N’Gog maybe no Torres but cut him some slack

David N’Gog is a player I have recently developed a great deal of sympathy for. Now I have never been the greatest lover of Liverpool, supporting a rival side it is always going to happen, but I believe the youngster to have been placed in an awkward situation as of late and feel for him. It would be easy to sit here and write about how N’Gog is no Torres and how his dive against Birmingham was a travesty, but diving has become a huge part of the game, unfortunately lots of players do it and I would rather write about David N’Gog the footballer.

There is no shortage of coverage on Liverpool’s squad situation and we all know that with the injured Fernando Torres, the Merseyside club have been restricted in their attacking options. N’Gog has recently been preferred to Andriy Voronin, who to be frank is disliked by a large proportion of football fans and a great deal of expectation has been thrust upon the 20 year old, an unfair amount of expectation in my opinion.

In the last few games for Liverpool N’Gog has led the front line on his own, with Rafa Benitez adopting his 4-5-1 formation, utilising the young striker in the Fernando Torres role. The Frenchman could not have foreseen this situation when he signed for the club in the summer of 2008 for £1.5 million (a very low fee that Rafa has been quick to point out) and to say he has been thrown in at the deep end is an understatement. N’Gog has been entrusted with the responsibility of providing the goals to help Liverpool regain form and although he has been doing an admirable job considering his age, he has been receiving vast amounts of criticism from both the media and football fans. His contribution against Birmingham, albeit partially dishonest, helped Liverpool avoid an embarrassing home loss and if things had gone differently in Florence then he could have joined Liverpool’s long list of European heroes with his goal against Debrecen. Incidents like this should be remembered before people jump on the critical bandwagon and begin listing the ways in which N’Gog isn’t Torres.

A good friend of mine is a huge Liverpool fan and he has been banging on about the youngster for years now, claiming he has a big future, but it is not until recently that I’ve begun to believe in his potential. N’gog’s scoring record for Liverpool alone is anything but poor; he has 5 goals in 20 appearances for Liverpool, a decent record considering many of these will have been substitute appearances and if you couple this with his youth record for the international side then you will see that Liverpool have a quality player on their hands. Benitez would have wanted to ease the 20-year-old into the side slowly, giving him the opportunity to develop his skills at a comfortable pace, but instead he has been thrust into the frontline.

Unfortunately N’Gog appears to be another suffering from Liverpool and Rafa’s inability to sign a quality striker who can perform in the absence of Fernando Torres. If you liken Liverpool to Arsenal, Manchester United and Chelsea it underlines the fact that the Reds lack a Nicklas Bendtnar, Michael Owen or a Salomon Kalou. David N’Gog is fast, technical and a natural finisher, but he cannot be fill Fernando Torres’ boots, but more importantly, he should not yet be expected fill his boots. The striker needs to first gain more top level experience before being expected to deputise for the world’s best striker.