Redman in wales wrote:But either Barton or nolan would be excellent replacements for hamann. Zendon is not LFC quality. at all. he was barely good enough for boro.
hamann is the guy in the middle we are really missing. alonso's passing is off at the moment, hamann would just step up to the plate, and hold the team together. but i would rather an off alonso to zenden, so the choices are abit limited at the moment.
The problem with Alonso/Sissoko is that they need each other to be effective. Alonso has a range of passing, excellent vision to start attacks, and he can control the tempo of the match.
What Sissoko lacks is passing, and he is not very tactically aware of his teammates around him, this in turn makes this choice when he passing very limited. But Sissoko gives us a physical presence in midfield, he has massive engine on him. You have the ability to stop attacks before they happen, even though he is a defensive midfielder he plays further up the pitch, usually in front of Alonso.
This is exactly what Alonso doesn’t off us, he needs a player like Sissoko to do all the dirty work for him. As soon as Sissoko wins the ball back it gets feed to Alonso. If Sissoko isn't playing well and isn't stopping attacks before they happen, in turn winning the ball back frequently, it's a problem because Alonso relies on Sissoko winning the ball back and feeding it to him.
Sissoko lacks variation of passing like Alonso. He always will play the simple ball to the closest team-mate, that is why it doesn't matter how good he is playing, if Alonso is having a bad game.
The difference is with Hamman he can come on and sit in front of the back four, allowing the attacking players to make runs into the box with out exposing the back four. A good example would have to be Istanbul.
