Woodburn - Loaned to a Dinosaur?

[LoughboroBlade]

I’m not sure what’s worse – the ill-informed views of the Liverpool fans, or the fact some of our fans are using those ill-informed views as a club to beat one of our players with.

 

[mattbianco1]

Signed for Oxford on loan. "Wilder the dinosaur"

 

[bromtom]

Would love a view from Liverpool fans.

Thinking we were stopping him developing, he was just a bit crap.

 

[Kozzy_is_my_Dad]

Ah yeah, Wilder and SUFC the premier league dinosaurs. Maybe there's a reason Woodburn didn't cut it with us?

 

[Ecco1889]

That’s why CW didn’t play him,not good enough for championship

 

[Birdwell Blade]

I assume he has got some talent because Liverpool have held on to him and kept him on their fringes. I wonder if it’s attitude/application?

Last season he should have come to us and done what Harvey Barnes, Mason Holgate, Harry Wilson, Mason Mount etc did. Opportunity missed and now he’s going to find it harder to make a name for himself at Oxford.

Imagine having the chance of working under a manager like Wilder and not making the most of it.

 

[Scarebus]

I assume he has got some talent because Liverpool have held on to him and kept him on their fringes. I wonder if it’s attitude/application?

Last season he should have come to us and done what Harvey Barnes, Mason Holgate, Harry Wilson, Mason Mount etc did. Opportunity missed and now he’s going to find it harder to make a name for himself at Oxford.

Imagine having the chance of working under a manager like Wilder and not making the most of it.

 

[Birdwell Blade]

?

 

[Scarebus]

?

Sort of in reply to your post about keeping Woodburn round the squad at Liverpool. A lad that failed to impress in the championship, didn't start a game, went back to his parent club and won the Champions League without kicking a ball.

I'm not sure what to make of the whole thing, to be totally honest, but good luck to him.

 

[Topplayersleave]

I've mentioned on another thread that after looking at various Premier League forums and Premier League clubs forums the fans that are criticising us most are these scouse cunts. It's probably got a lot to do with them thinking that Woodburn would have walked into our team if we actually played any football, and the fact that he didn't is only down to our hoofball style.
Fuck them, I hope we kick a few of them out of a few of their "important" games following after us and cost them against Man Utd, City and Chelsea. We owe them that after 2006-07 anyway

 

[Liverpool blade]

The Liverpool fans I know are saying that it’s his over inflated ego that is stopping him moving to the next level. They’re not surprised that he failed with us and have serious doubts about his future now.
The contrast between him and Henderson is huge!!.
One crucial factor is Henderson has the right attitude and woodburn hasn’t. Simple

 

[Kozzy_is_my_Dad]

I assume he has got some talent because Liverpool have held on to him and kept him on their fringes. I wonder if it’s attitude/application?

Last season he should have come to us and done what Harvey Barnes, Mason Holgate, Harry Wilson, Mason Mount etc did. Opportunity missed and now he’s going to find it harder to make a name for himself at Oxford.

Imagine having the chance of working under a manager like Wilder and not making the most of it.

Spot on.

 

[Kev Gee]

Surely his make or break season now.
Fail at Oxford and he will get bombed out by Klopp.

 

[CaptainMorgans]

I assume he has got some talent because Liverpool have held on to him and kept him on their fringes. I wonder if it’s attitude/application?

Last season he should have come to us and done what Harvey Barnes, Mason Holgate, Harry Wilson, Mason Mount etc did. Opportunity missed and now he’s going to find it harder to make a name for himself at Oxford.

Imagine having the chance of working under a manager like Wilder and not making the most of it.

Not really an opportunity missed, as he simply wasn't capable of producing what the aforementioned managed. He wasn't physically up to it. You could see from his brief cameos how weak he was. Hopefully this loan move grounds him, matures him & he toughens himself up a bit physically.

 

[O Fletch]

just looked like an inexperienced kid.

 

[JJ Sefton]

James Wilson Mk II.

 

[S40BLADE]

His lack of movement and pressing off the ball was insultingly bad.

 

[Sheffsteel]

just looked like an inexperienced kid.

Agree Woodburn looked over awed.
When ever he got the ball it looked like his first thought was “don’t make a mistake” then he’d just give a simple sideways or back pass. He didn’t show for the ball enough either as though he didn’t want it. Also he was sometimes easily knocked off the ball as though he was a lad playing in a man’s gamel

 

[Bennyand the Blades]

The number of players who have gone, some times for big money, from doing well at one club to zero at another club because they play a different way or they don't settle to well must be extremely large.
If he's got it in him it will come out sooner or later even if he has to go down a league or two to find it, but that's their problem not ours.
And any fan who expect us to throw away our chance of promotion by not playing our best team just to bring on one of their players, has got to be a nutter .

