Morientes Misfiring

Class act? Unfit? Not ready? Still adapting? Or just another big Liverpool signing who has failed to live up to his name? Whatever else Fernando Morientes is, he’s no fool; so why then, is the prolific front man struggling to hit the back of an English net? And why is Rafael Benitez more trusting of a man who cannot score regularly for love nor money than Milan Baros, the club’s constant top scorer?

Fernando Morientes is highly regarded around Europe as a truly fine striker, who simply never quite lived up to his considerable hype due to a variety of aspects; injury and the jaw-dropping quality of Real Madrid’s strike force being the two main ones. Yet two years ago, he went on loan to Monaco and took apart the Champions League single-handedly, scoring more than any other player in the competition and unflinchingly mauling his own team, Real, in the process. The Spanish supremo won European striker of the year in 2004, and before that had helped Real Madrid to numerous European Cups and several League titles. Experience is not an aspect lacking in Morientes’ repertoire, make no mistake about that; he is a travelled player, plying his trade at a total of 5 different clubs alongside 13 appearances for his country. In those 13 matches, 12 goals have come, indicating a considerable pedigree on the international front as well as the European stage.

Wander into his club statistics however, and one is slightly surprised by what is apparent. His best ever league tally is 19 and the lowest goal count just 5 if you don’t count Fernando’s first season with us. Even in his successful year with Monaco Morientes scored just 10 on the home front in almost 30 appearances. Once, at Real Madrid, he managed 5 in 18 matches; another time, 6 in 22. What glowers through his statistics is that Fernando Morientes loves the big occasion, and is simply not the type of player who scores once every two games on a consistent basis. Call me over expectant, but I do believe that a striker who is regarded as an out and out finisher, such as Morientes, should be scoring at least 20 every season in the league alone. He has never done that.

Let us not forget, though, that many of his most recent seasons have not been ideal. Morientes was used sparingly by Madrid at times, sometimes only coming on for 10 minutes as a substitute at the end of a game, sometimes not playing for 3 games and then getting a full 90 minutes to prove himself. That is no way for a striker to be used in my opinion; Houllier’s rotation regime unsettled Liverpool’s marksmen when he was in charge, with it crystal clear to see that a striker needs to be playing constantly to gain the two most important things in their careers: confidence and sharpness. Without them, any forward cannot compete fully with the best statistics in Europe, and Morientes has clearly suffered from a lack of both.

Has he left it too late to change now? Can a 29 year old be as sharp as he would have been at 22 or 23, given all the matches he needs? It was clear last season that when Fernando Morientes arrived, he was not match fit. An unfortunate excuse became of this fact, and, somewhat incredulously, people are still letting him off the hook because he didn’t play many games at Madrid before the transfer. On the contrary, he actually made plentiful appearances in the famous shirt before switching to the Reds, although most as a substitute. Admittedly, any player will struggle after not starting much in the first half of a season, but are we not forgetting the achievements of another Liverpool striker having been start-shy for 6 months?

Peter Crouch didn’t get a look in at Southampton before breaking into the first 11 and pulverising the opposition defences, with 17 goals in total. He didn’t complain about match fitness, and yes, he is a few years younger, but by now Fernando Morientes should be fit as a butcher’s dog. He has had a full pre-season, and could have used the summer to train alone in order to become fitter if he was truly so desperate. In my mind, it is not even fitness which is dragging him down; it never really was after the first five or six games in a Liverpool shirt. He is not sharp, and is not confident. The two key words are back. You can be the fittest bloke in the world, but if you aren’t confident that every time you get the ball you’ll score, then you probably won’t score at all.

Benitez knows this. It’s even more noticeable to him probably because he has Milan Baros on the other hand, a player who is so full of confidence in his scoring abilities that he rarely thinks to let anybody else in on an attacking move. Perhaps that is the one thing which Rafa can see when he considers which one of his strikers he would rather sell to raise money for a new centre-back or right winger: intelligence. Or, as some people in the footballing world would have it, class. Form, fitness, confidence, sharpness, morale; they’re all temporary, whereas class is quite inextricably permanent. Morientes’ lack of pace concerns some people, but he has never once in his career been revered because of his speed of foot; instead, he is praised for a terrific speed of mind. Milan Baros does not think, he just acts, and the team can either suffer or gain from this; it is all about luck with him sometimes.

Fernando offers something different to the rest of our strike force. The Spaniard is a smaller version of Peter Crouch with more class and strength and more of an instinctive eye for goal. He can head the ball, control it, play it off, link play up, shoot from distance (remember Everton at home, second goal?) and even tap the ball in from close range having gotten ahead of the last defender. He thinks before he acts. He showed glimpses of what is possible from him last season, but never really gained any momentum due to a cup-tie in Europe, the place where not only is Morientes most successful, but Liverpool were most successful last season.

This article is not written for those people who are giving Morientes time.

Instead, it is written for the minority of fans who have either written him off as a failure, or, as plenty of fans have, become confused about what kind of player we actually signed last January. It is understandable that they should be slightly baffled, because the three goals he struck last season in red were all totally different, meaning that tying Morientes down to a single category such as ‘target man’ or ‘goal poacher’ is not possible. What should be understood by them is that instead of not being one or the other, Fernando Morientes is actually a well-rounded forward who can really do almost anything if he’s given the chance.

This is pre-season, and perhaps a little early to be writing about a player’s misfortunes in front of goal, especially when he has already scored 3 in the friendlies played so far. However, I am aware of how expectant Liverpool fans are, and Morientes did not live up to his superb name last season, a fact acknowledged whole-heartedly by Rafa, the player and the Kop. If reading this article means that you are willing to wipe this man’s slate clean and give him your full confidence once more, then maybe we will see some confidence return when he hears his name being chanted. With that, will come sharpness. And after sharpness arrives, Fernando Morientes will be a player again, proudly wearing the red of Liverpool and scoring goals regularly in Europe and in the Premier League.

Fernando Morientes may well live up to his name yet. This season may be his final chance at the top level; if he seizes it, then the whole of Anfield will be wearing gleaming smiles come this time next year. His goals could make the difference.