Rothen

[Totti 0]

You're aware that for the brief period he was played through the middle, in front of Buffel, as a striker in the SPL, Peter Lovenkrands became the league's top scorer? He topped it with around 14 goals. Then Eck mystifyingly put him back to left wing.

 

 

 

He didn't do that well in Germany as he played as a winger there too...

Constantly playing players out of position to no great gain, I remember it well with Eck. We haven't really progressed much...

[Guest Inside Left]

Wasn't Lovenkrands a flop in Germany and released very early - then joined a club who were subsequently relegated?

 

The manager who "wasted" him out left, seems to be doing not too badly himself.

 

Lovenkrands was only ever any good for us when we played 5-3-1-1 against attacking, skillful European teams where he used his pace on the break to get behind the defence. Faced with 10 players around the 18 yard box in the SPL, he didn't have much to bring to the party. In those games you want a fast skillful player on the wing to out flank the defence but he couldn't beat a man or get a cross in, and wasn't interested in tracking back to defend.

 

One of the biggest problems he had with us was attitude which meant he just wasn't interested enough in putting the graft in required - probably why he flopped in Germany. He's probably a lot more mature now and maybe a bit more professional.

 

Quite correct he couldn't beat a man nor cross a ball to save himself, so shouldn't have put in a position and asked to do something he had never done before and was incapable of doing.

 

Two things he could do was run and shoot, play him through the middle and tell him to run and shoot and and invariably he'll leave a defender for dead and hit the target and bag his fair share of goals.

 

All about opinions but I don't buy into the 'He didn't try a leg' ,'He only played when his contract was due to expire'

 

I saw him playing wide left plenty of times and working his Socks off but he was like a Fish out of water and it just didn't come off for him.

[craig 5,199]

 

Two things he could do was run and shoot, play him through the middle and tell him to run and shoot and and invariably he'll leave a defender for dead and hit the target and bag his fair share of goals.

 

This to me was the one problem with having Lovenkrands in our team. I agree with you here but the problem is that this only truly worked in Europe. It is much harder for him to leave a defender for dead in the SPL where teams played with 10 men behind the ball and with a very deep lying back 4 (or 5).

 

PL ended up being more of a luxury.

[Danny 0]

This to me was the one problem with having Lovenkrands in our team. I agree with you here but the problem is that this only truly worked in Europe. It is much harder for him to leave a defender for dead in the SPL where teams played with 10 men behind the ball and with a very deep lying back 4 (or 5).

 

And yet for a half season he was top scorer...

[Danny 0]

"The group we've got now is big enough as long as we've got no injury problems," said Smith when asked if he would consider a move similar to that made for Paris St Germain winger Rothen on transfer deadline day.

 

"When I brought him in, it was at the last minute, because we were faced with a situation where we knew we were going to have at least two, maybe three players out for almost the entire first half of the season.

 

"But we've got everybody back fit again so, for us, we'll go through the season without bringing anyone in."

 

Rothen is reportedly seeking a way out of his season-long loan to Ibrox and Smith has no intention of stopping him.

 

"We can let him go, come to an arrangement with him," he said.

 

"It's one of those things that hasn't worked out for us, although the lad is ill at the present moment.

 

"If he wants to go back in the transfer window, we'll allow him to go back and go and play in France for the second half of the season."

 

Former France international Rothen, 31, failed to make any impact after his September move.

 

So basically Walter is admitting he brought Rothen in purely for squad depth, and when our players became fit again (you know, like Mendes, Edu...) he had no use for Jerome (see the contradiction).

 

I think this whole episode shows Rothen was a panic signing, a 'name' in light of the club bringing no one else in. It didn't really matter how he played, I don't think Walter was interested in using him beyond disposable selection for the first couple of months of the season.

 

Walter's team is Walter's team, and as suggested here, I suspect the decision to sign this guy wasn't Walter's. He would rather play the Flecks, Laffertys etc out of position than this guy, despite it being his natural slot.