 

[sheffielder]

Freeman should have enough videos of Duffy playing the position well.
If he could just look at the Woodburn performance against Norwich he will see the opposite.

 

[JJ Sefton]

The number of players who have gone, some times for big money, from doing well at one club to zero at another club because they play a different way or they don't settle to well must be extremely large.
If he's got it in him it will come out sooner or later even if he has to go down a league or two to find it, but that's their problem not ours.
And any fan who expect us to throw away our chance of promotion by not playing our best team just to bring on one of their players, has got to be a nutter .

Jordan Slew on line one...

 

[itsinyerblood]

With all this mistaken view that Woodburn is a 'wunderkid'.......why isn't he at least a regular on their bench at this stage? Surely Klopp can recognise talent when he see's it? What's holding BW back, other than the fact that he seems to underwhelm when it matters. Wilder's neither a dinosaur or fool, so to pass the buck as if Woodburn has no responsibility for delivering performances designed to show how impressive he can be. He never showed this whilst at SUFC, the reasons why aren't for me to answer, but BW could have shown just why we were excited to have recruited him on loan........he failed miserably, hence the fact that he's now at Oxford, trying once again to show that he's an exciting proposition.

 

[hidesbehindapseudonym]

Bit like my old school reports: "Must try harder" "could do better".
UTB

 

[wavy-blade]

Liverpool fans "always innocent "

 

[essexblade73]

Hes wank and wont make a career out of football at a decent level based on his ability.

 

[Blend-it-like-Harris]

Giving Woodburn game time wasn't seen as being high risk at the time, but effectively we played with 10 men; we might as well have had Jordan Rhodes on loan. Some teams can maybe perform effectively if one of their number is a bleedin' spare part, but not us - we need everyone pulling their tripe out for the cause. Did we see any evidence of real talent from him?

Now - this young feller mi' lad Ravel Morrison is supposed to be REAL HIGH RISK, and he may well not live up to the expectations anticipated based on what we've seen of him. However - from what we have seen from him, those expectations are seriously high ones, and who knows.... one day Liverpool might come sniffing round......

 

[Moosie]

From what I saw of Woodburn last season, admittedly it wasn't much... he never showed any flashes of brilliance, or got me thinking wow this lads got it, he just seemed lost, like a rabbit in headlights.

Now surely if he had this 'huge' potential ability people bang on about, he'd show glimpses of it during matches?

He arrived with so much hype, and me personally thought he'd take up the mantle left by Brooks but he just faded into obscurity, surely then you've got to question the lads attitude.

 

[LoughboroBlade]

I imagine most people have zoned out from Woodburn news after he returned to Liverpool, but as a Wales fan I’ve kept an interest in what’s been said about him elsewhere. His lack of success has been a bit of a mystery – I was convinced he was going to really push Duffy when he signed. It’s been interesting to see others try and reconcile what happened. There was quite a good Klopp quote on the situation:

"Football is, in parts, a ‘dirty business’ and people really forget immediately – if you have two or three games and are not that convincing, people think ‘oh, he lost it’ or whatever. Ben Woodburn is an outstanding talent, still pretty much a kid, and I am happy to see him here, running around, completely fit and really settled in the squad. He was that before.

"In the summer, I think he lost a bit of patience and it was really long he was already with us. The first-team situation didn’t really change and then you maybe – and it’s normal and can happen – lose patience. Then you have a rather average experience at another club and you come back and see here everything is still like it was before."

Giggs as well has spoken about it: "Very often the first loan move just doesn’t quite happen, for whatever reason. There are always different reasons. It just didn’t quite happen. Because Sheffield United were doing so well he was in and out. But now he’s back, he looks fit.”

Iwan Roberts commented this week that he didn’t think Woodburn had a great set up when he was with us – living out of a hotel, isolated, not looking after himself in terms of how he ate, all of which impacted on his physical state. I’ve never met him but I’ve heard he’s fairly shy, was Alexander-Arnold’s chess partner at Anfield, and perhaps not integrating into the dressing-room played its part.

