Liverpool FC Forum

GYBS wrote:

Festy wrote:

GYBS wrote:in our formation that brings out the best in torres and gerrard mate we dont need to blow our budget  on another striker and have to change our formation to fit that striker into the team - we did that last summer when i said we shouldnt of done and we wasted 20 million. lets not make the same mistake again - we need a bit more creativity behind torres and alongside gerrard - silva fits that role perfectly - he can play wide left or right or behind the striker - can play as a striker , has loads of pace and skill and can feed in little balls to torres to unlock defences - tevez while a great player would just be another worker who would chip in with goals . we need creativity now .

Nah, Gerrard needs to earn his place and Tevez would give him tough competition. I can even see Gerrard being dropped to bench as a back-up for Tevez.   

But seriously, Tevez would be a far better choice than Kuyt on the right side in any of the 4-2-3-1/4-3-3/4-5-1 formations.

why would tevez be a better choice ? what has tevez proved playing out right ? Kuyt has produced the goods for us . we need someone with a bit of pace and creatitivy - we need an arshavin and thats where silva comes in .

Sabre wrote:

DrPepe wrote:

Sabre wrote:I dispair. I really do. It's incredible I read yesteryear here Mascherano was top of the top, and a year later some of the same people consider seriously to sell him.

Then I read things like from an Argie I expect quality on the ball. As if the Argies never played with footballers that were workers, like Simeone and Mascherano. Men like Mascherano and Simeone were as pivotal as the most skilled ones in Argentina.

Plus, Mascherano's passing is underrated. It's underrated of course because people compare it to the unfair light of Gerrard and Alonso. But he chooses the right passes, and he executes them with quality, more often than not.

Without the ball, he's lightning quick in the tackle, he's a worker, and he's a clever player.

We should have learned the lesson of one average season shouldn't mean a selling of a player.

We should have learned the lesson that injuries, international weeks and tiredness will make our best players unavailable. We need quality. And we need deep quality if we want to compete in every competition. We need Mascherano.

as mentioned above , most recognise he is a quality player - but does we need alonso and mascherano in our team when we're struggling to break down stoke, west ham etc?

Yes.

Because the most powerful Liverpool this season has been with the Mascherano-Alonso-Gerrard triangle.

I think the Alonso-Mascherano axis is one of the best of Europe. I don't know what the media says there, probably they're wánking over that average player, Carrick. But the media here says so.

Gerrard seems comfortable in his current position, and this year he has probably reached his top as a footballer, when players like ZIdane mention him as world class.

The Alonso-Mascherano axis has been succesful this season and I don't want to see that axis broken.

If we have to look to why we didn't win everygame of the competition break up teams that are very deeep, we must look at absences like Torres when he's injured, and poor forms of wing players.

But the axis of the midfield? Don't fix what's not broken. If you want to sell Lucas, ok, we can easily bring more quality and use it (Arshavin,Modric(?)).

The Alonso-Mascherano axis had a "negative" lavel last season. Since both are DM people said, it has to be negative. But we're a team that we make more goals than most if not all the teams. So I don't see the negativeness anywhere.

And last but not least, Alonso needs a compatible player beside him. Hamman was a quality player, but less compatible with Alonso. Because Hamman didn't run with the ball that well and he is a distribution DM like Alonso (more sober, less Hollywood, but still the same role). Mascherano covers the few limitations Alonso has and makes a very good partnership with Alonso. Gerrard is compatible too because he's world class running with the ball, but then, if you play him alongside Alonso (and that was succesful this season too in the first games of the competition), Gerrard is not so free to do what he does best (destroying teams in the last third of the pitch)

So again, keep Mascherano please.

Spot on.  Over the last 15 months I think we've proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that our best system is 4-2-3-1, with Gerrard tucked in behind Torres.  That requires two central midfielders with quality in behind and we've got them in Alonso and Mascherano.  The system works, those players provide the right platform for the lads further up field and the proof is in the pudding (otherwise known as the Points and Goal Difference columns of the league table).  Why in the hell would we consider selling one of those two vital players?   

Alex G. wrote:Mascherano must improve with the ball on his foots or he is going to be on the bench much more time than he really thinks.

