He may not yet know the intricacies of their card school, but Alberto Aquilani has already shown he can potentially be Liverpool’s ace in the pack on the pitch.
The long wait was ended on Wednesday night when the £20m signing from Roma made a first competitive appearance for his new club at the Emirates.
Aquilani only emerged as a 77th-minute substitute, but there was enough promise during his brief cameo to generate genuine excitement among the travelling hordes.
The Italian produced some fine touches, showed great vision with one pass to Philipp Degen and was only denied an injury-time penalty by myopic referee Alan Wiley when his spectacular overhead kick was clearly handled by Philippe Senderos.
And Dirk Kuyt reveals that while the 25-year-old remains an unknown quantity to many supporters, he has already ingratiated himself with his new team-mates.
“We are pleased to see Alberto play,” says the Dutchman. “We’ve known him for a while around the club but this was his first game, and hopefully we can see a lot more of him.
“He’s a nice lad on and off the pitch. He told us he couldn’t wait to start, so it’s good for him and for us that he can finally play.
“He has tried to be involved not only in training but also off the field. He tried to play cards with us on the way down to London and pick up the language.
“And to be honest, he’s learning pretty quickly for an Italian!”
With Aquilani’s arrival coinciding with the departure of Xabi Alonso in August, the temptation has been to regard the Italian as a direct replacement, particularly given the great expectations that have built during the prolonged build-up to his Liverpool bow.
But Kuyt’s advice is simply for Aquilani to remember why Anfield manager Rafael Benitez ventured where Arsene Wenger wouldn’t by making the Italian the second-most expensive signing in Liverpool’s history.
“Alberto has to show his talent for himself,” says the Dutchman. “Everyone knows he is a quality player, Arsene Wenger said in his programme notes he is a talented player, but it’s up to Alberto to do it in the Premier League.
“The only thing I can say is that he is desperate to play and wants to show English football how good he is. We try to give him as much support as we can. Hopefully we will see a lot of him now this season.
“Every player who comes to Liverpool is his own personality. He’s not the new Xabi Alonso. He has to show his quality himself, and we will support him and help him.”
Carling Cup exits in recent seasons have prompted savage post-mortems on the strength in depth of Benitez’s squad and his youth policy.
With Liverpool’s largely second-string line-up impressive in Wednesday’s 2-1 defeat at Arsenal, such introspection was unnecessary.
And Kuyt adds: “We are really disappointed because we had a few chances to at least go to extra time. We worked really hard in the game, and Alberto should have had a penalty late on.
“We put a lot of effort into the game and tried to win. We had the belief we could win. Both teams scored good goals in the first half, and although we conceded again just after half-time, we never gave up.
“We created enough chances to at least equalise, but we couldn’t and that was the problem.
“It was a really good game between two sides that wanted to play football. We had nine changes from Sunday, and it was good to see the lads who maybe don’t play that often put a lot of effort into the game and give everything they have got. We can’t complain with the way we played.”
Emiliano Insua broke his goalscoring duck for Liverpool in spectacular fashion on Wednesday, striking a dipping volley beyond Arsenal goalkeeper Lukas Fabianski from 25 yards.
It was the latest landmark in an encouraging season for the left-back, who has held down a regular place in Benitez’s starting line-up while earning a first international cap for Argentina.
“It was a really nice moment for me,” says Insua. “I chested the ball down and just decided to hit it. I couldn’t believe it went in but it was nice and hopefully I can score more goals for the team in the future.
“It has been a really good season for me, for my club and country, but I have to keep it going. I know I can keep on improving and I have a lot of confidence.”
Insua concurs with Kuyt that Liverpool perhaps deserved to at least take the game to extra time.
“I’m really happy to have scored my first goal for the club but disappointed to have lost the game because I thought we played well,” says the 20-year-old.
“We knew before they are a good team, especially at home, but we had some good moments in the game.
“We pressed them all of the time and tried to keep the ball. Unfortunately we conceded two goals and we missed some chances and couldn’t score again.
“I never want to lose as a player and it’s the same for all of us. We are not in the Carling Cup any more but we still have three competitions left to play for so we have to keep improving.”
