First choice midfield...

[Shaggy]

Double FAIL

[Armchairkopite]

Aquilani has started 4 Premier League matches. We've won all of them and haven't conceded a goal. He's also provided two assists in those games. Lucas and Mascherano together, have two assists in the Premier League during the entire season (one each).

Different players for different games I think it would be wrong to keep Lucas out of the team after the progression hes made this season. If his progree where to continue there is no doubt that by the time he is Aquilianis age he will be the far superior all round player.

Lucas is top because he probably played mote outfield games than anyone this year.

Lucas being top of the chart shows how poor everyone else has been. Lucas has hardly been standout IMO , he has done ok , but everyone giving him all the plaudits can't remember how painful that centre mid partnership has been specially at start of season.

Not his fault but rafa clearly believes he is better than he actually is!!!
Lucas is a good squad player but should not be 1st team he is simply to limited if people want him to play, do u want to drop masher? Or do we really believe that partnership works ?

Nonsense, complete and utter blinkered crap, while I agree that a lot of our top players have underperformed for the majority of the season it could be argued that because of the absense of a left sided plaer and a striker that makes runs off the shoulder off defenders has been missing that this has detracted from Lucas' game. A lot is made, myself included of the back and sideways passing this season but to be fair a lack of willing runners has made a contribution to that.

Just look at our last game for instace is it a coincedence that Lucas was still singled out as one of our top performers when surrounded by Torres, Gerrard, Maxi, Mascherano. People need to take off the Lucas 2008 shades and chuck them in the bin, we clearly have a player here with that is young and developing all the time. He has played the majority of the season alongside Mascherano who has 2 and a half years of development and experience on him yet when the going got tough earlier in the season is what the more inexperienced of the two that was taking the plaudits.

Lucas deserves a hell of a lot more respect then he gets.

xavi and iniesta for barca are the modern template of great midfielders. mobile, aggressive, fast,(well maybe not xavi) intelligent, skillfull. it pains me to see our first choices by comparison.

Why?? lets take for example Xavi you could only compare him to Gerrard both are advanced midfielders and are of the same experience at 30 years old, I know which one I would have in my side.

Iniesta is a really good player but I think that Lucas has a lot of attributes that Iniesta has again Iniesta has 2 and a half years more development then Lucas so to compre you need to look back then to see where Iniesta was to compare the two a little more accurately. The thing is though if Lucas had the time and space of the Spanish League he could be adifferent player and that goes vice versa for Iniesta. Personally I would say work rate, attitude, heading & tackling without going into too much detail would be charachteristics of Lucas' game where Iniesta would struggle.

But in Iniesta's breakout season Edmilson and van Bommel were injured/out of form and he played as the deepest position behind Xavi and Deco. He first started getting games when Xavi was injured in his position, but when he returned they slipped both of them into their midfield 3. He was able to play that role very effectively and despite not being physically strong enough, or having the defensive capacity. His ability to read the game, and his amazing skillset actually made him a really good option there.

Although nower days he mainly plays as a winger or advanced midfielder which I think is a bit of a waste of his true qualities. But he'd never fit into a double pivot midfield system which we play, I don't think.

Regarding our midfield, even though he's been poor I wouldn't mind Rafa rolling the dice a little and giving Aquilani some games. Clearly even though Lucas and Mascherano isn't as terrible a pairing as made out to be it isn't working very effectively. Aquilani may not have justified himself to start games, but when I consider all of the persistence Lucas has been given for such a humble return, I can't help but think that other players, Aquilani in this case deserves some of that same persistence. He cost a ****ing ****load and I can't help but cringe at the thought of another big name signing ending up a disaster for us, but unless things change quickly this has all of the ingredients of going that way.

The best is yet to come from Aquiliani, hes a quality player.

Spot on that. It'd be more accurate if the table was based on points per games played in (i.e. an average). Seen posted on another forum, that if it was done this way, the top 5 would be:

Johnson
Torres
Mascherano
Lucas
Reina

But methodology aside, anyone who's watched all our games in full, that doesnt think Reina's been our best performer this season, knows diddly squat about football, IMHO.

That table is pure anti Lucas bull****.
Johnson was hardly mom material before he got injured and Mascherano has played enough games to be top of the table but he has not been consistant enough.
Nobody can disagree that Reina has been outstanding thisd season but lets look at all the facts. Lucas is a young player that has been thrown in at the deep and when the chips where down he was actually performing in the middle of the park while others sulked, this could be why he has those extra 'mysterious' votes.

