by fivecups » Sat Apr 16, 2005 8:48 pm
It's a great discussion to be able to have:
'Which of our central midfielders is more world class than the other?'
It's a difficult question to answer. As said they are different types of midfielder. Xabi is made to play in front of the back four, protecting them and distributing the ball to the rest of the midfield and the strikers. His passing is sublime - his performance today was as good a display of passing as I've ever seen - simply unbelievable. Despite the draw, there was real quality in our play today, it seemed to emanate from Xabi and settle on everyone else.
Steven Gerrard has been the best Liverpool player in a red shirt since John Barnes at his peak. He is more offensive than Alonso. He's also more versatile - he can play the holding role if needed - as he does for England. He can play on either wing if required although I think that's a waste, and he's likely to give you 10 goals in a season. He's a world class passer of the ball - not many people can play those raking cross-field passes so successfully. He's got natural ability, vision, pace and he can tackle. He's got desire and can run the whole match and not get tired. He too, can dictate the pace of matches, and he can win matches. He's not perfect - we all know he tries to do too much himself, he can loose possession, can be too elaborate and loose form like the first couple of months of this year. Most damaging of all, when he thinks too much he can't play and he does get injured. But he's not over-rated. Im not the only person that thinks this. There's a reason why he's worth £30 million, and every big team in Europe want him in their midfield.
Im glad I don't have to choose!