I think his failure with us was probably due to a number of things:

• Woodburn’s own environment (which is obviously his responsibility, I’m not sure what the club did if anything to try and sort that)
• The versatile label where not being able to pin down one position means you might be signed for something you’re not suited for (like the Duffy role)
• Trying to get into a team that had, particularly in that first half of the season, no injuries, suspensions, or players out of form to create anything other than cameo appearances
• Niggling injuries

He was in a position a few years ago when he was the bright new thing for Liverpool and Wales and he’s been overtaken now by other people – Harry Wilson has done so with both. That has to weigh you down a bit I imagine. Brooks has gone way past him, Dan James too, while others like Rabbi Matondo have done enough to earn moves abroad.

The situation remind me a little of Louis Reed. Lots of hope/hype when he emerged onto the scene, he did a lot of things right initially, but then he didn’t kick on, couldn’t get in the side, and people were writing him off as he went out the door. He dropped down to Chesterfield, played a season, impressed enough to earn a move to Peterborough, and is with a team I think had a good chance at promotion.

If you thought he was overhyped by Liverpool fans on his way to us, that couldn’t be more different as he headed to Oxford – most think he’s finished. I think he’s got a good chance of not being finished. He’s still a teenager, has plenty of time in the next year or two to play regularly, settle on a position, and claw his way back.

 

[bromtom]

I imagine most people have zoned out from Woodburn news after he returned to Liverpool, but as a Wales fan I’ve kept an interest in what’s been said about him elsewhere. His lack of success has been a bit of a mystery – I was convinced he was going to really push Duffy when he signed. It’s been interesting to see others try and reconcile what happened. There was quite a good Klopp quote on the situation:

"Football is, in parts, a ‘dirty business’ and people really forget immediately – if you have two or three games and are not that convincing, people think ‘oh, he lost it’ or whatever. Ben Woodburn is an outstanding talent, still pretty much a kid, and I am happy to see him here, running around, completely fit and really settled in the squad. He was that before.

"In the summer, I think he lost a bit of patience and it was really long he was already with us. The first-team situation didn’t really change and then you maybe – and it’s normal and can happen – lose patience. Then you have a rather average experience at another club and you come back and see here everything is still like it was before."

Giggs as well has spoken about it: "Very often the first loan move just doesn’t quite happen, for whatever reason. There are always different reasons. It just didn’t quite happen. Because Sheffield United were doing so well he was in and out. But now he’s back, he looks fit.”

Iwan Roberts commented this week that he didn’t think Woodburn had a great set up when he was with us – living out of a hotel, isolated, not looking after himself in terms of how he ate, all of which impacted on his physical state. I’ve never met him but I’ve heard he’s fairly shy, was Alexander-Arnold’s chess partner at Anfield, and perhaps not integrating into the dressing-room played its part.

I think his failure with us was probably due to a number of things:

• Woodburn’s own environment (which is obviously his responsibility, I’m not sure what the club did if anything to try and sort that)
• The versatile label where not being able to pin down one position means you might be signed for something you’re not suited for (like the Duffy role)
• Trying to get into a team that had, particularly in that first half of the season, no injuries, suspensions, or players out of form to create anything other than cameo appearances
• Niggling injuries

He was in a position a few years ago when he was the bright new thing for Liverpool and Wales and he’s been overtaken now by other people – Harry Wilson has done so with both. That has to weigh you down a bit I imagine. Brooks has gone way past him, Dan James too, while others like Rabbi Matondo have done enough to earn moves abroad.

The situation remind me a little of Louis Reed. Lots of hope/hype when he emerged onto the scene, he did a lot of things right initially, but then he didn’t kick on, couldn’t get in the side, and people were writing him off as he went out the door. He dropped down to Chesterfield, played a season, impressed enough to earn a move to Peterborough, and is with a team I think had a good chance at promotion.

If you thought he was overhyped by Liverpool fans on his way to us, that couldn’t be more different as he headed to Oxford – most think he’s finished. I think he’s got a good chance of not being finished. He’s still a teenager, has plenty of time in the next year or two to play regularly, settle on a position, and claw his way back.

I suppose it can only get better, because apart from 10 minutes or so at QPR when he held the ball well to help us see it out, he's probably offered the least of any of our "first team" signings. Even Holmes had that one good game away at Wolves (even though we got battered).

Personally I think he's going to struggle again, that's to say nothing of his ability up front or with the ball at his feet in dangerous areas, it's everything else. He looked lost, he couldn't seem clear a ball, and was never where you wanted him.

Unless he's bulked up and got a girlfriend to go with him/mates down there, I can't see life getting any easier for him, especially in league one, miles away from home.

Hope it does, no ill will toward him like.