The long wait was ended on Wednesday night when the £20m signing from Roma made a first competitive appearance for his new club at the Emirates.
Aquilani only emerged as a 77th-minute substitute, but there was enough promise during his brief cameo to generate genuine excitement among the travelling hordes.
The Italian produced some fine touches, showed great vision with one pass to Philipp Degen and was only denied an injury-time penalty by myopic referee Alan Wiley when his spectacular overhead kick was clearly handled by Philippe Senderos.
And Dirk Kuyt reveals that while the 25-year-old remains an unknown quantity to many supporters, he has already ingratiated himself with his new team-mates.
“We are pleased to see Alberto play,” says the Dutchman. “We’ve known him for a while around the club but this was his first game, and hopefully we can see a lot more of him.
“He’s a nice lad on and off the pitch. He told us he couldn’t wait to start, so it’s good for him and for us that he can finally play.
“He has tried to be involved not only in training but also off the field. He tried to play cards with us on the way down to London and pick up the language.
“And to be honest, he’s learning pretty quickly for an Italian!”
With Aquilani’s arrival coinciding with the departure of Xabi Alonso in August, the temptation has been to regard the Italian as a direct replacement, particularly given the great expectations that have built during the prolonged build-up to his Liverpool bow.
But Kuyt’s advice is simply for Aquilani to remember why Anfield manager Rafael Benitez ventured where Arsene Wenger wouldn’t by making the Italian the second-most expensive signing in Liverpool’s history.
“Alberto has to show his talent for himself,” says the Dutchman. “Everyone knows he is a quality player, Arsene Wenger said in his programme notes he is a talented player, but it’s up to Alberto to do it in the Premier League.
“The only thing I can say is that he is desperate to play and wants to show English football how good he is. We try to give him as much support as we can. Hopefully we will see a lot of him now this season.
“Every player who comes to Liverpool is his own personality. He’s not the new Xabi Alonso. He has to show his quality himself, and we will support him and help him.”
Carling Cup exits in recent seasons have prompted savage post-mortems on the strength in depth of Benitez’s squad and his youth policy.
With Liverpool’s largely second-string line-up impressive in Wednesday’s 2-1 defeat at Arsenal, such introspection was unnecessary.
And Kuyt adds: “We are really disappointed because we had a few chances to at least go to extra time. We worked really hard in the game, and Alberto should have had a penalty late on.
“We put a lot of effort into the game and tried to win. We had the belief we could win. Both teams scored good goals in the first half, and although we conceded again just after half-time, we never gave up.
“We created enough chances to at least equalise, but we couldn’t and that was the problem.
“It was a really good game between two sides that wanted to play football. We had nine changes from Sunday, and it was good to see the lads who maybe don’t play that often put a lot of effort into the game and give everything they have got. We can’t complain with the way we played.”
Emiliano Insua broke his goalscoring duck for Liverpool in spectacular fashion on Wednesday, striking a dipping volley beyond Arsenal goalkeeper Lukas Fabianski from 25 yards.
It was the latest landmark in an encouraging season for the left-back, who has held down a regular place in Benitez’s starting line-up while earning a first international cap for Argentina.
“It was a really nice moment for me,” says Insua. “I chested the ball down and just decided to hit it. I couldn’t believe it went in but it was nice and hopefully I can score more goals for the team in the future.
“It has been a really good season for me, for my club and country, but I have to keep it going. I know I can keep on improving and I have a lot of confidence.”
Insua concurs with Kuyt that Liverpool perhaps deserved to at least take the game to extra time.
“I’m really happy to have scored my first goal for the club but disappointed to have lost the game because I thought we played well,” says the 20-year-old.
“We knew before they are a good team, especially at home, but we had some good moments in the game.
“We pressed them all of the time and tried to keep the ball. Unfortunately we conceded two goals and we missed some chances and couldn’t score again.
“I never want to lose as a player and it’s the same for all of us. We are not in the Carling Cup any more but we still have three competitions left to play for so we have to keep improving.”
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