[badpiggy]

They're obviously wonderful players and a joy to watch, but neither are CM material in a 4231. Xavi always plays in front of a sitting midfielder (Senna, Toure, whoever) and Iniesta plays an even more advanced role.

that's true up to a point but the work they both do to win the ball back is classic CM stuff. to be honest, this just fits into my ongoing suspicion of rafa's obsession with formation and positional discipline. and no offence but there's something wrong with the way we're thinking if we look at palyers like xavi and iniesta and think they just wouldn't work in our formation.

barca survive with a dodgy defence because they work so hard to win the ball back when they lose it. scum just couldn't live with this in the CL final last season so i think players like xavi and iniesta would flourish here - yeah masher behind them sounds good - and **** systems.

[Shaggy]

that's true up to a point but the work they both do to win the ball back is classic CM stuff. to be honest, this just fits into my ongoing suspicion of rafa's obsession with formation and positional discipline. and no offence but there's something wrong with the way we're thinking if we look at palyers like xavi and iniesta and think they just wouldn't work in our formation.

barca survive with a dodgy defence because they work so hard to win the ball back when they lose it. scum just couldn't live with this in the CL final last season so i think players like xavi and iniesta would flourish here - yeah masher behind them sounds good - and **** systems.

If the miraculous chance of landing either of them arose, you'd **** the system off and build the team around those two, obv.

[JohnDoe]

Barcelona's defence is far better than ours. FAR better.

[Shaggy]

Agree with that. At the moment anyway. Hasn't been for 3-4 years but on this season's evidence there's no doubt. Puyol is ridiculously underrated by most and Pique has become a player.

[Guest]

Pique has 'piqued' this season.

[Kenneth]

[JohnDoe]

Agree with that. At the moment anyway. Hasn't been for 3-4 years but on this season's evidence there's no doubt. Puyol is ridiculously underrated by most and Pique has become a player.

I'd say based on last season as well.

Over the last couple of years, Puyol has been better than Carragher in every aspect of the game. Pique has been the best CB in the world over the last 18 months, easily. The only player that has come close to that form is Pepe of Real Madrid, but he's a different type of CB.

They've got Marquez on the bench who can walk into our team right now. Alves is the best RB out there and Abidal is also better than anything we have at LB even if he is their weakest link. They got Maxwell too who's again, better than anything we have at left back.

Barcelona's defence is extremely underrated, it is somehow assumed to be "dodgy" because it's overshadowed by their offensive game. Put our defence there and they'll embarrass themselves. Can you imagine players like Skrtel anb Insua fitting in their expansive game? They'll get killed with every counter attack.

[Guest]

I'd say based on last season as well.

Over the last couple of years, Puyol has been better than Carragher in every aspect of the game. Pique has been the best CB in the world over the last 18 months, easily. The only player that has come close to that form is Pepe of Real Madrid, but he's a different type of CB.

They've got Marquez on the bench who can walk into our team right now. Alves is the best RB out there and Abidal is also better than anything we have at LB even if he is their weakest link. They got Maxwell too who's again, better than anything we have at left back.

Barcelona's defence is extremely underrated, it is somehow assumed to be "dodgy" because it's overshadowed by their offensive game. Put our defence there and they'll embarrass themselves. Can you imagine players like Skrtel anb Insua fitting in their expansive game? They'll get killed with every counter attack.

Barca can play an 'expansive' game because they're extremely good with the ball, meaning they hardly ever lose it. Put a more potent team in front of them I'm sure their defence will look like Portsmouth.

[Armchairkopite]

I think Skrtle could do a job there.

[Guest]

Sktrel is by no means a bad player, neither is Insua.

[badpiggy]

If the miraculous chance of landing either of them arose, you'd **** the system off and build the team around those two, obv.

ahh but we wouldn't

[Armchairkopite]

Sktrel is by no means a bad player, neither is Insua.

Skrtel suffered from Carras poor form and decision makeing in the first half of the season, since then he has recovered and was outstanding away to Citeh. Its unfortunate for him to be injured when his form had recovered.

[JohnDoe]

Barca can play an 'expansive' game because they're extremely good with the ball, meaning they hardly ever lose it. Put a more potent team in front of them I'm sure their defence will look like Portsmouth.

Disagree completely. Watch their games and look at how they deal with counter attacks. They kill most of them 40 yards from goal and a lot of it is due to the positional play of their defenders. They make it work by sitting high up the pitch and choking the other team. You're never going to pull it off with our set of defenders, even with their midfield and attack in front of them.

Sktrel is by no means a bad player, neither is Insua.

Skrtel is a CB who can't head a ball and can't close down someone with his back to the goal without fouling him. Insua is a defender who's small, slow and weak. Never going to work in their team.