Jose Enrique - Season Rating/Review

Over the next few weeks, I am going to attempt to rate each player's season and offer a few comments from my point of view. I do not have a photographic memory so please feel free to post your comments and reflections on the individual players as you saw them for last season or anything I forgot. I intend for these to be interactive. For those of you new to this game, remember 1=horrific, 10=unreal, 6=is about average.

Jose Enrique - 7

Poor Enrique. If you had asked me at the mid point of the season, who the player of the season was, he would have garnered serious consideration from me. He came from Newcastle with relatively little fan fare. It was a small transfer fee, for a young player who stated as he left that he didn't feel as though Newcastle were serious about contending. Ummm....yeah, that didn't work out for him; at least not yet.

More after the poll and jump:

Enrique started the year on fire. He was probably the best left back in the league for the first half of the season. He was very rarely beaten and was bombing down the flanks in support of the offense. Even with those runs, he never failed to get back and cover.

It showed the importance of having a true left back playing for a team. Not since my favorite Red (John Arne Riise) was shown the door, have Liverpool had a decent, consistent left back. It felt like Rafa's years of mistakes (Warnock sale and then Riise for Dossena + £4m) were being erased and we could finally solve that riddle.

Unfortunately though, we wore Enrique out. Enrique started in 40 of the 51 games that Liverpool had this season, a remarkable stat that is only bested by Pepe Reina, Martin Skrtel and Jordan Henderson. Considering the amount of running that a modern left back is expected to do, it only makes sense that he ran out of steam towards the end.

That said, he still had a great first season. Sure, his level of play definitely dropped off in the last quarter of the season, but overall he was still better than the vast majority of starting left backs in the league last year. I am excited about seeing a rejuvenated Enrique under a manager who loves a 4-3-3. He is still one for the future, yes he only turned 26 last January. I can't wait to see him next season. Here are his stats taken from Soccernet: