Liverpool FC Forum

[aCe']

is a Lucas-Mascherano partnership going to be any good ?

The way our team plays it would certainly be better than Gerrard-Mascherano partnership. That has been proved not to work in the past. Playing those two centrally doesn't work because both are 100mph players. Neither have that much positional discipline (unless you tell Gerrard to do so and therefore restrict his attacking influence). We'd have nobody to put their foot on the ball.

good point but i dont think its as easy to explain as you make it out to be...

I have absolutely no doubt that our style of play would fail miserably if we played a Lucas-Mascherano partnership down the middle regularly next season... The way we play, we rely on that someone down the middle who links up play from our defensive players to our attacking ones... some call him a deep-lying playmaker, some call him a holding midfielder with great passing, whatever he is, we use him to bring in the attacking player into the game with little fuss and  in the best positions available.. Lucas doesnt have it in him turning on the ball and playing it wide to Kuyt or picking a pass to Gerrard in the middle of a crowd of opposition players, Mascherano doesnt have it in him either... What happens in most cases when both are played is that they either opt for the short pass to the player next to them, or they simply lose possession by making a wrong decision/pass.... As it is, we dont have a Ronaldo or Kaka or Fabregas in our side who would take the ball from deep and dictate our play... if we ask Gerrard to come much deeper to recieve the ball then thats a major part of his attacking contribution gone.... just cant see it happening..

So long story short, if it came down to either Lucas-Mascherano down the middle or Gerrard-Mascherano down the middle i'd be all for the latter.... with the Lucas-Mascherano thing we'd just struggle to get any sort of meaningful possession against any decent side... it could be a defensively solid partnership (not too sure about that either) but it certainly wouldnt do us much favors in an attacking sense...

[roberto green]

is a Lucas-Mascherano partnership going to be any good ?

The way our team plays it would certainly be better than Gerrard-Mascherano partnership. That has been proved not to work in the past. Playing those two centrally doesn't work because both are 100mph players. Neither have that much positional discipline (unless you tell Gerrard to do so and therefore restrict his attacking influence). We'd have nobody to put their foot on the ball.

I don't necessarily agree with it but the Lucas/Mash partnership worked against the mancs when we won 4-1 away

[aCe']

is a Lucas-Mascherano partnership going to be any good ?

The way our team plays it would certainly be better than Gerrard-Mascherano partnership. That has been proved not to work in the past. Playing those two centrally doesn't work because both are 100mph players. Neither have that much positional discipline (unless you tell Gerrard to do so and therefore restrict his attacking influence). We'd have nobody to put their foot on the ball.

I don't necessarily agree with it but the Lucas/Mash partnership worked against the mancs when we won 4-1 away

would it work against some of the sides that we're going to try and control the possession against though ?!
id understand us going for it in a big game where defensive cover is perhaps more important than creating chances but against a Stoke or so when we actually need to go out there and work the ball around the pitch would it be any good ?
Correct me if im wrong because i dont really remember games and lineups as well as most do but didnt we play a very direct style against ManUtd that day until the sending off ?!

[ConnO'var]

Pull Gerrard back but don't buy a striker...... I think Nando plays best as a lone striker. Play Yossi in Gerrard's current position.

Spend the money on wingers and let the youngsters have a go at backing-up the 1st team.
Would love to have big name players but in the current climate, I don't think we have the resources to make it happen.

[GYBS]

why the hell would we break up the partnership of gerrard/torres ??! we did that when we got keane and look what happened whe we restored it ??

[roberto green]

is a Lucas-Mascherano partnership going to be any good ?

The way our team plays it would certainly be better than Gerrard-Mascherano partnership. That has been proved not to work in the past. Playing those two centrally doesn't work because both are 100mph players. Neither have that much positional discipline (unless you tell Gerrard to do so and therefore restrict his attacking influence). We'd have nobody to put their foot on the ball.

I don't necessarily agree with it but the Lucas/Mash partnership worked against the mancs when we won 4-1 away

would it work against some of the sides that we're going to try and control the possession against though ?!
id understand us going for it in a big game where defensive cover is perhaps more important than creating chances but against a Stoke or so when we actually need to go out there and work the ball around the pitch would it be any good ?
Correct me if im wrong because i dont really remember games and lineups as well as most do but didnt we play a very direct style against ManUtd that day until the sending off ?!

I have to admit if we want either of them to get a grip of the ball and start dictating the tempo of the game I couldn't really see which player it would come from, they would be good in a defensive situation against the bigger teams but against a stoke at home, who would be spraying the ball out to the key attacking players.Yes so I think your right, But we haven't done to bad with the pair of them in the past

[aCe']

Pull Gerrard back but don't buy a striker...... I think Nando plays best as a lone striker. Play Yossi in Gerrard's current position.

