent efforts, Liverpool won't care that he isn't Bale. Nor should they regardless, because that's how this world works. Dystopia striving for utopia. Just ask Downing; the closer he helps Liverpool to European football, the closer he edges towards the exit door for good.
       
      Maybe he's a bit more like Bale than anyone gives him credit for.

      http://espnfc.com/blog/_/name/liverpool/id/730?cc=5739
      Scouser4life
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      Re: Stewart Downing Player Thread
      Reply #1608: Mar 10, 2013 10:32:28 am
      Well written.

      I don't have an issue with the guy's effort so far.

      Given a good account of himself and seems to want to work for the team.

      Though over priced in his prime i had wished we signed him, so signing him wasn't disappointing but the price was. Same goes for his mate Jordan.

      Both decent players who have played their part.

      I see him developing to being a key player for us as the season draws to a close. Good player to have in the squad.
      little-Luis:)
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      Re: Stewart Downing Player Thread
      Reply #1609: Mar 10, 2013 06:37:22 pm
      Thought he was good overall today.

      Worked well, set up a chance our two in the first half, but in the second half he was very good. Whenever he had the ball, he did something constructive with it and anticipated and took his goal well. It was probably our most important goal too cos it gave us the belief that we could go on and get a result. 

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