Liverpoolfc.tv<\/em>.<\/p>\n“I’m delighted we’ve got Stewart Downing. He impressed me when I saw him last season and he was certainly Villa’s best player.<\/p>\n
“He creates and scores goals, and the fact he’s forced his way into the England set-up shows how much he has improved.<\/p>\n
“When you look around there aren’t many top wingers in the Premier League so they aren’t cheap to pick up.<\/p>\n
“But if I could have picked any of them to sign for Liverpool it would have been him.<\/p>\n
“We paid a lot of money for Andy Carroll but we didn’t get to see much of him last season due to injuries. When he did play the one thing he was missing was decent service from the flanks.<\/p>\n
“Downing will get to the byline and put balls into the box for Carroll to attack. I’m sure Downing will help to improve Carroll’s game.”<\/p>\n
Smith had a reputation as something of a hard-man during his time on Merseyside, where he scored 48 times during his 638 appearances for the club and scored in their first ever European Cup triumph against Borussia Monchengladbach in 1977.<\/p>\n
But the Anfield Iron believes that Downing would have fit in during his playing days and will help lead Liverpool to silverware in the near future.<\/p>\n
He added: “We always played with a couple of wingers and they played a huge part in the success we enjoyed.<\/p>\n
“Everyone talked about our goal scorers but the wingers were very under-rated.<\/p>\n
“You need that kind of quality in wide areas and hopefully Downing can provide that for Liverpool over the coming years.<\/p>\n
“It certainly looks like Kenny is looking to get back to how we used to play by stretching teams down the wings more.”<\/p>\n
Smith is pleased that Dalglish has re-inforced the midfield as he believes it was a weakness last season and he is glad to see the Scot has bought homegrown players instead of players from abroad.<\/p>\n
He admits he is once again excited by the prospect of watching his club in action next season, but would still like to see another wide-man to complete the team.<\/p>\n
“I do think Kenny needs another genuine winger,” he said.<\/p>\n
“Downing will play on the left but what about on the right? Henderson could play there or Dirk Kuyt but he’s good in a central role sticking the ball in the back of the net.<\/p>\n
“Kenny has boosted the centre of midfield and rightly so because we needed more options in there. Our defence is pretty solid and the strikers are good but the performances of the midfielders last season weren’t consistent enough.<\/p>\n
“It’s been good to see Kenny buying British lads. In the past we’ve signed a lot of foreign players who have struggled to adapt to the Premier League.<\/p>\n
“We’ve signed some decent players and I’m looking forward to the season starting and going to the games again. The club is starting to grow now.<\/p>\n
“I’ve got a sneaky feeling I’m going to enjoy watching us play this season and I wouldn’t be surprised if we won something.<\/p>\n
“The new owners are investing in the squad and seem to appreciate the importance of the fans. With quality in wide areas Liverpool can start picking up trophies again.”<\/p>\n
<\/span><\/p>\n
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