Should we sell SG?

[Sir Bob]

Now before I start, I wouldn't dream of selling him. I'm 40 now & he's the best player I've seen at LFC. Better than Kenny, Barnes & Rush. I never thought I'd see a better player than Kenny at LFC but i have.

however, a mate of mine reckons we should sell him. not because he doesn't rate but because he feels Rafa doesn't. Its pretty obvious that Rafa doesn't want to play SG in the middle of midfield. Alonso & Momo are now 1st choice there. Even for England, SG appears now to have to play wide right to get a game.

Now when SG plays wide right, he's often very influential but no matter how good you are its very hard to influence the game the same when you play out wide. In essence what we have is a midfield player worth £40m+ whom the manager doesn't want to play in his preferred position. We have a right winger who in the open market would fetch £40m. Now no matter how good you are out wide, no wide player is worth £40m.

Personally, I'd never sell SG, I'd build the team around him. I'd play 3 centre halves, 2 wing backs, & Momo, SG & Xabi in the middle. This would allow SG a free role, to wander where he liked to cause maximum damage. But Rafa is very unlikely to do this, so we are left with a player worth £40m who will play most of his games either wide right or wide left. surely we'd be better off with £40m for Rafa to spend on players like say alves, who Rafa really wanted.

So given the fact SG won't play much in the middle, should we sell him for say £40m & give Rafa the funds for players he really wants.

I say no but what do you think?

[Shaggy]

I could write a very long post here but instead I'll simply say...

No.

[rnm]

I think that's a very well written post and I agree that financially it probably makes some short-term sense.

But no money could replace the effect of ripping the heart of the team out.

I sincerely hope that SG isn't played on the left anymore, but I am more than happy when he sits on the right.

[Red_hot]

Lol. That's what I was gonna say!

[Red_hot]

Lol. That's what I was gonna say!

(reply to Shaggy!)

[rnm]

(no ****)

[Red_hot]

(no ****)

(**** off)

[Sir Bob]

As I said I wouldn't sell him but I do think Rafa needs to find a way of playing him in the centre. Playing him left midfield is a huge waste of his talent. He is very effective wide right at times but ideally you want your best players in the spine of your team & at present thats not the case is it.

[The Glove]

At the minute we have 3 outstanding central midfield players who each bring something different to the table so its really hard to drop one of them. So the only thing Rafa can do is play the 3 of them so its how we accomodate it. Gerrard is also better than any of our right sided midfield players so it makes sense to play him there rather than waste him or Alonso or Momo on the bench.

[anfieldanfield]

No.

[cobain]

No.

[alunevans]

No we shouldn't. We should play him in his proper position. Its ludicrous in my view to have a player who would command a fee of around 30 to 40 million and then play him elsewhere.

Though if Rafa is going to be with us for the long term, and if Rafa is not going to play him in his right position then he may as well because Stevie is a 40 million pound central midfielder. He's only a good right midfielder. And he's a very average left midfielder.

He can be replaced as a wide man. He can't be replaced in the centre. Though Rafa clearly thinks otherwise.

He's still our only world class footballer. If he goes I wouldn't be surprised. To be honest, if he can't get a game in his natural position I wouldn't blame him either. He has a short career and if he's having to make way for people who are out of form (such as Xabi) or who are not in his class (Pennant) then he has every right to look for a move in my view.

So I'd not be surprised. But I'd be mightily pissed off at Benitez this time, not Stevie.

[alunevans]

I also think that if Rafa had spent better in the Summer then we wouldn't have to be saying that Stevie is better than anything we have on the right. There I've said it.

He was meant to be buying players to plug the gaps in our squad. If we still have to force Gerrard out there because our right flank is so poor then I'm bemused at what we bought Pennant for.

Had we bought a right midfielder who Rafa believed was genuinely up to the job then we'd be playing that player on the right, and we'd have the luxury of leaving out one of our 3 central midfielders no matter how good one of them was.

[Diego]

never, i think we could not gain from his loss, you can't buy class like that, and you can't buy that kind of heart and dedication, he'd be half the player for any other team...

but having said that, i don't agree with the ones that say rafa doesn't rate him, i think stevie is a strange player, he's almost to perfect as he can do anything, i think rafa is still trying to find a position where he is at his best, we all agree he's waisted in the defencive position, and often when he's in the middle he has to much responsability in defencive areas, rafa is trying to free him of that so he can be all over the pitch and he doesn't have to be stuck in distributing the ball alonsos work or doing momo's dirty work. i think we can acomodate them all so they will all be at their best, just look at ac milan, used to play with sedorf, pirlo and gattuso in the middle with kaka in front...

i thik rafa loves steve cause he can play anywhere, and can perform any job.

[alunevans]

i thik rafa loves steve cause he can play anywhere, and can perform any job.

thats very possible, but he's turning him into a two bit utility player when in truth he's one of the best central midfielders on the planet. plus i don't think gerrard can do a job anywhere on the field.

i think he can do a job at right mid, though not the job he does in his own position. but putting him at left midfield is getting surreal.

didn't rafa complain at valencia that they'd bought him a lampshade when he wanted a sofa. well now at liverpool he's sat on a lampshade and pretending its comfortable. **** analogy huh?