Xabi Alonso reveals reason for leaving

[CJ]

i think this poor Xabi stuff is a bit out of context.

whilst rafa is not a great man manager (i really wish he was)

saying that if our boss bought someone in to replace us how would we feel. Football is a competative game and you need to be strong mentally to compete at the highest level.

All managers want new faces it keeps pressure on players to perform. If i got replaced i couldnt simply walk somewhere else for same or more money etc like good footballers can.

I would say that with that threat Xabi had his best season for us. So in part it worked. I think the baby thing was the start of the breakdown between Xabi and Rafa. THis i do think is Rafas fault but the rest flowed from that.

Also with the money we dont have you have to make bold decisions some times and with the foreigner rule he may have thought i need to get an english lad in (though we are linked with lots of non english this window so dont know if that is valid)

players move its a fact of life in football for everybody apart from us fans.

[red g]

Xabi was playing better than a 12million player, thats an insult from Juve!!

[Dero]

I thought that Rafa was buying Barry to play on the left, so not really a replacement for Xabi; surely he would been in compitition with Gerrard, Masch and Lucas.
Or was that only with the Keane thing and switching to a 4-4-2?

[vlahka]

He was selling alonso to fund Barry. It was always the case. He even said it.

[Pippo]

The whole midfield plays too deep. Therefore short balls out of defense are easily read and intercepted by the opposition and also we lack the option of longer balls to players high up on the flanks. The latter type of ball are easier to execute for defenders and both Hyypia and to a lesser extent Carragher are actually good at playing them. The second factor is connected and is the lack of width which means that long balls are generally concentrated centrally - consequently having to be higher and being met by more players reducing the odds of a useful long ball. Nonetheless because the midfield is too deep long balls still look like a good option to defenders as deep midfielders get tackled close to the defense and as I said when there is little space passes here are easily intercepted. All of this means that despite having less good odds than when we play well long balls still seem to defenders to offer benefits in terms of safety..

IMO the midfield never really has a chance to get forward to support the attackers, because we aren't holding it up in forward areas well enough. This is one of Torres only weaknesses really, at times his ball retention is poor and he doesn't look for the easy lay off to his CM.

Consequently, I think we've always tried to use our 'Big' wide mids for the out ball from the back, but Kuyt has been in poor form and Riera has been out injured.

Obviously we can't expect Benayoun to pluck a 60 yard ball out the air, under pressure form a full-back, so I think we need greater presence in support of Torres.

Hopefully with the arrival of Maxi we can pitch Dirk back up front, I'd prefer him harrying opposition defenders than defending in his own half.

[Guest]

He was selling alonso to fund Barry. It was always the case. He even said it.

So ****ing what? Alonso was under performing. Look at City now, it seems Barry is doing well with them.

[dww]

He was selling alonso to fund Barry. It was always the case. He even said it.

To be fair he also seems to have said we were going to play 4-4-2 with Barry left and Keane up front in his original plan. I think there was a lot of plan changing that summer which is what led to the odd balance of signings and a lot of the problems. I don't think it would have happened with Purslow in charge.

[rudedog]

So ****ing what? Alonso was under performing. Look at City now, it seems Barry is doing well with them.

Gerrard is underperforming, should we sell him also?

[Guest]

Gerrard is underperforming, should we sell him also?

Can you compare Alonso with Gerrard though? Gerrard is the heartbeat of the team, even if he's not playing well he can change games with a goal, a little bit of inspiration. Alonso wasn't capable of any of this, not to the consistency that Gerrard does it though.

As I said previously, Alonso plays a specific position, he can't play anywhere else. Rafa mentioned this last season. Lucas can play anywhere around the midfield too. Same can be said to Mascherano but I think Rafa decided that he needed more options, even if that meant sacrificing Alonso.

People should move on, he's gone and it's not just his loss which has made us into a laughing stock this season. There are other factors also, which maybe contributed more.

[BillobShaisley]

Don't you think the reason that other teams might have been reluctant to shell out more than £12 million was down to the fact that he'd had an injury hit season and hadn't shown anything like his previous form since coming back from injury?


I think we got Aquilani on a knock down price for a similar reason.

I think some people are just bitter because he left and to be honest, I don't really blame them - football is an emotional sport and not everyone is as enlightened/forgiving as myself.

Learn to read Its not emotional its cold, hard and professional. Lay off the

[rudedog]

Learn to read Its not emotional its cold, hard and professional. Lay off the

Learn to undestand context - when I said football is emotional, I was speaking form the perspective of the fans.

[BillobShaisley]

Am I not a fan? You implied i was bitter because he left and emotional about it which was why I made my post, then called me a ******.

Everything about that would be incorrect, I wasn't bitter that he left or upset at Rafa for allowing him to go in the circumstances, but then he said it was a career decision at the time rather than so he could flounce about like a great poofter.