Steve Finnan backs Ryan Babel to heed wake-up call

Oct 16 2007 by Nick Smith, Liverpool Daily Post

RYAN BABEL has been backed to bounce back from his international embarrassment and play a vital part in Liverpool’s long-term future.

The Dutch winger was dropped form his national team after turning up late for a meeting as they prepared to face Romania in Saturday’s Euro 2008 qualifier.

Holland manager Marco Van Basten revealed it was the second time Babel had overslept on a match day and relegated him to the bench in favour of Arjen Robben. But Liverpool team-mate Steve Finnan is backing the 20-year-old to eventually live up to the promise he has shown since arriving at Anfield from Ajax in the summer for £11million.

“Ryan is still very young and there’s no guarantee with youngsters that they will develop into top class players – but he appears to have the potential to do exactly that,” said Finnan.

“Even though it may take a while before we see him at his best.

“It was obvious that the boss was attempting to add some more creativity before the season started, and I think he’s done that with the arrival of Ryan, as well Fernando Torres, Andriy Voronin and Yossi Benayoun.”

And Finnan, also away on international duty preparing for Ireland’s home game with Cyprus tomorrow, thinks Babel can provide the type of match-winning moments that made Luis Garcia a fans’ favourite.

He added: “After Luis got injured against Arsenal last year I think it’s fair to say we sometimes struggled to produce the unusual that’s needed to open up tight defences or break the deadlock.

“Then when he departed in the summer, the boss needed to bring in someone with similar qualities. Those kind of players are vital for any side with ambitions and Ryan appears to be one of them.

“He’s a big, powerful lad who is very tricky and could be capable of pieces of brilliance that will hopefully win games single-handedly. We’ve seen bits of that in training and the fans have had a small taste of it in some games. Away at Sunderland, he produced a terrific run that led to one of the goals, and he also got on the scoresheet against Derby.”

Babel’s indiscretion continued what has been something of a torrid international break for his club manger Rafael Benitez.

On Friday he was met with the news that top scorer Fernando Torres would be out of Spain’s weekend qualifier in Denmark after picking up a torn abductor muscle that made him doubtful for this Satur-day’s Merseyside derby.

Although Spain’s team doctor initially diagnosed the injury as one that would keep Torres out for eight to 10 days, he has started a week of intensive treatment back at Melwood to get him fit to face Everton at Goodison Park.

Benitez is also hoping Fabio Aurelio is fit for the derby.