92 clubs favourite players – Liverpool – Jose Enrique

Liverpool have had a great start to the season and they will be hoping this is the year that they begin to challenge for a place in the Champions League.

They have one of the best strikeforces ever seen in the Premier League with both Luis Suarez and Daniel Sturridge playing some brilliant stuff and looking like a better partnership every time they play together. Add this to some exciting midfielders like Coutinho and Victor Moses they really do look like they will score goals in every game. They still have the main man in midfield Steven Gerrard who has had to change his game in recent seasons and I think he will be even more determined to do well after recent comments made by Sir Alex Ferguson.

But my favourite player for Liverpool is someone that I feel has been largely underrated and that is their left back Jose Enrique. For me he is one of the best left backs in Europe and a lot of people are saying that Leighton Baines, Patrice Evra and Ashley Cole are better than him. In my opinion this is very harsh as I believe on his day (which is most games) he is better than all of them, none of them are as strong as him and he very rarely makes a mistake or is caught out of position. Going forward Baines does have a better final ball but sometimes his gung ho tactics leave his team in danger. As well as Baines played for England it was not a surprise that with him in the team they were getting caught on the counter attack quite a lot.

Back to Enrique and I think he gained a lot of praise from a lot of football people because he could have left Newcastle United when they were relegated and went back abroad but he held his hands up and realised he wasn’t good enough and helped them get back into the Premier League. This is what made him a better player and has given him the opportunity to play for a club that will be challenging at the right end of the table and for Liverpool he has rarely put in a bad performance. Out of all the Kenny Dalglish signings he was by far the best and one that they paid a good price for and he lived up to it. But it is under Brendan Rodgers that he has improved even further sometimes playing as a left back and other times as a left wing back he was contributed eight assists in 43 games which isn’t a bad record at all.

It a shame that he has never even been given the opportunity to play at international level for Spain especially when you consider that before Jordi Alba came on the scene it was one of the few weak spots the team had. Unfortunately I do not think he will get the chance but I do not understand that at all. He has proven himself as a brilliant left back in England and could have been their number three for many years to come.

Papiss Cisse to sign for Newcastle

Newcastle United have once again shocked fans but this time somewhat surprisingly it is in a positive way. Papiss Demba Cisse is close to joining the club from German side Freiburg. The Senegalese striker is expected to sign before he goes away for the Africa Cup of Nations to join up with current Newcastle striker Demba Ba.

This may come as a surprise to the Toon faithful as they were not expecting to sign a striker this January because their manager Alan Pardew said it was unlikely they were going to sign one after Modibo Maiga failed a medical. There were rumours that they were in the market for other strikers and in particular Andy Carroll who left the club at this stage last season.

Mike Ashley will be hoping this will at least get the fans off his back for a short period of time after he controversially renamed St James’ Park, The Sports Direct Arena which caused a backlash not only from fans but also from pundits who categorically said they will always call the ground St James’ Park. Adding this to the many other things he has done such as sell the club’s best players such as Carroll, Kevin Nolan, Jose Enrique and Joey Barton and then not spending a great deal of this money on replacements. All you have to look at is the fact that they sold for Carroll for £35 million and replaced him with Demba Ba who was a free transfer. Although, with Ba already hitting 15 goals for the club and Carroll struggling at Liverpool this seems to be a good decision.

But back to Cisse who has been on fire this year scoring nine goals in 15 games and last season scoring 24 goals in 34 games. He is the type of striker you need in your team because he is a great finisher and seems to put away a lot of chances as his goals to game ratio suggests. He likes to play on the last man and never panics when running through on goal in a one on one situation with the goalkeeper. A major plus for Newcastle is that he has played with Ba before with Senegal where he also has a good record scoring seven goals in 12 games. He is a goal scorer and the Newcastle fans will be hoping if and when he does sign that he can adapt to the Premier League quickly and aid them in their quest to finish in the top six this season.

However, there will be a few cynical Newcastle fans who will be thinking that they are only trying to sing Cisse because they have already accepted a bid from someone for their leading marksman Demba Ba. Therefore Mike Ashley has only signed Cisse as a replacement for Ba rather than to pair the two together, but in my opinion this seems unlikely as the two will be together with the Senegal squad and surely Ba will have a major influence on whether he signs. If he is leaving why would he tell another player to join the club?