Liverpool FC Forum

stmichael wrote:The problem at the moment is we can't be reliant on width from our fullbacks as we don't play a good enough possession game. Ideally we need both our fullbacks and wide attacking players to be able to provide width when it's needed or else we will struggle to break teams down. It has to be said that our "wide players" have struggled greatly this season as they are extremely one-dimensional.

True about wide players, because we really don't have anyone who plays wide, crosses from the byline, takes on players, etc... We had Riera doing that for us (however, his final ball was lacking) now no one.

Glen Johnson and Fabio Aurelio are the only two fullbacks who aren't one dimensional, who play good football, pass the ball well, overlap defenders and can play as wing backs. unfortunately for Aurelio he is always injured

metalhead wrote:

dawson99 wrote:

metalhead wrote:nor Barton and Parker are ''defensive midfielders'', they are more box to box, who carry the ball forward and score goals.

Although Daniel De Rossi is class, he is getting old, so we need a younger player.


Yann M'Villa looks class act

Watch Parker for England, hes the holding midfielder

He isn't, Barry is

stmichael wrote:I bring this up because we don't really have one in the squad at the moment and it's blatant to see that we need a top class defensive midfielder moving forward if we want to compete against the very best.

It's amazing how football has evolved when you think about it. In the past the notion of a defensive or "holding midfielder" was simply laughed at. It was considered a cheats position and a waste of a shirt. Midfielders were meant to do their fair share of attacking and defending in equal measure. Souness was a prime example and was the best in the business. Later we had the likes of Ronnie Whelan and John Wark. Hell John Wark when he moved to Ipswich was considered to be a defensive midfielder and yet one season he scored 40 goals from that position. Nowaday's you'll be lucky if your so called "holding midfielder crosses the halfway line.

Every top team has such a player now. The best player I ever saw in this position was Redondo at Real Madrid. He allowed all the attacking flair that Real had to do their stuff. More recently Makelele was excellent although it does my head in when people refer to "the Makelele Role" like he somehow invented the role or something. Mikel or Ramires don't even compare and Essien is not a natural holding player.

Arsenal have been crying out for this type of player for years and yet Wenger refuses to see it for some bizarre reason. All their recent success was based first of all on the Vieira-Petit axis, and later on on the Vieira-Gilberto Silva axis. Now they don't have anybody in the same class as those two. Diaby, Song and Denilson are more inclined to try and go forward and are not what I'd describe as naturally disciplined. United's best side in recent memory was in 2008 when they had Hargreaves in the side. None of Fletcher, Carrick or Anderson are similar to him and they almost revert to having Scholes sitting deeper these days. At the very top level against Barca or Madrid for example I think their lack of a top class defensive midfielder will catch up with them. City have De Jong who you could argue is one of their most important players. Spurs have Huddlestone and Palacios who I'd take in a heartbeat at Liverpool.

Which brings the conversation round to us. You don't realise what you've got till it's gone in many ways. We were lucky to have Hamann for years who was a superb player in that position and then after him we had Mascherano who formed a brilliant partnership alongside Alonso (sighs). Whatever Rafa may have you believe, Lucas was not a defensive midfielder before he came here and shouldn't be moulded into one because he likes to get forward. Charlie Adam if he comes is not that type of player either. Spearing is not good enough long term.

So suggestions for a top class defensive midfielder going forward? Personally I'd have a look at this Mulumbu kid at West Brom. He cost them 175k and has looked class everytime I have seen him. Tiote at Newcastle has been excellent aswell but he'd cost at least 3 times the £4m they paid for him and he's just signed a new 5 year contract anyway.

Zidane wrote:Yeah I definitely think Spearing has a future here, not in the starting XI but as a solid squad member.

Greavesie wrote:Arsenal were linked with him today, £15m as well I thnk

stmichael wrote:Over on RAWK there's a big debate about whether Gerrard can play the Alonso role in the future considering that his legs are now going a bit. For me the answer to that is a resounding no, mainly because I dont see us playing with a system that involves the Alonso type deep playmaking role anymore. We are nothing like the 08/09 team and won't be in the future either imo.