Liverpool Top Ten Signings- When Rafa got it wrong

1) Fernando Morientes

There were high hopes when Fernando Morientes moved to Anfield in 2005. A prolific goalscorer during his time at Real Madrid, he fell out of favour and joined Monaco on loan during 2003, and led the club with his goals to the final of the Champions League, beating his employers, Real Madrid in the process. Bought as a direct replacement for Michael Owen, who had been sold to Real Madrid the previous summer, Morientes was expected to provide the goals Liverpool were desperately missing. The goals never materialized, and bar a great goal against Charlton in February 2005 which briefly ignited hopes that after a slow start he was finally settling in, Morientes never realized his undoubted talent at Liverpool. It does shows that some players are not suited to every league in the world.

2) Antonio Nunez

This is the man we got in exchange for Michael Owen. Let’s just say that Rafa didn’t get the best end of the deal. £8m plus Nunez doesn’t compensate the 20 goals plus a season you lose by selling Owen. Nunez never could live up to the loss of the striker and never settled in on Merseyside. He lacked pace and guile to go past defenders and never found a first team place at Anfield. Went very quickly back to Spain.

3) Charles Itandje

Itandje was bought as cover for Pepe Reina when Scott Carson was sent on a season long loan to Aston Villa. He was a very poor goalkeeper making a string of errors and flapped at every corner and cross that came into the box. He was put up for transfer in the summer of 2008 and Brazilian goalkeeper Diego Cavalieri replaced Itandje as deputy to Reina last season. The most disgraceful part of Itandje’s time at Anfield was during the Hillsborough memorial service. He was accused of laughing and behaving inappropriately by members of the congregation, and was disciplined to the maximum by the club as he was suspended for 14 days. Itandje denied any wrongdoing but was put out on loan to Kavala last summer.

4) Josemi

Rafa Benitez’s first signing as Liverpool manager proved a poor choice. He started as first choice right back in his first season at the club, ahead of Steve Finnan, but a sending off against Fulham in a 4-2 away victory in October 2004 meant he lost his place to Finnan as first choice for the rest of the season. He was very unreliable at the back and not much more useful going forward, and he was swapped for Jan Kromkamp at Villarreal during the 2006 January transfer window.

5) Robbie Keane

When you buy a player for £17m and sell him sixth months later, back to the same team you bought him from, it has got to qualify as a bad signing. There is nothing wrong with Keane as a player; it was just that Benitez did not fancy him. He lost confidence in front of goal straight away after his move to Liverpool last year, showing maybe the little confidence that Benitez showed in him. For Benitez, Keane just didn’t fit into the system he was playing, he didn’t believe Keane could play Torres’s role when his star striker was injured, and he gave little opportunity for Keane to play alongside Torres. With Keane unhappy sitting on the bench, Benitez sold him in January as quickly as he’d bought him in the summer. With the likes of Ngog and Voronin now the understudies to Torres, maybe Benitez was being slightly too hasty with his decision?

6) Jan Kromkamp

Exchanged for the hopeless Josemi, Kromkamp arrived on Merseyside in January 2006. Equally inept at defending as going forward to provide width, Kromkamp failed to dislodge Steve Finnan as first team regular and appeared many times from the subs bench. Appearing to admit his mistake by signing him, Benitez sold him on the last day of the summer transfer window in August 2006 to PSV Einhoven, just six months after the part exchange deal that brought him to Liverpool. Kromkamp is now a first team regular at right-back for PSV.

7) Andriy Voronin

The blond pony-tailed Ukrainian striker was brought in on a free transfer from Bayer Leverkusen in July 2007. He has subsequently failed to impress in any performances at Anfield, and despite being Andrey Shevchenko’s strike partner for the Ukraine for many years, Voronin seems incapable of scoring goals at the highest level. He was loaned to Hertha Berlin last season during a campaign in which he scored 11 goals, helping the German side finish fourth, six points behind eventual winners Wolfsburg. On his return to Liverpool this season however, he seems to have the same old problems, his lack of finishing plain for all to see during the Champions League away game in Lyon which he could have opened the scoring for the Reds, and put a very different complexion on this season’s European campaign.

Andrea Dossena and Philipp Degen

Bought to replace John Arne Riise and Steven Finnan respectively, Dossena and Degen have not even looked like half the players that Riise and Finnan were. Both Dossena and Degen have frequent defensive lapses and Benitez has never called on either of them to be first team regulars. To be fair, Degen has been injured for much of his time at Anfield but when he has been fit he seems to love running forward and getting involved in attacks, while completely forgetting his defensive duties. Dossena at least tries to defend but his large frame means his mobility is limited and sometimes gets twisted and turned by quick wingers. He can put in a decent cross and score some nice goals, as the lob against Manchester United at Old Trafford showed last season, but he will never be at the same level as Riise.

9) Mauricio Pellegrino

Pellegrino was the stalwart of Rafa Benitez’s Valencia defence which won the league and UEFA Cup the same season in 2004, and it was for that reason that in January 2005, Benitez gave Pellegrino a six-month contract at Liverpool. Nearing retirement, he did not have the pace to cope with the Premier League and never played any prominent role during his six month stay. He is now first team coach at Liverpool with Benitez.

10) Mark Gonzalez

There was some promise about Gonzalez when he first came to Liverpool. He had pace to trouble any opposition defence. Benitez pursued the player for a long time during work permit issues and a serious cruciate knee ligament injury, and his faith appeared to be rewarded when he scored on his competitive debut against Maccabi Haifa in the third qualifying round for the Champions League in August 2006 scoring the winning goal in a 2-1 win. He also scored on his first Premiership start, scoring against Tottenham in a 3-0. His only other goal however came in December of that year against Fulham in a 4-0 win and was sold the next summer to Real Betis after more injury problems.