Xabi Or Masher?...You decide.

[CAD]

*thinks about Heskeys first season*

[carheex]

*thinks about Heskeys first season*

*thinks about the rest of heskey's seasons*

[Nic83]

There's something wrong with he poll mate.

[ForeverRed]

I hear Juventus are keeping check on the Mascherano situation, why not offload Alonso there...£20mil.

Not that we should offload him, but if the situation arises....

[AFII]

I hear Juventus are keeping check on the Mascherano situation, why not offload Alonso there...£20mil.

Not that we should offload him, but if the situation arises....

Eh, if we offload Alonso to them then they would probably not be interested in Momo anymore.

[ForeverRed]

Eh, if we offload Alonso to them then they would probably not be interested in Momo anymore.

Call it £25mil and they can have both

Or momo swap for Trezeguet?

[CharlieMansonsSquint]

There isn't an option for keeping both and selling Gerrard?!

Seriously though?

If you're ****ing retarded, yes.

[Red Chilli]

Xabi for me, he's more positive and more creative than Mascherano.

I have never been able to work out why Rafa hasn't given the Gerrard-Alonso midfield partnership a proper chance.

[CharlieMansonsSquint]

If someone offered good money for Alonso, I'd sell without blinking.

Let's be honest here, he's nowhere near effective offensively as Gerrard is. People harp on about his passing, which is good don't get me wrong, but Gerrrad plays more incisive telling passes than Alonso. Then there's Stevie's goal threat on top of that.

And Xabi doesn't protect that back 4 as well as either Gerrard or Mascher will, he simply doesn't have the recovery pace of either or the tacking ability.

Good player, but third best of the group, and the Gerrard and Mascher combo has everything you need in a modern midfield pairing. Gerrard/Alonso or Mascherano/Alonso, as good as those pairings will be, will always be lacking something.

[Red Chilli]

If someone offered good money for Alonso, I'd sell without blinking.

Let's be honest here, he's nowhere near effective offensively as Gerrard is. People harp on about his passing, which is good don't get me wrong, but Gerrrad plays more incisive telling passes than Alonso. Then there's Stevie's goal threat on top of that.

And Xabi doesn't protect that back 4 as well as either Gerrard or Mascher will, he simply doesn't have the recovery pace of either or the tacking ability.

Good player, but third best of the group, and the Gerrard and Mascher combo has everything you need in a modern midfield pairing. Gerrard/Alonso or Mascherano/Alonso, as good as those pairings will be, will always be lacking something.

WHAT?

Xabi's a great little tackler and has plenty of pace for a central midfielder. Can't believe how low some people rate Xabi's defensive contributions.

[tomasjj]

If someone offered good money for Alonso, I'd sell without blinking.

Let's be honest here, he's nowhere near effective offensively as Gerrard is. People harp on about his passing, which is good don't get me wrong, but Gerrrad plays more incisive telling passes than Alonso. Then there's Stevie's goal threat on top of that.

And Xabi doesn't protect that back 4 as well as either Gerrard or Mascher will, he simply doesn't have the recovery pace of either or the tacking ability.

Good player, but third best of the group, and the Gerrard and Mascher combo has everything you need in a modern midfield pairing. Gerrard/Alonso or Mascherano/Alonso, as good as those pairings will be, will always be lacking something.

Sorry, but Alonso is much more positionally disciplined and able to do that job.
He could use more pace, but makes up for it with intelligence and positioning. His tackling is underrated imo.

[carheex]

If someone offered good money for Alonso, I'd sell without blinking.

Let's be honest here, he's nowhere near effective offensively as Gerrard is. People harp on about his passing, which is good don't get me wrong, but Gerrrad plays more incisive telling passes than Alonso. Then there's Stevie's goal threat on top of that.

And Xabi doesn't protect that back 4 as well as either Gerrard or Mascher will, he simply doesn't have the recovery pace of either or the tacking ability.

Good player, but third best of the group, and the Gerrard and Mascher combo has everything you need in a modern midfield pairing. Gerrard/Alonso or Mascherano/Alonso, as good as those pairings will be, will always be lacking something.

Spot on. We don't need to sit on a potential 15-20m we could get for Alonso (who isn't quite up to the job) when we've got Lucas as cover.

[Kopite_Colin]

Why isn't anyobne saying we should keep Xabi AND Mascherano and offloading Momo AND Lucas if necessary? We all know what Gerrard, Masher & Xabi can do. Lucas maybe the future, but we need a combination RIGHT NOW, and we know that Xabi currently knows and fits into our style better than Lucas.

If we could only keep 3 of our 5 CMs at present I'd go for Gerrard, Xabi & Mascherano. Lucas is on a long contract - we bought him for good money and is young enough, on a sufficiently long enought contract to be able to demand top dollar and is highly rated enough to get a good price for. If we were forced into a corner RIGHT NOW that's the way I'd go.

Would we get more for Alonso at the current stage of his contract or Lucas? We're not just building for the future here we need a team capable of competing right now. This might be a sacrifice we need to make to get there quicker rather than Lucas being a top CMer for us in 5 years time.

Interesting point (for me at least)

[Neil Young]

Why isn't anyobne saying we should keep Xabi AND Mascherano and offloading Momo AND Lucas if necessary? We all know what Gerrard, Masher & Xabi can do. Lucas maybe the future, but we need a combination RIGHT NOW, and we know that Xabi currently knows and fits into our style better than Lucas.

If we could only keep 3 of our 5 CMs at present I'd go for Gerrard, Xabi & Mascherano. Lucas is on a long contract - we bought him for good money and is young enough, on a sufficiently long enought contract to be able to demand top dollar and is highly rated enough to get a good price for. If we were forced into a corner RIGHT NOW that's the way I'd go.

Would we get more for Alonso at the current stage of his contract or Lucas? We're not just building for the future here we need a team capable of competing right now. This might be a sacrifice we need to make to get there quicker rather than Lucas being a top CMer for us in 5 years time.

Interesting point (for me at least)

The only one I think we might as well sell is Momo.

I refuse to choose between Alonso, Gerrard, Mascherano and Lucas.

If need be sell Carson and Crouch to get Mascherano.

[Kopite_Colin]

I'm not saying I WANT to sell Lucas right now, but IF we could only keep 3 CMs , then they are the 3 I'd plump for right now.