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Downing on difficult season
Liverpool, 09:12, February 23, 2012
Stewart Downing admits it would have been easy to "spit the dummy" and look for excuses after a testing start to his Reds career.
But the England international has knuckled down on the training ground and believes he has come through his rough patch.
The £20million signing from Aston Villa was the most expensive of Kenny Dalglish's seven summer arrivals but after a promising start performances began to fade and Downing found what had been a regular place in the starting line-up more difficult to come by.
"The easy thing is to spit the dummy out and point out everything around that is going wrong," said the 27-year-old. "I have had some good games and some indifferent games and I have been on the bench sometimes when I have been used to playing every week.
"That has been a bit hard getting used to but I have adapted quite well, I think. But the only thing you can do is keep training well.
"If you are not training well you won't be picked - Kenny addressed that on day one. You have to train well if you are in the team or not, you have to be ready when called upon. Kenny sees everything. He watches training day in, day out."
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