Downing On The Up

 Scoring the winning goal on Sunday and taking us into the semi final of the FA Cup has earned Stuart Downing the headlines and he deserves them. His performances over the last month have been more on the level we were looking for when he signed than his earlier displays in a red shirt. Although he is clearly a left footed player he also seems comfortable playing on the right aswell, unlike, for example, Harry Kewell who looked out of his comfort zone when he was played on the right of midfield by Gerard Houllier when he arrived from Leeds.

 Kenny Dalglish should take credit for the way our goals came about against Stoke, he chose to play the right footed Maxi on the left and it was coming in from that position he played the one-two with Suarez that created our first goal. And the decision to play Downing on the right directly led to our second goal with the winger coming infield and firing past Sorensen from an angle only achievable by cutting inside in this way. With a right and a left footed winger in the side it would have been easy to put them in their respective natural positions but the choice to swap their sides won us the game. The downside of using the wingers this way was that neither really got to the byline and whipped crosses into the box meaning our six foot five £35 million striker wasn’t really used as a goal threat but we won the game so the tactical choices made by the manager are vindicated.

 Only two players in the Premier League have had more shots than Downing this season and failed to score (Wright –Phillips and Taraabt for QPR who we play on Wednesday, get money on them and Downing to all score in the game!) but failing to convert chances is not a problem limited to our £20 million signing form Aston Villa, our entire team have suffered from it, off the top of my head only Pepe and Carra haven’t missed decent opportunities this term. As long as Downing keeps improving and begins to perform consistently there will be no complaints from Liverpool supporters and he can be a key player for us, taking some of the creative responsibility and pressure off the usual suspects.