Mascherano is...

[peekay]

Mascherano is a world class player. Lucas is a decent player. Neither are rubbish. The issue is that neither of them complement each other.

I normally stay away from criticizing the manager, but he has to take the flak on this one. We have a 20 million player, fully fit and sitting on the bench. He is a 25 year old midfielder who has played for Roma, not an 18 year old precocious talent who needs to be nurtured slowly.

[poorscousertommy]

**** me, I hope this is a wind up thread than anyone actually believing Mascherano could in any way at all be called rubbish.

If this is a true thread I may start one called "Chewbacca is a **** wookie who knows nothing about football....discuss"

[Marky]

Ffs

[ronanm]

Mascherano is good enough - not as goood as Essien though. Essien is a beast - scores the odd goal and can play at centre back. Not our weakest area though so I don't question his inclusion, what abour the other 7 (Reina,Macher, Torres and GJ at left wing only)?

[Kinell]

He's stepped up again this season, his defensive side to the game is still outstanding and he really goes looking for the ball and is passing alot more in the absence of Alonso. Great player, great passion, and the type of player we need more of at the club.

[javier_monsterano]

Take monsterano out of the team,I'm sure soon enough you would notice a difference.
He's good at what he does.

[Fan65]

It's so obvious that playing alongside Alonso makes anyone look good......oh

[FatTony]

The problem however is that Lucas does the same job as him. Mascher does not have a box to box creative force alongside him and thats what he needs. Thats what we need

Thats exactly what the problem is. Mascher is one of the best in his position, the problem is his partner in the middle doesn't complement him.

[cream]

Theres not many players in the world that can chase down their opponent like a cheetah and pick his pocket the way Mascherano does.

[Roboklopp]

Javier Mascherano is the best in the world at DM. The problem Liverpool FC have at present is that they are playing a similar type of player next to him in Lucas.

I'm not going to slag off Lucas because he has improved this year and looks like he has the potential to be a very good DM in his own right.

But Lucas and Masch as a partnership in 90% of premier league games just do not work. Against the better teams it's fine because Liverpool need to battle hard to win the midfiled and fight for every blade of grass.

But against the weaker teams the territory is conceded by the opposition and as such we do not need two battlers to scrap for the ball, we need someone who can unlock a team with at least ten players behind the ball. We need someone to get the ball moving quickly, someone who can spot an opening quickly and then make the pass.

I've seen both Lucas and Masch have the odd moment of joy in finding this pass, but it does not happen often enough for either of them to have any serious impact against the weaker teams.

[Roboklopp]

Maureen won the league being largely as defensive as our Rafa, but he was a lot quicker to make wholescale subs. That's a lot easier with the wealth of talent he had on the bench tho.

The balance of the team is all wrong wi L&M in the centre though, but neither are individually at fault for that. I saw this coming once we sold xabi- we were far too reliant on his creativity/ tempo dictation. Money again to some extent that.

[red g]

Maureen won the league being largely as defensive as our Rafa, but he was a lot quicker to make wholescale subs. That's a lot easier with the wealth of talent he had on the bench tho.

The balance of the team is all wrong wi L&M in the centre though, but neither are individually at fault for that. I saw this coming once we sold xabi- we were far too reliant on his creativity/ tempo dictation. Money again to some extent that.

maybe he could just play aqiliani

[Exiled_red]

Mascherano is a world class player. Lucas is a decent player. Neither are rubbish. The issue is that neither of them complement each other.

I normally stay away from criticizing the manager, but he has to take the flak on this one. We have a 20 million player, fully fit and sitting on the bench. He is a 25 year old midfielder who has played for Roma, not an 18 year old precocious talent who needs to be nurtured slowly.

[Exiled_red]

We're opening negatiations to extend his contract

http://www.skysports.com/story/0,195...751276,00.html

Reds open talks with Masch
Reds boss looks to quash Barca rumours
By Richard Bailey

Rafa Benitez has admitted that Liverpool have opened talks with Javier Mascherano about extending his contract.

The midfielder has been strongly linked with a move away from Anfield for some months, with Barcelona said to be the most likely destination.

The Reds have continually denied that the Argentina international is for sale, particularly as the reports came so soon after the club sold influential midfielder Xabi Alonso to Real Madrid in the summer.

Mascherano, who has admitted to finding it hard to settle on Merseyside in the past, appears to have turned the corner and discussions are under way.

Positive
"We were talking with him and his agent a month ago about our idea and his idea," Benitez said.

"Everyone can see he's doing really well and has come back to his best. We were really pleased to talk to him to make progress.

"We have plenty of time but we are happy with him and he is happier now too. He has two more years on his contract, we were talking before and we will sit down sooner rather than later and talk about the future.

"The last conversations that we had were very positive."

[ronniedrew]

masch would walk into the barca team(the best club team in the world), and thats why they want him