Liverpool FC Forum

[7_Kewell]

Anyone not too bothered if Aquilani was sold?  I just dont see this guy becoming the player we hoped.

if we could get our money back then yes, but i fear he's worth half of what we paid. I hope he proves me wrong, but i fear he is one of the WORST signings in LFC history. Right behind Robbie Keane and Ryan Babel.

[Benny The Noon]

Worst signings in history ?

Worse than

Diao
Diouf
Dundee
Stewart
Kvarme
Cheyrou
Carter
- many more that were bought 90s and early 00s

[7_Kewell]

Worst signings in history ?

Worse than

Diao
Diouf
Dundee
Stewart
Kvarme
Cheyrou
Carter
- many more that were bought 90s and early 00s

eh, Aquilani and Keane cost us more than ALL of those players combined. so yes, much worse.

[Benny The Noon]

So financially worse as opposed to ability wise then ?

[aCe']

I think he's an excellent team player when surrounded by players who play a similar game to his... He would work just fine for a Barcelona or Arsenal... If we have him playing close to Gerrard, Cole and even Torres then the strengths to his game could show and prove important to our build-up play... If we choose to play a more direct style then i guess he wont fit in that system particularly well... Selling him this summer wouldnt be the right move imo... Give him the chance and use him right and i think he'll become an important player for our side...

Deco was outstanding for Barcelona... Couldnt even get in the Chelsea squad ahead of the likes of Mikel, Malouda and Ballack when everyone was fit... It's a different story for us though... I feel with Mascherano, Gerrard, Kuyt, and Cole, theres room for a player like Aquilani to come in and help connect the midfield to the attack through short passes..

[Benny The Noon]

For the above to work does he fill that gap behind striker instead of Torres with cole out left or next to masher with gerrard behind Torres

[bigmick]

It's the same old problem with Alberto. To get the best out of him you've kind of got to build your team around him and make concessions in other positions. The problem is, he isn't actually good enough to make all the effort worth it.

[Benny The Noon]

Do you really thou ? In the good old 451 he slots in two positions while other people slot in as well , no one is having to be moved to accommodate him . In a 442 it maybe true but I don't believe we have the players to truly play that formation to a great deal of success .

[bigmick]

He can probably/almost certainly play in a 4-5-1 at the head of the midfield, but Cole will offer more than he will in there, and Gerrard certainly would. It is unproven whether or not he could play as a central two, but if he could you'd have to play a full on defensive midfielder in there to compensate for the fact he doesn't put a tackle in.

If he was going to score 10-15 goals a season and win you lots of matches with game changing interventions, fair enough but I don't think he would. At what he does, we have two other players IMHO who do it better. If you lay him in there you've got to shunt Cole out onto the wing and drop Gerrard into midfield. Gerrard into midfield works for me, but your moving Cole to put a less effective player in there.

All this is based on WHAT WE HAVE SEEN SO FAR. Obviously he may leave last seasons form well behind, run around tackling like a madman and scored a Gerrardesque 20 odd goals from midfield for all I know. I'm just saying that I don't think he will. It has to be said that based on what we've seen so far, buying him for 20 million quid was a truly awful piece of business.

[Benny The Noon]

Cole best seasons at Chelsea and best time with England were both in a wide left role - he was prob for a period of two seasons the best left sided player in the country and that's where I hope he plays . During the games that aqua did feature late last season he started next to masher with gerrard ahead of him and they linked up very well and also had the ability to switch around as the game went on .

I think he ended up one of our top assist players despite playing so little and managed to get on the score sheet a few times as well . He certainly has the ability and I think he could be a very good player for us

[aCe']

It's the same old problem with Alberto. To get the best out of him you've kind of got to build your team around him and make concessions in other positions. The problem is, he isn't actually good enough to make all the effort worth it.

Ermmm.. Why would you have to build your team around him ?

with              Mascherano
            Gerrard            Aquilani
Kuyt                                         Cole
                       Torres

One of our main problems last season was our inability to move the ball around and transition from defense to attack without losing  possession cheaply.. We lacked a midfielder who was able to dictate the tempo and bring forwards (wingers included) into play at the right time... Much as i hate to say it, Gerrard will never be a player to help us dictate the tempo or retain possession.. He loses the ball too often for him to be playing that role with us having hope of challenging for the title.. If we are to rely on Gerrard filling that role we'll have to bring in wingers who can carry the ball and provide the time and space for players to make their runs..

Anyways, as things stand, i think its too late for us to be looking for an Alonso, Pirlo, Carrick, Ballack..etc  sort of player.. Our best bet is to have Aquilani playing alongside Gerrard keeping it simple when it needs to be.. He certainly has the technique, vision and passing range to do the job but my only concern is whether he can develop physically and/or mentally to be able to withstand the pressure he will be under for playing that position...

[Benny The Noon]

Will be happy with that formation and think it can work - we also have cover in most areas with Maxi , Lucas , Babel and Jovanovic just need the cover for torres

[Bad Bob]

He can probably/almost certainly play in a 4-5-1 at the head of the midfield, but Cole will offer more than he will in there, and Gerrard certainly would.

I don't want to jinx things but neither Cole nor Aquilani have exactly been iron men the last two seasons.  If one of them gets hurt, it might be a good plan to have the other as back-up.  If both are fit, we have genuine competition for the between the lines slot.  Win win.

[aCe']

He can probably/almost certainly play in a 4-5-1 at the head of the midfield, but Cole will offer more than he will in there, and Gerrard certainly would.

I don't want to jinx things but neither Cole nor Aquilani have exactly been iron men the last two seasons.  If one of them gets hurt, it might be a good plan to have the other as back-up.  If both are fit, we have genuine competition for the between the lines slot.  Win win.

Im 100% against the idea of either one of them playing 'the Gerrard role' as a second striker behind Torres... They both dont offer enough in terms of goals be moving Gerrard that far back to compensate...

When Gerrard played that role, he did very little defensively and usually relied on Alonso-Mascherano getting the ball forward to him and Torres through the middle... Worked a treat... We dont have an Alonso sort of player for this to work and i'd rather have a complete change of mentality and maybe try to change our style of play into a more simple short passing possession game instead of the direct game that we played with Gerrard-Torres when Alonso was in the side..

Have Gerrard and Aquilani moving forward from deeper with Joe Cole roaming around the box to provide support higher up... Would give the likes of Johnson more time and space to bomb forward and overlap with Mascherano dropping even deeper to cover in front of the back4 .. He certainly wouldnt have much to do in terms of buildup play higher up the pitch..

A different concern however would be the pace of our centerbacks.. We'll have to play a higher line and might get caught... mmm...

[Scottbot]

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