A Little Bit Of What We Need On Tuesday

[El Jefecito]

Xabi is the one sitting in front of the defense, most of the time. And then he is the one receiving the ball from the defense, most of the time.
Momo is further up usually putting pressure on the holding midfielder of the opponent.
Rafa spoke about Xabi and Mascherano as holding midfielders. He did not actually say that Momo and Mascherano would not be competing for places and I am not saying that they will never play in the same team, Xabi and Mascher that is, but as I understand Rafa the general idea is for Mascher to give Xabi competition for a place in the team and Gerrard will play in front of ether of them when Momo is not.

Then I think Rafa is looking for a player to give Momo competition so that Gerrard never has to be part of a two man midfield again. I dont know who that player is but Kallström has been mentioned.

Actually, just recently Rafa said that Xabi was NOT a holding midfielder like El Jefe.

Suprised me that.

[Shaggy]

Actually, just recently Rafa said that Xabi was NOT a holding midfielder like El Jefe.

Suprised me that.

It did me, too, and got me wondering whether Alonso played higher up the pitch for Sociedad. I saw him play a few times for them and I always had him down as the 'pivot' type of defensive midfielder as I see him as today.

He's definitely capable of playing higher up the pitch but Rafa's comments really had me stumped.

[lfc4ever]

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All hail the Rafalution

[El Jefecito]

It did me, too, and got me wondering whether Alonso played higher up the pitch for Sociedad. I saw him play a few times for them and I always had him down as the 'pivot' type of defensive midfielder as I see him as today.

He's definitely capable of playing higher up the pitch but Rafa's comments really had me stumped.

When he played alongside El Jefe the other day, he did play much higher up the pitch. I think I'd like that, his passing and vision in the final 3rd would be awesome.

[Red_Polo]

Momo is a phenomenal athlete, and his ability to press the opposition and directly or otherwise win us the ball is exceptional. However, Shanks once talked about how a good player should possess two basic qualities, to take and to give a pass well. Momo really lacks in these basic areas. If he could sort that out he would be incredible, but I think until then he is very much a player to be used as circumstances dictate rather than on a regular basis.

Last season he played regularly for us and was fantastic, particularly with Gerrard coming inside to take creative responsibilities from him, but it is clear we need to be able to rely on him with the ball more than we currently can.

[Matt]

Talk about being OTT.

Momo was far from his best on Saturday but people seem to be forgetting that he's only 21/22 years old and that he's only been back for three or four games (two of which have been against two of the best teams in the world) since being out for three-months.

For crying out loud, it used to take Owen about 8 games to get back to his best after an injury and by that point he'd have pulled another muscle.

To suggest that Mascherano could have stepped in against Utd and done far better after a similar amount of playing time to Momo over the last few months is madness.

[Bob]

It did me, too, and got me wondering whether Alonso played higher up the pitch for Sociedad. I saw him play a few times for them and I always had him down as the 'pivot' type of defensive midfielder as I see him as today.

He's definitely capable of playing higher up the pitch but Rafa's comments really had me stumped.

I'm fed up with Alonso... He's not all he's cracked up to be IMO.

He certainly ain't capable of playing further up the pitch... he doesn't have the guile for it... He's best shaping his career around Molby.

[cobain]

Talk about being OTT.

Momo was far from his best on Saturday but people seem to be forgetting that he's only 21/22 years old and that he's only been back for three or four games (two of which have been against two of the best teams in the world) since being out for three-months.

For crying out loud, it used to take Owen about 8 games to get back to his best after an injury and by that point he'd have pulled another muscle.

To suggest that Mascherano could have stepped in against Utd and done far better after a similar amount of playing time to Momo over the last few months is madness.

[tomasjj]

It did me, too, and got me wondering whether Alonso played higher up the pitch for Sociedad. I saw him play a few times for them and I always had him down as the 'pivot' type of defensive midfielder as I see him as today.

He's definitely capable of playing higher up the pitch but Rafa's comments really had me stumped.

I think Rafa has made him play that role, even if it is not his natural one, cause he has the dicipline to do so.

He just had to use Xabi there even more when Didi left.

Ideally, he can play further up the field like he did the first season he was here.

[kubrickscube]

I cannot believe the amount of Stick Momo is getting after one poor game.
You fickle bunch.

How can you just turn on him after so many superb performances for Liverpool is beyond me. He's a young bloke. He had an off day. His passing has never been the strongest part of his game. Give him a f_____ break.

Don't you remember how he played against Barca just the other week? He was immense!
If we were to sell him, I'm pretty sure we'd have plenty of top clubs standing in line.

[Neil Young]

He gives the ball away so he can win it back again. :whatever:

You're wrong about Alonso though.

[Myo]

Momo has time and time shown to be better than average and he is on his way to becoming a great player for this club. A few bad games over the course of the couple of years he's been with us doesn't mean he's **** and yes his passing in general was ****e in the game against MANU, however people seem to forget he's only 22 (just turned in fact) and i remember a young StevieG who had the same raw energy and some **** passing now and then and look at him now (he had a pretty piss poor game himself)...

Momo is EXACTLY what we need right now, regardless of his fairly average passing, people forget it's been awhile we had an ENFORCER within our team that strikes fears into our opponents, just like a poster has stated above, we badly neeed him..