http://www.liverpoolfc.tv/news/drilldown/NG159168080313-1413.htm
We've long had superstars and Superman. Lately there's been superfoods and superbugs. But clearly we can now add ‘superplayers' to the lexicon.
The archetypal superplayer is Steven Gerrard. There are great players in various guises, but for me, the idea of the superplayer revolves around their all-round ability, mixed with their physical attributes and athleticism. It's a concept where you'd pick the perfect elements as if from a genetics laboratory experiment. The superplayer could play in almost any position, such is the wide-ranging nature of his gifts.
These are players who have it all, and can do it all. They can pass, shoot, score, head, tackle; they are quick, strong, tall and have a desire to win that lifts them above similarly gifted individuals who just don't quite shine as brightly.
There have been plenty of great players who don't fit this mould: Kenny Dalglish, the club's very best, for starters. Not the biggest, he wasn't really an athlete either. But if you're that good, that clever, you don't need to be. However, more and more in the modern game, it comes down to possessing athleticism as well as skill and intelligence.
If you have a player like Jamie Carragher, you don't leave him out because he doesn't quite fit the mould. Not the best on the ball, and not super-quick, his reading of the game and his desire to win are such that he is simply a great defender, as he's proved time and again. Sometimes that's all you need. Same with someone like Scholes at Man United –– small, not the quickest, can't tackle, and an asthmatic. But a great footballer over the years. Ditto Fabregas, who's not big and strong, but can still control the midfield.
Around the league I can spot more examples of the modern superplayer: Micah Richards, Kolo Toure, Emmanuel Adebayor, Frank Lampard, Didier Drogba, Cristiano Ronaldo, Rio Ferdinand and William Gallas. Patrick Vieira was an early example. Indeed, Arsenal are leaders in the recruitment of powerful athletes who can also play football, but it's an area that Liverpool are moving into with impressive foresight.
Another superplayer was introduced to the league this season by Benítez, and how grateful we are: Fernando Torres, scorer of an incredible 25 goals from open play this season. He can do it all, and has an excellent mentality to boot.
Last summer I argued with quite a few Reds who felt that Torres wasn't the answer; from understandable arguments that his goalscoring record was not impressive enough (I pointed out that both Shearer and Henry had very weak goalscoring records until the age of 22/23), through to ludicrous suggestions which compared Torres with with fellow Fernando, Snr Morientes –– as if every Frenchman called Thierry is going to be as good as Msr Henry.
But for me, Torres, just like Shearer and Henry, was ready to go up a level or two in the right setting. Torres has skill, strength and pace. I'd previously felt Morientes had the pedigree and Cissé had the raw power necessary to succeed in England, but neither had me as convinced prior to their arrival in the way Torres did. That said, I expected a bedding-in period that meant he might struggle at first.
Perhaps due to not being overplayed early on, when the physical nature takes its greatest toll on a shellshocked individual, he could adjust gradually –– although he was only put on the bench for two league games; he missed more football due to two injuries with Spain. Even now, pundits moronically gasp when he's in the starting line-up.
It cannot be proved, and hence the tiresome tirades of anti-rotation theorists, but if Liverpool did lose ground in those two games Torres didn't start (Portsmouth and Birmingham), then equally you could argue with more logic (but again not conclusively prove it) that we are now seeing the best of Torres because he was sensibly introduced.
Either way, his form has improved from what was already an impressive start. Seven goals in his first 13 league games was pretty good; but now he's on a run of 12 in 12. Now he's used to the demands of English football he can enjoy regular starts, just like Gerrard, Reina and Carragher. Also having started to adapt, Ryan Babel is pushing for the same status.
I'm a big fan of the kind of player Benítez signs. I honestly don't think any manager –– not even Wenger or Ferguson –– has signed a better ratio of successes to failures or had more impressive value for money.
Daniel Agger, signed in 2006, is the perfect defensive superplayer. Despite him being quick, I could only fault him for not having the pace of someone like Micah Richards. But for a young centre-back, Agger has it all. He can defend on the deck and in the air, and he can take the ball into midfield and beyond; and if he doesn't run 50 yards with it, he can pass it there instead. He's also one of the few centre-backs who can score technically great goals with his feet, as seen against West Ham and Chelsea last season, while also scoring a few with his head.
I'm interested to see how Martin Skrtel, also aged 23, develops. He has the physical attributes –– pace, height and strength –– and has so far looked extremely assured on the ball, but without passing expansively like Agger.
Of course, you can't have an entire team of superplayers; they're just too rare. Much of the time it's about finding combinations to provide a balance. The combined assets of Alonso and Mascherano would make for a superplayer; all they lack is the ability to get a lot of goals. But in a side that contains Gerrard, Torres, Babel and either Kuyt or Benayoun, it's not a problem.
And there's one more Liverpool player I'd definitely put in the category, and a surprise inclusion given his position. For me, Pepe Reina is the ultimate modern goalkeeper. Perhaps a couple of inches shorter than would be ideal to be the complete ‘superkeeper', he has no apparent weaknesses to his game.
Reina's quickness off his line and his outstanding distribution mark him out as something more than just a goalkeeper; in an age when keepers can't pick up the ball, a good custodian can keep possession rather than hump hopeful balls upfield. He becomes the sweeper.
Lucas, who played very well against Newcastle, looks in the right mould, but at present it's hard to judge as he's new to England, and doesn't yet appear to have the physique to be the perfect all-rounder, despite a willingness to get stuck in and a good eye for a pass. Babel has the pace, skill, eye for goal and the perfect physique, but unlike Torres he hasn't got the natural aggression or defensive nous; that said, Benítez has been working on that side of his game, as that's what needs improving. He doesn't need to teach the Dutchman as much about how to attack, which comes instinctively.
Players like Torres, Gerrard and Babel are those you'd pay to watch; but you need players like Carragher, Mascherano and Kuyt to help those you'd pay to watch to shine by providing a solid platform.
I think there's a lot of guff spouted about players playing out of position. Any good centre-back should be able to play as a full-back or holding midfielder. Any good centre-forward should be able to play on the wing, as should any attacking central-midfielder. It doesn't mean it'd be their best position; that's another issue.
But the difference with the superplayer is that he can play ‘two steps removed' from his natural/optimal position. Torres would be a phenomenal right-back if he had a season there; of course, why would you want to do that? Meanwhile, I was at Villa Park and Anfield getting on for a decade ago when Gerrard had outstanding games at left-back and right-back respectively.
More than anything, it's when these superplayers combine that the whole can exceed the sum of already special parts. Part of the reason Liverpool are improving is that Torres and Gerrard, along with Babel, have built up an increasingly strong understanding after six months training and playing together.
Torres' header to Gerrard for the second goal against Newcastle was so simple, yet so deceptively brilliant: it was just right weight and angle for the captain to run onto; then came Gerrard's inch-perfect left-foot pass back to Torres who, like Pele in 1970, sent the keeper the wrong way without even touching the ball. Genius. It was a kind of recent perfection that, along with how they've linked with Babel, has mirrored the best of what Man United have offered with Tevez, Ronaldo and Rooney.
All this means that Liverpool have a ‘superspine'. Reina, Agger, Gerrard and Torres are all what I've dubbed superplayers. And Carragher, Alonso and Mascherano, while not quite the all-rounders of the other four, are still top-class, and arguably world-class players.
All I hope is that now the new elements of the team are settled in, and with Agger nearing full fitness, the Reds can continue to go up a level. All of these superplayers are aged between 23 and 27, while Babel and Lucas are just 21 and perhaps capable of making the step up. Maybe in a year or two we'll be talking about a superteam.
interesting...