Oh no! Voronin's back!

Every season it seems there is a player in the Liverpool squad who has the supporters exclaiming “Why does the manager keep selecting him? Can’t he see the player is useless?” The very sight of those players’ names on the team sheet would have supporters writing off their team’s chances and groans would accompany every misplaced pass, missed scoring chance or defensive cock-up that followed. Last season, that player was undoubtedly Lucas. In the past the mantle has gone to the likes of Cheyrou in 2002-03, Biscan in 2003-04, Josemi and later Pellegrino in 2004-05, Crouch in the first half of 2005-06, and Pennant in the first half of 2006-07.

In 2007-08, that player was Andriy Voronin.

When news broke last summer of Voronin’s loan move to Berlin, I was elated and relieved at the removal of the possibility of the player being selected. The only disappointment for me was that the move wasn’t permanent but I was optimistic it would become so eventually.

Now, following the player’s worrying proclamations of his determination to return and conquer the Premiership, I had the nightmarish experience of seeing him back in the red shirt against St Gallen on Wednesday night and it looks as though the Ukrainian will be back in the squad for the forthcoming season.

I am trying to be fair in how I view that proposition. In 2007-08, I developed such apathy for the player but was it justified?

Voronin arrived in the same summer as Fernando Torres and was always going to suffer by comparison. Already at the club were crowd-favourite Peter Crouch and Dirk Kuyt who had yet to be converted into a right-sided midfielder. For me, all three should have been selected before Voronin and so it became an instant irritation whenever Voronin got in the first team.

That season, Liverpool entered September top of the Premiership with the 6-0 rout of Derby leading supporters to wonder whether we might finally offer a title challenge. Then Rafa “rested” Torres for back to back League games against Portsmouth and Birmingham selecting Voronin instead and consecutive nil-nils followed. In both games, Voronin missed clear cut chances and wasted further opportunities to give us a lead. We would never occupy top spot again that season and from that point reverted to our accustomed status as onlookers in the title race. From that moment I began to think the player was not good enough for our football club and that sense increased with every ineffective performance that followed.

Seeing the player repeatedly selected ahead of crowd-favourite (and the far more effective) Peter Crouch – a factor that ultimately forced the beanpole striker to quit Anfield for Portsmouth – really compounded my frustrations.

I remember exploding with rage (metaphorically obviously) during the 1-1 draw with Arsenal in the Champions League quarter-final first leg when after replacing Torres late in the game, Voronin stood lazily ball-watching as an Arsenal player sauntered past him. I couldn’t believe that a player brought on to keep possession in the Arsenal half as the clock wound down could threaten everything his teammates had achieved up to that point by showing such indifference to an Arsenal attack and I launched into a venomous tirade about how the player was not fit to wear the shirt. I couldn’t understand why the manager didn’t share my frustrations or why he had brought on Voronin instead of Crouch.

By the end of the campaign, I felt such resentment for the player that I refused to even celebrate his goals against Blackburn and Tottenham. When the summer came, I was desperate for him to be off-loaded.

Ironically, there were times last season when I was forced to concede it might have been better for Liverpool to have retained Voronin in their squad given the lack of attacking resources available in Torres’ absence through injury. Indeed it is difficult to see how Voronin might have been worse than Keane in the first half of the season, while in the second half he might have proven a better attacking option to replace Torres than Babel. However, that reflects more on the standard of the backup strikers than it does on my valuation of Voronin’s talents.

With no sign of Rafa bringing in another striker and, based on the evidence of Wednesday night, with no indication the likes of Nemeth and Pacheco are ready for the step up into the first team, maybe Voronin will have his uses next season. The worry is that the manager will use him more than is necessary as he did in September 2007 and if that happens then who knows, maybe Voronin will once again become that player about whom the supporters exclaim “Why does the manager keep selecting him? Can’t he see the player is useless?” At least it will give Lucas a break!