Alonso

[saj]

I have never subscribed to this idea that Xabi preformed better in his last season to impress potential suitors or prove a point to Rafa . Fair enough it might have helped as an incentive, but Xabi was an excellent professional an I’m sure was just as determined in previous seasons. It’s going over old ground, but not only did the injuries severely hamper his form, but it also took him a while adapting to a deeper more disciplined role after Didi left. Even when he did adapt to his new role (long before last season), people were still criticising his form because he wasn’t playing like the playmaker Xabi from the first season (a victim of his own success?). Similarly to Lucas, Xabi was excellent at anticipating moves and won possession back countless times, yet because he wasn’t as flamboyant in the tackle as Masch or Momo people weren’t noticing. I remember watching him put a string of really excellent performances together and yet the majority were still slating him. After a somewhat average performance in my eyes, I was then surprised to see Xabi get an unexpected amount of praise from certain people. It wasn’t until the next week that I got round to watching MOTD for that weekend, and found out that Hansen had highlighted Xabi’s defensive input (even though it was less than in recent performances) and that’s why people were suddenly praising him now. So although Xabi maybe wasn’t just as consistent as in his last season, he still put in plenty of excellent performances that people completely overlooked or soon forgot.

I also think people have become quite blasé about his first season now he’s left. He was absolutely outstanding for us. He put in what I would describe a perfect performance on more than one occasion. You can count the bad games he had on one hand, one finger maybe. Gerrard was supposed to go to Chelsea again that year, and unlike the previous season, it now didn’t seem that devastating. There were ongoing discussions all that season about how much of a better team we looked without Gerrard, and a lot of that was thanks to Xabi.

That is a very good post and again, I can't disagree with any of that.

If I recall the Opta stats showed that in Xabi's 2nd or 3rd season (the seasons when he was apparently ****), he was actually the best or one of the best tacklers in the league.

And he was an good professional as you have described (in fact all of the Spanish players we have signed have been). I would say he was outstanding (but moreso last year due to the team having more balance and confidence) in every season for us, even during those apparent 2 seasons when he was supposedly ****.

[Vermilion]

As i remember Alonso was showing some truly great form at the time Lampard nobbled him as far back as jan 05, to the extent that i believe Lamapard on that day made a concious decison to hurt him, just my opinion, but i remember that tackle, and it was frustration at being played off the park by Xabi that brought Lamapard to his decision, and left Xabi with a broken Ankle, if that injury hadn't come along maybe we'd have seen Xabi's best for longer, that injury really set him back, imo.



Looks like Xabi didn't think it was so innocent either..

Lampard said..'That night, when I heard how it had worked out, I felt very bad and phoned to apologise but he wouldn’t really have it and ever since he has that look in his eye when we meet, and there is always a bit of jostling and shoving.'

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-1133530/The-truth-Lampard-Alonso--Chelsea-star-Frank-warned-fireworks-time-advantage-Liverpool-man.html

[DannyMan2006]

He has been fairly regular for Spain to be honest for the last 4 years - he roughly started every other game under Aragones as he used to rotate his midfield around quite a lot. He has started virtually every game under Del Bosque though as he doesn't seem to rotate his team too much - Alonso starting every game for Spain now is not down to his form of last season.

It is. In the key games for Spain Alonso did not play unless there were injuries to others. In the Alonso position Spain played Marcos Senna ahead of him.

It could be argued by you that Alonso would now be ahead of Senna regardless of whether or not he had a cracking last season - age has caught up with Senna and Spain needed a new regular. But either way, Leading up to Euro 2008 and during the competition itself, when Spain had a big game Alonso did not start in a first XI.

[lfc]

is this point really worth raising again?

he was injured on and off for 2 and a half seasons. when he got a full season under his belt he was great for us. 1st season and last season for us were great. end of.

Hes gone and he aint comeing back move on with the new players i think hes a loss to us,but thats football

[saj]

It is. In the key games for Spain Alonso did not play unless there were injuries to others. In the Alonso position Spain played Marcos Senna ahead of him.

It could be argued by you that Alonso would now be ahead of Senna regardless of whether or not he had a cracking last season - age has caught up with Senna and Spain needed a new regular. But either way, Leading up to Euro 2008 and during the competition itself, when Spain had a big game Alonso did not start in a first XI.

Alonso's form has (apparently) not been great for Real this year and he has recieved a bit of criticism. Yet he's still a guarenteed starter for Spain - Del Bosque loves him

[rudedog]

I'm always surprised to see that people only seem to recall Xabi being here for 4 seasons.

He had 5 in total - 2 very good ones, then 1 not as good, then 1 where he was out for most of the season and never got going after he came back, then his last season which was also very good.

5 seasons.

[badpiggy]

I'm always surprised to see that people only seem to recall Xabi being here for 4 seasons.

He had 5 in total - 2 very good ones, then 1 not as good, then 1 where he was out for most of the season and never got going after he came back, then his last season which was also very good.

5 seasons.

for some weird reason the accepted wisdom on here by a lot of posters seems to be that alonso had 2 good seasons and 2/3 **** ones, we don't miss him now, he had really poor mobility and **** him for being a pussy anyway . alonso was a ****in brilliant player, hard as nails, adapted really well to becoming more defensive - his stats on tackles and ground covered were amongst the highest - and still kept the ability to dictate play when torres and gerrard were flying. it's not his ****in fault we didn't have torres all along ffs.

[barnes10]

I think the last post sums it up nicely:

"it's not his ****in fault we didn't have torres all along ffs."

I'll go with the line above, that basically, we radically improved our movement and clinical finishing in front of him last season which highlighted just how well he could make us tick.

so then. where do we go from here? in midfield Lucas + Aquilani actually seems more creative to me than masher and aquilani. making lucas a first choice defensive midfielder and masher on the bench/off to barca. lucas and masher is proven to result in dire creativity. is this too much to ask of aquilani in his first half season?

Whatever we have, we have lost a deep lying playmaker which means the defence have less cover. we've seen them get more exposed this season and ship goals. do we need a new defence?

of course this all assumes everything is dandy with the attack doesnt it. we've seen how brittle stevie and torres are over the last 2 seasons so what do we do there?

what do we do?