by Aussie Style » Mon Oct 18, 2010 10:19 pm
On the weekend where the crisis of England’s most successful club went from bad to worse with yet another defeat to Everton in the Merseyside Derby, a result that sees Liverpool floundering in the relegation zone, out-on-loan Reds midfielder Alberto Aquilani poured yet more salt into an already sore wound with an indomitable performance for an increasingly improving Juventus side.
While there is no doubt that Liverpool erred in splashing out €20 million on a player who has had more injuries than a Nigel De Jong torture victim, especially as he was signed as Xabi Alonso’s replacement, all this talk of the 26-year-old being an unmitigated ‘flop’ is rather, well, premfaced. Not only did Aquilani play very well in virtually all of his admittedly low number of 26 games for Liverpool last season, more importantly the 2007 Champions League finalists are crying out for a commanding midfielder of his ilk just now.
Juventus were already laughing all the way to the bank when they managed to sell the worst player to represent the Bianconeri for at least a decade – Christian Poulsen – to Liverpool for €5.5m, their merriment increased even further when they were handed Aquilani on loan in return, with the option to buy him permanently. In the space of a few months Liverpool have gone from a midfield of Mascherano-Aquilani-Gerrard to one including Poulsen, the equally awful Lucas and Raul Meireles. No wonder they are in the relegation zone.
The Roman has gradually been implemented into the Juventus starting XI, and the last few weeks has demonstrated that if he can stay fit he will be a top-class – potentially world class – midfielder for the Old Lady. He confirmed his impressive showing against Inter a fortnight ago with another super display in the 4-0 thrashing of Lecce yesterday afternoon. Aquilani opened the scoring with a 25-yard thunderbolt, and controlled the middle-of-the-park alongside fellow reborn team-mate Felipe Melo.