When will Denis be allowed to Menace?

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Why is Denis Stracqualursi not getting a look in at Everton? He was signed, presumably to play football ? what little we have seen of him so far I think has been impressive ? but David Moyes seems determined to keep him in the shadows.

When you look at his career in Argentina, he has as good a scoring record as Rodrigo Palacio who is now in demand by a number of top European Clubs, and a better scoring record than Mouche, who recently took his fifth Argentine cap. Going back to Hernan Crespo?s career in Argentina, Stracqualursi actually has a better scoring record than him at club level in Argentina.

Also, Stracqualursi played for unfancied Tigre, and so it?s likely he wasn?t getting a great deal of help from the players around him, which makes his top scorer achievement even more impressive.

Argentine players have a good record of adjusting to the Premier League, but of course you actually have to play to do that. As for fitness, you can only get truly match-fit by playing matches.

I don?t know of any other managers who repeatedly sign established players and then treat them like lepers. If, having seen him close up, Moyes thinks he?s incapable of playing at this level, then send him back to Argentina where he scores more goals in a season than we are likely to score as a team all year at our current scoring rate.

But as we are supposed to be so short of resources, why not give consistent playing time to someone who seems to know where the net is? I think the answer is that Moyes just doesn?t know how to work with strikers. He alienated Rooney, Beattie, Johnson and Yakubu; while the latter three all had their own serious failings, Moyes really didn?t know what to do with them. He even tried to shackle Rooney. He destroyed Beckford?s confidence and he refuses to play to Saha?s strengths.

On Saturday, Saha ? when he wasn?t back in his own penalty area as a defender ? was playing with his back to the goal with a plane ride between him and the midfield, hoping for an error to work with. That?s not his game.

Now Silva, who hasn?t ever been given a look-in, wants a move because he?s understandably tired of being ignored by a manager who claims he doesn?t have enough players. I?d want out too.

Drenthe and Stracqualursi are only here for one season. It seems a waste to only see Drenthe for a few minutes at a time, Stracqualursi barely at all and together even less. Let?s face it, it?s not the competition for places that?s keeping them out.

Peter Fearon, Liverpool     Posted 02/10/2011 at 20:12:06

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