The Talented Mr N'Gog

Everyone loves a trier. Or do they? Because, whilst that truism holds when things are going well, as soon as they take a turn for the worse that trier becomes a stupid incompetent who cannot do what he’s paid for.

It is a situation that David N’Gog will be all too familiar with. Every time he plays, Liverpool are guaranteed that he will chase every loose ball there is and harry any defender with the ball at his feet. Yet with every game his reputation seems to be regressing. particularly when he contrives to miss an opportunity like the one that presented itself at the Emirates.

Football fans, for the majority, have a very selective memory and will easily forget whatever effort was put in whilst recalling in great detail any mistake, particularly when they’re in the mood for a moan after a bad result. When that mistake is a game changing one – as N’Gog’s was at Arsenal – then the criticism is all the more intense not to mention more personal: what starts being questioned is the player’s ability rather than incident itself.

Whatever these trigger happy critics might think, however, the problem with N’Gog isn’t that he’s not good enough but rather that he’s being forced to play with a regularity that he can’t handle as yet. There are few twenty year old strikers out there who are talented enough to start every game for Liverpool and N’Gog isn’t one of them.

Which isn’t the same as saying that N’Gog isn’t talented enough to play for Liverpool.

Whilst it is often said that young players need to play in order to improve, N’Gog’s development would be better served by playing less. Last season, he was getting fifteen minutes here and there, coming on when the team was cruising and confidence running high which is how it should be. Playing those fragments of games gave him an opportunity to learn and at the same time boost his own morale with a number of late goals.

This season has been totally different and what is happening at the moment is that he is bearing all the pressure of a lopsided squad in which there aren’t any strikers other than Fernando Torres. The risk is that he burns out particularly if the criticism continues to mount. This is, after all, a twenty year old. One can only imagine how he must feel to play in front such a large and demanding public.

Not that he has ever let his age show on the pitch. For all the mistakes that he makes, N’Gog never lets it get to him, he never goes into hiding. Instead he keeps on making the runs and looking for the ball in the belief that the next time a chance comes his way he will be able to take it.

That mental fortitude is one of his less noticed strengths. Because don’t let the criticism into fooling you that this is a player who doesn’t have any talent. His brief cameo against Tottenham showed just how good he can be, particularly when he spun free of a defender and forced Gomes into a brilliant save.

It is such instances that prove what he is capable of doing. The mistakes are to be expected from a young player and are, to a degree, acceptable provided that he learns from them. Meaning that he should be encouraged to keep on trying because given that the talent is there eventually he will start getting it right.

Related Posts :