TOMKINS: REMEMBER ME?
Paul Tomkins 28 July 2009

One of the most interesting aspects of this year's pre-season has been the chance to see some players who weren't really featuring last year, including some who many didn't expect to still be at the club.
Some forgotten men now have a chance to stake a claim, their slates wiped clean. And Liverpool have quite a few of these men who are like the proverbial 'new signings'. The first name discussed has to be Andriy Voronin. Not many senior players go out on loan and come back to stake a claim. Voronin could yet be an important addition to the squad. I was extremely impressed with him during his first few months at the club in 2007-08, before injury struck and he lost his form. He was the star of that pre-season, and shone in the opening month once the campaign proper got underway. Since then he's had an excellent season back in Germany, on loan at Hertha Berlin, and rediscovered some confidence and belief. He may never be ultra-prolific, but he does a bit of everything, and has good game intelligence. I was encouraged to hear Rafa Benítez saying that the Ukrainian wanted to fight for his place. Voronin is a good technical player, who can create as well as score, but he has to fit in with the Liverpool work ethic, and keep motivated even though the first choice pairing will be Steven Gerrard and Fernando Torres. So far he seems determined to be as good as his word. The same applies to Ryan Babel, who has looked very determined ahead of the new season. He's a player whose game hasn't quite clicked together yet, but who has so many of the assets that can do real damage to the opposition. I still think there's a very special player in there, but it's a question of how to bring that out of him, and whether he has the natural confidence to reach his full potential. He was limited mostly to cameo roles last season, and even in most of his starts he's flitted in and out of games. His next challenge has to be to assert himself on proceedings, and not disappear for periods of matches. But with a lot of the football going through Gerrard and Torres, and the right side likely to be very strong with Kuyt or Benayoun and Glen Johnson getting forward, it's unlikely he'll regularly find himself in a position to dominate games. He has to make an impression in the early minutes, and then will find the ball coming his way a lot more often. Hopefully the other left winger, Albert Riera, will now be used to the rigours of a 'full English' (season, that is, although maybe the breakfast too), and he's more experienced and tactically aware than Babel. I'm a big fan of Riera's quick and clever passing, and his close control, but Babel has that explosive pace that can get in behind defences, and, you suspect, potential to score the greater amount of goals. It'll be interesting to see who prevails. Another attacker, Krisztian Nemeth, missed most of last season through injury, just when it looked like he would force his way into the squad. He has good feet and a quick brain, but maybe lacks the pace to make an impact at a young age; it tends to be the real speedsters who break through quickest, while the thinkers come of age later on. Nemeth looks to be more of a natural finisher than David Ngog, but the young Frenchmen has an excellent all-round game: pace, technique, a centre-forward's height and improving strength. I had doubts that he was ready in his early games last season, but by the end of the campaign he had come on leaps and bounds. He still has a lot to learn about English football, and, at just 20, the game in general, but I think he's a very special player in the making. Philipp Degen has yet to even get started, and the arrival of Glen Johnson won't help his chances of being a regular. But if he can stay fit, he can only be a positive addition to the ranks; another option, to bolster the squad and provide both cover and competition. Certainly not a forgotton man by any stretch of the imagination, Fernando Torres missed half of last season's league campaign, while Daniel Agger missed even more football. These two will surely add to the points haul at Anfield if they stay fit this time around. Everyone knows how good those two are. But I don't think footballers should ever be put into strict categories when they've yet to prove themselves: 'rubbish', 'flop', 'not good enough for Liverpool', etc. When someone has left the club I'm more prepared to use those terms, because a final conclusion can be reached and a line drawn under their time at Anfield. But while they are still at the club, there is always scope to improve. You have to keep an open mind. I spent a lot of time between the summer of 2007 (dating back to before he even arrived) and last winter defending Yossi Benayoun to some critics. Not every signing can have the wow factor upon arrival, and not every player will get the regular opportunities in the team to find his groove. It depends on what you expect from a player. Not everyone is destined to be a first-team regular. So everyone has to be judged in the correct context. If you compare everyone with Gerrard or Torres, then of course 99 per cent of players will fall short. But all successful sides have their less glamourous individuals, particularly so in the squad age. In the case of Benayoun, I saw a perfect squad player. Clever, mobile, skilful, and with an eye for goal. For the money, it was a deal that made perfect sense. Was he special enough to be a shoo-in back in 2007? I didn't think so. But then in the latter half of 2008-09 it just clicked. He scored against Wigan, then produced a storming cameo against Chelsea; suddenly he was flying. For the last three months of the season he was one of the stars of the Premiership. So players can come good. Does that mean that the likes of Bruno Cheyrou or Sean Dundee should have been kept in case they eventually looked the part? Of course not. Managers have to be trusted to make those calls. He has to decide if someone is not good enough, or that he is, but just hasn't shown it yet. That's where seeing them in training every day helps, although eventually ability at Melwood has to be translated to the first team. Benítez's judgement was questioned over Benayoun. People said he was wrong to sign him, and wrong to select him at the start of this year. And that's the crazy thing about being a football manager: you have to believe that you're right, before it's proven, and knowing full well that there are no guarantees, even if the player in question does possess the necessary quality. But there are two reasons why I trust Benítez's judgement. The first is that no matter how many players he has bought (and people point to those who didn't work out), he has consistently improved the first team. The other reason is the speed with which he has acted when someone hasn't been what he was looking for. There was a decisiveness over the way he shipped out Robbie Keane after just six months, while players like Jan Kromkamp and Mark Gonzalez, who appeared to have pretty good pedigrees, were not kept for much longer. So there's a good chance Liverpool can improve on last season with the players already in the ranks. Of course, it's a rare campaign when every major player stays fit for 10 months. But a bit more luck in this sense than last season would be welcome. I don't see many players coming back at Manchester United, the Reds' obvious rivals for the title, although Owen Hargreaves being back in action is a clear benefit. Rio Ferdinand missed a few games last season, but otherwise they weren't too hamstrung. Chelsea, however, had a few major long-term absentees, such as Essien and Drogba, so they could automatically be stronger in 2009-10. Much depends on how their new manager fares, but Chelsea seem naturally well-organised. Manchester City will be a completely unknown quantity at this stage, with so many new players – players we know well, just not how they'll knit together – and Arsenal have a way of playing that means they can never be written off for a place in the top three, even if the title looks beyond them. Of course, there are also the players in all of the major squads who are as yet unheard of outside their own fanbase, who will make a name for themselves. At Liverpool, Martin Kelly (as a full-back, in his formative years) and Daniel Pacheco seem two good bets to me, as technically good, pacy players, while Mikel San Jose and Jay Spearing also look more than capable of doing a job at this early stage of their careers, albeit in positions of greater responsibility. Last year it was Yossi Benayoun who provided the biggest surprise, with Emiliano Insua the youngster who progressed the most. It'll be interesting to see who fills those roles this season.