Rafa Benitez tells Xabi Alonso: Step things up

[Elrond]

Notice the use of the word "might".

Or perhaps you didn't.

Thats exactly why I posted because of your use of the word might ...

I could do you a whole page full of mights, then I could change my name to AFIII...

[tomasjj]

Comparing Rafa with Houllier?

FFS!

[Elrond]

I still think Gerrard would be best as a free roaming right midfielder with Alonso and Masch in the middle ...

[CharlieMansonsSquint]

Thats exactly why I posted because of your use of the word might ...

I could do you a whole page full of mights, then I could change my name to AFIII...

Go and have a gander at the Dubai takeover thread.

You'll love it.

[CharlieMansonsSquint]

Comparing Rafa with Houllier?

FFS!

I see similarities.

You obviously disagree.

[Howard_lfc]

Comparing Rafa with Houllier?

FFS!

This currently feels very much like the last season under Houllier. I can understand the comparison at the moment.

[dww]

This currently feels very much like the last season under Houllier. I can understand the comparison at the moment.

I think it is a very superficial comparison though. It feels like things are bad and some players have looked under motivated. The differences are that there are genuine problems in the club external to the manager and he has always been a manager who rules by respect rather than being players friends. This makes the current situation hard for him to ride out when he has been undermined. Also unlike Houllier he has shown in the past that he will get rid of people who don't perform in the summer - even if he perseveres in the season (see Morientes for example). Along with that under Rafa the levels below the first team have seen a genuine and radical improvement.

There is far more hope in my opinion for Rafa to turn things round than there was for Houllier.

[Craig_H]

That's how it's got to be.

Yeah...

Shame he doesnt apply the same logic to Crouch and Kuyt, isnt it?

You'll no doubt back him up on that one though, being the inconsistent fella you are...

[redheart]

I said back in the early days of RAFA that he was the Spanish Eric Morecambe (and more and more of you now agree with me...although 3 years too late) and that Alonso was massively overrated and was very mediocre and not the world class player people held him out to be.

Looks like I was right on both counts

[dww]

Yes Morcombe being famed for his tactical prowess in Europe.

[Guest]

Yeah...

Shame he doesnt apply the same logic to Crouch and Kuyt, isnt it?

You'll no doubt back him up on that one though, being the inconsistent fella you are...

Inconsistent, me ?

I back Rafa in all his decisions, be it poor or good. And I never said that Kuyt was a better player than Crouch. For me, both are average players, with Crouch the least significant one.

[Jazzmaster]

I said back in the early days of RAFA that he was the Spanish Eric Morecambe (and more and more of you now agree with me...although 3 years too late) and that Alonso was massively overrated and was very mediocre and not the world class player people held him out to be.

Looks like I was right on both counts

You couldnt be more wrong. We all know what xabi is capable of becuase we saw his quality first hand in his debut season. The frustrating thing is that we havent see him reach that standard since for whatever reason.

He could not be classed as medicore certainly.

[Guest]

I said back in the early days of RAFA that he was the Spanish Eric Morecambe (and more and more of you now agree with me...although 3 years too late) and that Alonso was massively overrated and was very mediocre and not the world class player people held him out to be.

Looks like I was right on both cunts

[dww]

You couldnt be more wrong. We all know what xabi is capable of becuase we saw his quality first hand in his debut season. The frustrating thing is that we havent see him reach that standard since for whatever reason.

He could not be classed as medicore certainly.

I actually think you are also unfair on Alonso. He played a different role after the first season - a more defensive, less spectacular one. For me playing with Mascher (taking the place of Hamman for the team in his first season) we would see a lot more from him. I think we would have to give that axis a number of games to gel as at the minute we have become too reliant on Gerrards physical drive to start attacks and other players would (including Gerrard) have to adapt to the change in tactics.

[MrMichael]

Meh, just read this how does a thread about Alonso end up as much about Kuyt? I'm running out of ideas for new titles for Niall

Alonso's a strange one. To be honest, I thought we played our best football of the season when he was playing and Gerrard was injured. When Alonso was put out coincided with when everything started to go a bit wrong. Of course, Agger was injured at the same time, and I still don't think we've seen anything like the form he showed in his first season since then, but there's a class player in there somewhere, who is capable of playing football in the right way, and he certainly has more about him than the best of our options in other positions.

I'd be sad to see things not pick up for him again at Anfield.