Spend the money on wingers and let the youngsters have a go at backing-up the 1st team.
Would love to have big name players but in the current climate, I don't think we have the resources to make it happen.

I dont think that would be a good move... if we break up the Gerrard-Torres forward partnership then we'll need to make sure that the goals would come from somewhere else.. im not sure Benny is the answer... A Villa or some other top class forward could be, if we assume they'd score as many if not more than what Gerrard would..

[roberto green]

Lets just pump all our money into David Villa

[aCe']

Lets just pump all our money into David Villa

FCK YEA !

[stmichael]

Lets just pump all our money into David Villa

There's more chance of signing me than David Villa. The guy has said on a consistent basis that he wants to stay in Spain which basically means that he's got to now stay at Valencia as Madrid don't need him and Barca can't afford him.

[Highland Red]

Lets just pump all our money into David Villa

There's more chance of signing me than David Villa. The guy has said on a consistent basis that he wants to stay in Spain which basically means that he's got to now stay at Valencia as Madrid don't need him and Barca can't afford him.

I wouldn't be so hasty in your statements there. Only yesterday news reports were once again circulating that Valencia are having serious money woes and that Liverpool WILL launch a bid for Villa once the Xabi deal goes through.

Villa HAS stated that he would only sign for Liverpool and no one else in England, having already knock back Real and Barca.

Next week should be interesting.

[GYBS]

And villa has also stated lately that he will not be leaving spain due to his wife giving birth in novmeber

[Fauxy]

Lets just pump all our money into David Villa

There's more chance of signing me than David Villa. The guy has said on a consistent basis that he wants to stay in Spain which basically means that he's got to now stay at Valencia as Madrid don't need him and Barca can't afford him.

I wouldn't be so hasty in your statements there. Only yesterday news reports were once again circulating that Valencia are having serious money woes and that Liverpool WILL launch a bid for Villa once the Xabi deal goes through.

Villa HAS stated that he would only sign for Liverpool and no one else in England, having already knock back Real and Barca.

Next week should be interesting.

He said he would only play for Liverpool?    Where did you hear that?

[Owzat]

Why create two roles to fill by moving Gerrard? At the moment we need to find a good CM/"deep lying playmaker" to replace Alonso, but if we drop Gerrard back into midfield/CM then do we not a) risk him not being as productive and b) have to find someone to play his current role to the same level?

Why fix what ain't broke? If your car has a flat front tyre you don't swap it with the back tyre now do you?

[aCe']

Why create two roles to fill by moving Gerrard? At the moment we need to find a good CM/"deep lying playmaker" to replace Alonso, but if we drop Gerrard back into midfield/CM then do we not a) risk him not being as productive and b) have to find someone to play his current role to the same level?

Why fix what ain't broke? If your car has a flat front tyre you don't swap it with the back tyre now do you?

wooooooooooot ?!

if we bring in someone like Villa to play upfront, then you'd expect him to score as many goals as Gerrard would if not more...
Gerrard from midfield next season on his own would probably score more than Alonso and Mascherano combined did in the last couple of years... so as far as us becoming a weaker side as a result of such a change, i dont think it would happen... Other factors also come into consideration .. the side would have more options upfront to break 'par the bus' sides... we'd have the option of going back to a 4-5-1 if one of our forwards is injured... and overall, we'd look a better side going forward...

The main concern however would have to be the balance of the side if we decide to change things around...

Gerrard-Mascherano.... would it work ?
Kuyt as a RM.... could he be anywhere near as productive if moved further back ?
Our back 4.... would they suffer from missing that extra protection that having 2 holding midfielders gave them ?


Point is, us being top goalscorers last season meant fck all when all was said and done.. our main problem (for a few years now) is breaking smaller sides that just sit back and defend... With Alonso gone and with all the money we have now, this could be our one chance of changing things around a little to add some creativity to our attacking play... I dont think bringing in an attacking midfielder to play the Gerrard role would be of any use... the only attacking midfielder i can think of who could do anywhere near as well as Gerrard would is Kaka... Maybe Lampard or ronaldinho to a lower extent but none of them are players we'll ever have in our side...
so to me, its either we bring in someone to replace Alonso in which case we'd have to hope that our chances for improving against the smaller sides would somehow increase despite us doing little to addreess the issue, or we bring in a top class forward and change our setup and hope that doesnt disturb the balance of the side...

Im not too sure about the whole Silva thing either... Riera to me is a good player and improving on him is pretty much a luxury we cant afford.. there are other areas in the squad and other concerns in need of addressing, and id rather we focused on that...