mascherano

[cobain]

Personally i thought he had a fairly good game y'day, certianly in the 2nd half,
drove us on from midfield.

wh't is wit' th's "y'day" lat'ly?

[Howard_lfc]

-------------------Mascherano
Benny/Pennant----Alonso/Lucas-------Kewell/Babel
-------------------------Gerrard

Neither of these can be trusted.

[AFII]

Neither of these can be trusted.

IF Kewell can stay fit then he is our best left sided midfielder by a mile. He also adds good balance to our midfield.

You can also add that he is a Rafa type of player who works his socks off in every game.

[cobain]

IF Kewell can stay fit then he is our best left sided midfielder by a mile. He also adds good balance to our midfield.

You can also add that he is a Rafa type of player who works his socks off in those two games he played

[Howard_lfc]

IF Kewell can stay fit then he is our best left sided midfielder by a mile. He also adds good balance to our midfield.

You can also add that he is a Rafa type of player who works his socks off in every game.

And there you have it my friends.

[El Diego]

In the first half he was poor but in the second he bossed it. Coming from deep spraying passes around and helped in the buildup for the second goal.

[dww]

As much as I'd love an 'Aimar' - I think SG in the middle of an attacking three with Barraja and Albelda (for example) behind for protection would be great but a greater onus on the full backs though.

That is true but I think that if you carry threat in the attack then you have a range of different fullbacks who can do the job.

I think that the formation put out yesterday was a sort of ******* version of this tactic. Much as it pains me to say it Andy Gray seemed to get it right in his pre-match analysis that Voronin spent as much time on the right as Gerrard with them both swapping freely in attack at least. In the first 15 minutes this worked great and our attacking play looked good. However the poor ball retention and covering of the fullbacks became a real issue.

With better CM play though I think it allows you to use a variety of fullbacks who might otherwise be limited. Either in the sense of someone like Alves who bombs forward too much or who like Finnan is not always comfortable bursting forwards but puts in great deep crosses. The important thing is that the two tactically aware CMs give the rest of the team more flexibility.

BTW on the topic of our fullbacks I thought that Finnans ball from the byeline should be a lesson to all of our players about how effective making those runs can be. Riise would be better of doing it too as his deep crossing and short passing seem to have gone to **** of late. I actually think his movement and defending was good on Saturday though.

[Joe King]

He needs Xabi to do the passing for him, Momo doesn't help him

[CAD]

If we had a fully functional front 4 who created passing opportunities and gave SG options then he would be great in CM - but like United playing with Carrick and Scholes last year we would have a compromise in the middle but the added threat would more often than not destroy teams. Adding world class players would obviously improve the team, but an Aimar type player would take Kuyt's position IMO, leaving us the same decisions in midfield for Gerrard.

I still think the ideal for Rafa would be to have two players capable of controlling the flow of the game (like Alonso) in the middle and then a relatively free 3 behind a single striker. I think Gerrard would be best accommodated as one of the three. Although I concede in some games he would make an equally good second CM if the attacking options were better.

Good post. If only we had a fully functional front 4.

The Gerrard conundrum is here to stay. It's been a growing issue ever since Rafa got here. I'm pretty sure that Rafa would like to see him play at RM or as hanging forward. It's probably only the pressure from the fans and more importantly from Gerrard himself that made Rafa give SG a second chance. I'll never forget how Rafa tried to spoon-feed the press that SG scored 23 from right middle. Think it speaks volumes about his intentions.

I do think that Aimar needs to have two forwards infront of him to offer his best.

I'm not fanatic about SG playing advanced CM. I'm just saying that unless Lucas turns out to be the next Zico, we don't have a better player in that slot right now.

[AFII]

That is true but I think that if you carry threat in the attack then you have a range of different fullbacks who can do the job.

I think that the formation put out yesterday was a sort of ******* version of this tactic. Much as it pains me to say it Andy Gray seemed to get it right in his pre-match analysis that Voronin spent as much time on the right as Gerrard with them both swapping freely in attack at least. In the first 15 minutes this worked great and our attacking play looked good. However the poor ball retention and covering of the fullbacks became a real issue.

With better CM play though I think it allows you to use a variety of fullbacks who might otherwise be limited. Either in the sense of someone like Alves who bombs forward too much or who like Finnan is not always comfortable bursting forwards but puts in great deep crosses. The important thing is that the two tactically aware CMs give the rest of the team more flexibility.

BTW on the topic of our fullbacks I thought that Finnans ball from the byeline should be a lesson to all of our players about how effective making those runs can be. Riise would be better of doing it too as his deep crossing and short passing seem to have gone to **** of late. I actually think he movement and defending was good on Saturday though.

You have been reading my posts to much

[Howard_lfc]

That is true but I think that if you carry threat in the attack then you have a range of different fullbacks who can do the job.

I think that the formation put out yesterday was a sort of ******* version of this tactic. Much as it pains me to say it Andy Gray seemed to get it right in his pre-match analysis that Voronin spent as much time on the right as Gerrard with them both swapping freely in attack at least. In the first 15 minutes this worked great and our attacking play looked good. However the poor ball retention and covering of the fullbacks became a real issue.

With better CM play though I think it allows you to use a variety of fullbacks who might otherwise be limited. Either in the sense of someone like Alves who bombs forward too much or who like Finnan is not always comfortable bursting forwards but puts in great deep crosses. The important thing is that the two tactically aware CMs give the rest of the team more flexibility.

BTW on the topic of our fullbacks I thought that Finnans ball from the byeline should be a lesson to all of our players about how effective making those runs can be. Riise would be better of doing it too as his deep crossing and short passing seem to have gone to **** of late. I actually think he movement and defending was good on Saturday though.

Again - agreed on this.
I thought we set up to combat Everton - rather than try to impose our superior play on them. For all of our comments about having the best midfield in the world - for me it's still unbalanced. Maybe Xabi and Lucas can form the partnership that would free Stevie. I hope so coz the lad doesn't look happy at the moment.

[cobain]

He needs Xabi to do the passing for him, Momo doesn't help him

Or Lucas