When there was talk of Xabi going to Barcelona I felt it would be a great move for him because he'd be able to play more and his passing to players like Ronny, Messi and (now) Henry would be lethal.
Since we've signed Torres and have got Babel (who will become a striker long-term) and Voronin I think Xabi has better options to use up front. Torres is certainly a more intelligent runner than Bellamy, who is already leading the offside numbers for this season though admittedly sometimes he gets flagged unfairly cos he is just very, very fast. With those three new faces I think Xabi will see more joy creating things this season rather than being restricted to bombing balls to the wide positions.
I think Mascher is the one Xabi has to play with though, Momo tends to go off wandering in attacking positions too much forcing Xabi to stay very deep, giving Momo space to recover if we lose the ball. Considering we had Mascher and Xabi shackling Milan's midfield in Athens I don't see how too many people can argue that it isn't a very strong partnership.
Since we've signed Torres and have got Babel (who will become a striker long-term) and Voronin I think Xabi has better options to use up front. Torres is certainly a more intelligent runner than Bellamy, who is already leading the offside numbers for this season though admittedly sometimes he gets flagged unfairly cos he is just very, very fast. With those three new faces I think Xabi will see more joy creating things this season rather than being restricted to bombing balls to the wide positions.
I think Mascher is the one Xabi has to play with though, Momo tends to go off wandering in attacking positions too much forcing Xabi to stay very deep, giving Momo space to recover if we lose the ball. Considering we had Mascher and Xabi shackling Milan's midfield in Athens I don't see how too many people can argue that it isn't a very strong partnership.
Comment