Xabi Alonso and our lack of goals

[carheex]

My beef with people like CAD and Carheex is they're so busy extolling the virtues of SG that they're blinded to the value of XA and what he adds to the team. For me what Xabi adds is clear to anyone who watches the matches or goes to the games, or someone who has even a psssing knowledge of football. What he does no other player in our squad can replicate, including SG.

No one is saying that XA is the messiah who will return to the team and rescue our season - what we are saying is he has the qualities, attributes and has the role and influance within the team (when he plays) to be able to significantly improve the way the team is playing. Anyone who thinks otherwise is IMO blind.

What we need is Mascherano - he breaks up attacks better than anyone and with Agger out, we need that extra defensive man more than ever as Sami is clearly struggling. Surely, anyone who goes to games, has basic footballing knowledge and has played the game can see that. Anyone who thinks otherwise is a titty IMO.

[carheex]

WTF?

I'm not surprised you've totally misread my post.

LOL, i misread your post. When you said "crouch missing" i thought you meant missing as in not finding the target.

[Roboklopp]

Had point to make- spent 10 mins writing it wonderfully eloquently & persuasively. Computer crashed, lost argument. Strop on. Cannot be arsed redoing it properly so here're the bones of it:

-Miss XA & DA dreadfully cos are 2 players most vital to our buil-up play.
-Shocking people dont see that.
-More shocking how badly off we are without them. Shouldnt be the case.
-SG v XA direct comparrison facile as different players with different merits/functions.
-Both are vital.
-XA = metronome dictating the basic play/game tempo.
-SG = dynamo driving it forward.
-SG needs the game tempo dictating by XA before he can take it forward.
-XA at 60% more vital to us than a 60% SG cos the former excels at the basics whereas the later is more of an "impact" player & remving that impact nullifies his game.
-SG has been vital in winning us games in the past cis of our lack of attacking talent elsewhere but should be less so now due to new purchases.

[Nic83]

Good post.

Agree totally.

Also agree about Carheex being a shocking person!

[Nic83]

LOL, i misread your post. When you said "crouch missing" i thought you meant missing as in not finding the target.

Yes, misreading posts aswell as football matches doesn't come as a shock.

[Roboklopp]

Yes, misreading posts aswell as football matches doesn't come as a shock.

[Dhav]

This must be where the confusion lies: if you read through my posts I'm usually very unbiased. I'm only sticking up for gerrard because everyone seems to be laying the blame at his feet whilst saying that Alonso is so much better. In my opinion, Gerrard is well out of form and has been for a few months. However, Alonso has been out of form for much much longer. I've said time and time again that I think Xabi is a great player but hasn't done it for a long time. I'm not anti-alonso, I'm pro LFC. I don;t know why people have such a problem with my belief that our best centre midfield pairing is gerrard and mascherano. It's an opinion, that is all. It doesn't mean i don't appreciate midfielders/good players/rafa's teams at all, despite what that irritating prick Dhavlos keeps saying.

And with regards to SG not turning up in the big games, you could say that about most of our squad which is why we've got such a piss poor record against utd, chelsea and the arse. To blame gerrard for us being poor in these games means he must have more influence in the team than anyone else, otherwise it wouldn;t be such an issue. Maybe someone "knowledgeable" like dhavlos could tell me how dropping an out of form attacking midfielder and bringing in an out of form, unfit defensive midfielder is going to help things............

My feeling is that we;ve got so used to gerrard saving us that when he's off form people start blaming him for the whole teams' shortcomings - a victim of his own high standards!? Worse still, is people saying to stick him on the wing or drop him...in favour of playing 2 defensive midfielders - lunacy i tells ya!

**** off you ignorant clown, go back to pleasuring yourself to pictures of transexuals.

[Johnny]

And another thread decends into anarchy.







Our recent performances are nothing to do with missing players,more to do with supposedly"World Class" players underperforming.

[AFII]

Alonso is lucky that his injury has kept him out of the team recently otherwise people wouldn't have forgotten how mediocre he has been for us. I'm truly amazed at how many people think his return is all that's needed - I'm even more amazed that Gerrard has a few off games and all of a sudden we should be sticking him out on the wing!! People have such short memories. He is by far our most important player - no one else comes even close, although Torres could soon be heading that way.

What a crap post

Gerrard isn't even close to be our most important player. Agger, Reina, Carra, Mascherano and Torres are more important than him.

Our system has crashed since our only defender that can carry the ball out defense and our only midfield playmaker got injured . We played our best football this season without Gerrard.

I'm not saying that we should sell him just that Stevie isn't as important for us anymore as he has been. We have other players now that Rafa's system need more than him.

[Dhav]

And another thread decends into anarchy.







Our recent performances are nothing to do with missing players,more to do with supposedly"World Class" players underperforming.

This odious obnoxious idiot Carheex needs telling - one of the most respected posters in Lec has come on here extolling the virtues of Alonso, but this moron wants to persist with his anti-Alonso agenda and spout crap about how "Gerrard is 10 times the player that Alonso is in every aspect". And he gets offended and starts throwing personal insults around when it is rightly suggested (implicitly I might add) that he knows nothing about football .

Carheex, come here and list one-by-one all of the aspects in which Gerrard is a better player than Alonso please if you could. Justify your preposterous hyperbole.

Carheex, you're the Paul Merson of Est posters.

[Dhav]

What a crap post

Gerrard isn't even close to be our most important player. Agger, Reina, Carra, Mascherano and Torres are more important than him.

Our system has crashed since our only defender that can carry the ball out defense and our only midfield playmaker got injured . We played our best football this season without Gerrard.

I'm not saying that we should sell him just that Stevie isn't as important for us anymore as he has been. We have other players now that Rafa's system need more than him.

AF, don't talk football to Carheex, he won't understand

[AFII]

AF, don't talk football to Carheex, he won't understand

[CAD]

*makes note not to disagree with Lec again*

[bazza76]

Unless I am missing something, I always though, and still think, Gerrard is one of our most important players, just because he is not having the best of times lately, I am not going to change my mind on that, there is a reason he gets paid about £120k a week. Although, I do think complacency has set in with him.
I also don't think holding midfield is his role, but that does not mean that h can't be one of our most influential players, when playing well, he clearly is.
Even when Torres joined, after a few weeks, he said, Gerrard was the best player he has ever trained with, and it wasn't Torres on a charm offensive.
I believe if Gerrard went a trained at Barca, there would be admiring glances from the rest of the squad at Gerrard, he is that good, but he is not the diciplined conductor that Alonso is. He is a versatile world class player who can play more positions than any other player in the team.

[El Jefecito]

Unless I am missing something, I always though, and still think, Gerrard is one of our most important players, just because he is not having the best of times lately, I am not going to change my mind on that, there is a reason he gets paid about £120k a week. Although, I do think complacency has set in with him.
I also don't think holding midfield is his role, but that does not mean that h can't be one of our most influential players, when playing well, he clearly is.
Even when Torres joined, after a few weeks, he said, Gerrard was the best player he has ever trained with, and it wasn't Torres on a charm offensive.
I believe if Gerrard went a trained at Barca, there would be admiring glances from the rest of the squad at Gerrard, he is that good, but he is not the diciplined conductor that Alonso is. He is a versatile world class player who can play more positions than any other player in the team.

Don't disagree the questions really are:

1/ Is he an impact player or can he set the tempo of the team?
2/ Is he able to perform the role that Rafa expects of a CM?
3/ Is he able to control and guide a game?
4/ Is he the best at getting the most of the players around him?
5/ Is he more an individual or a team player?

If you ponder each of these questions it seems obvious that he should be deployed somewhere other than CM!