His game is detriment to the liverpool attacking game, and that was our problem one season again, the fluidity in our game against deep defences of small clubs, especially at Anfield. Too many draws per season (10 +)

I Know he´s not a creative midfielder and that´s not his mission... BUT, after seeing players like Diarra (Madrid), Toure (Barcelona), Carrick, Anderson, Essien and others, I think every holding midfielders of any big club should have a minimum of quality passing and distributing the ball.

The problem is that the quality cant be training, you have or haven´t quality.... and unfortunately Mascherano have no quality when we are talking about creative and attacking game.

Alex G. wrote:Mascherano must improve with the ball on his foots or he is going to be on the bench much more time than he really thinks.

His game is detriment to the liverpool attacking game, and that was our problem one season again, the fluidity in our game against deep defences of small clubs, especially at Anfield. Too many draws per season (10 +)

I Know he´s not a creative midfielder and that´s not his mission... BUT, after seeing players like Diarra (Madrid), Toure (Barcelona), Carrick, Anderson, Essien and others, I think every holding midfielders of any big club should have a minimum of quality passing and distributing the ball.

The problem is that the quality cant be training, you have or haven´t quality.... and unfortunately Mascherano have no quality when we are talking about creative and attacking game.

Please tell me you are being integrated into this Forum ,as a sort of Jester 

Alex G. wrote:

redbeergoggles wrote:

Alex G. wrote:Mascherano must improve with the ball on his foots or he is going to be on the bench much more time than he really thinks.

His game is detriment to the liverpool attacking game, and that was our problem one season again, the fluidity in our game against deep defences of small clubs, especially at Anfield. Too many draws per season (10 +)

I Know he´s not a creative midfielder and that´s not his mission... BUT, after seeing players like Diarra (Madrid), Toure (Barcelona), Carrick, Anderson, Essien and others, I think every holding midfielders of any big club should have a minimum of quality passing and distributing the ball.

The problem is that the quality cant be training, you have or haven´t quality.... and unfortunately Mascherano have no quality when we are talking about creative and attacking game.

Please tell me you are being integrated into this Forum ,as a sort of Jester 

at least I have football arguments.

Not against the jester suggestion....you and a few others are vying for the position..

Even bigmick is making a late effort for the position looking at recent posts in the Kuyt thread

Zidane wrote:I don't think that is true Alex, the problem is the rest of our attacking players not Masch, Riera has been inconsistent all season long, Kuyt had a bad patch, Torres was injured, Gerrard was injured, Babel has been bad all season etc etc.  Masch's role is not to score goals he seldomly attacks but even then he has been involved in quite a few of our goals this season.  Anyway his job is to hold midfield, everyone else should be making the plays and scoring the goals.

Like I said though he has been involved in quite a few goals this season and isn't strictly a holding midfielder i'm just saying he can't be the one held accountable for our goal scoring problems, it is more the problem of everyone else rather than his.  An in form Masch helps our team out -a lot- in both attack and defense. An out of form Mascherano I agree is detrimental to the team and should rightly be put on the bench more often than not.

Mascherano has improved imo this season, his form hasn't been as consistent as last season but I really do believe he is still improving.  You have to remember he is only 24 and is already a top class player, he still has potential to improve and I think he's a hard worker so I can see him doing so.

supersub wrote:

Alex G. wrote:

redbeergoggles wrote:

Alex G. wrote:Mascherano must improve with the ball on his foots or he is going to be on the bench much more time than he really thinks.

His game is detriment to the liverpool attacking game, and that was our problem one season again, the fluidity in our game against deep defences of small clubs, especially at Anfield. Too many draws per season (10 +)

I Know he´s not a creative midfielder and that´s not his mission... BUT, after seeing players like Diarra (Madrid), Toure (Barcelona), Carrick, Anderson, Essien and others, I think every holding midfielders of any big club should have a minimum of quality passing and distributing the ball.

The problem is that the quality cant be training, you have or haven´t quality.... and unfortunately Mascherano have no quality when we are talking about creative and attacking game.

Please tell me you are being integrated into this Forum ,as a sort of Jester 

at least I have football arguments.

Not against the jester suggestion....you and a few others are vying for the position..

Even bigmick is making a late effort for the position looking at recent posts in the Kuyt thread

I love you pair of