Liverpool FC Forum

by **flamingpoe** » Tue Jun 30, 2009 4:09 am

probably 1 of the players i would look at is miguel veloso, a relative quiet prospect that plays at fc porto if i do believe, scott brown from celtic wud b good, mayb senna, he is old but hes got a couple of years in him and lastly gago, he wud seem a interesting prospect with alot of promise which i think is frankly wasted at real madrid dream reality wud probs be xavi, iniesta, fabregas (i hate him but every 1 else rates lol!!), pirlo(he is like xabi in that he is a playmaker), and if i had to bring in a forward i would b looking at rafael sobis, blatently gonna b cheap considering real betis suffered badly last season

by **aCe'** » Tue Jun 30, 2009 8:31 am

What Xabi offers the side more than anything is ball retention... He controls the pace of the game and bring different players into play with his passing range..etc etc
Against most of the smaller sides, i dont think its a must by any means having a player like Alonso... The way i see it, Mascherano and say Gerrard played down the middle would offer a platform to build on which is more than good enough against most of the smaller sides in the league and CL...
Who comes in for Alonso ? well... anyone with a little more attacking drive... someone who would offer more in an attacking sense...
Admittedly, theres more than one way to go about this...
We can either sign a replacement holding midfielder... except someone whos known for his attacking runs and his attacking contribution.... someone like Vieira or Gago or Lucho Gonzales (better options would have been DeRossi, Essien and Yaya Toure but dont think theyr realistic targets)..
Or we can sign take a different approach and sign a top attacking asset and play him a little higher up or even upfront alongside Torres...
Like i said, against the smaller sides, i would think that a Gerrard-Mascherano partnership deep in the middle would be more than good enough for us to control the game and start our attacking plays... perhaps what we really need is a little more attacking talent, and a change in setup would certainly be the easiest way to bring that about.. i'd be looking at player like Deco, Seedorf, Sneijder, Aquilani, Hleb, Perrotta and even Elano.. think having a player like any of the above would give our play a different dimension that we seem to lack which is added drive and contribution down the middle...

If Alonso stays, id probably rethink the whole thing and go for signing a top winger or top forward...

by **heimdall** » Tue Jun 30, 2009 12:13 pm

How about playing Benayoun alongside Mascha, would certainly be more attacking than Alonso. I would also like to see Lucas take this opportunity to finally impress me. In addition we have Spearing who can maybe break through into the first team. In short I am not sure we really need a replacement for Xabi, I'd rather we spent the money on getting a top notch second striker, like Villa, then if need be we could drop Stevie back into midfield when we are playing more attacking sides.

by **Festy** » Tue Jun 30, 2009 12:20 pm

Yossi will be too lightweight in the center midfield. And why break the world class partnership of Torres-Gerrard 'once again' ? We have already seen the consequences ones. Secondly, since when Villa has turned into a second striker ? and what if one of them get a long term injury ? and what when we decide to sub one or both of them ? Do we have a good enough backup strikers then to continue the 4-4-2 formation ? From time to time in the season, we'll need to switch to 4-5-1 and 4-2-3-1 for obvious reasons, who will be third quality midfielder in that case ? Lucas ? Spearing ? I'm sorry but they are not good enough for a title winning side.

by **LFC4allseasons** » Tue Jun 30, 2009 3:15 pm

heimdall wrote:How about playing Benayoun alongside Mascha, would certainly be more attacking than Alonso. I would also like to see Lucas take this opportunity to finally impress me. In addition we have Spearing who can maybe break through into the first team. In short I am not sure we really need a replacement for Xabi, I'd rather we spent the money on getting a top notch second striker, like Villa, then if need be we could drop Stevie back into midfield when we are playing more attacking sides.

Benayoun is not a central midfielder by any stretch of the imagination. He's far too light for the role, wouldn't be able to do the defensive work of a central midfielder and wouldn't be able to start the attacks. He's not quick enough to get up and down the pitch.

As for Villa, that's the land of cuckoo. He and Torres are nowhere near as lethal or clinical as Torres and Gerrard. And Villa would not suit our system, period. We'd have to scrap the 4-2-3-1 malarky which has worked so well for us in recent times and go back to the 4-4-2. Which wouldn't be as bad if we had genuine top class wingers, we don't so we stick to the 4-2-3-1 formation where the wingers can get away with being average.

Kuyt in a standard 4-4-2 doesn't have the pace to get up and support the front men as well as him being more than likely to lose possession because his first touch is as good as Gordon Brown's Prime Minister reign. Benayoun is too slow and too light to play a standard wingers position. He won't have the time or space to just cut in and make things open up for himself. Babel, well he's just not good enough to play for Liverpool in any formation. And Riera, is just a poor player who has one good game in every ten.

The 4-2-3-1 formation suits our limited, wide, players to perfection. It also means Xabi and Masch are not needed to go forward as much which again suits both. It gives Gerrard the freedom to do whatever he wants which suits him and finally it suits Torres because he's getting supplied from every area to do what he does best, score. The system suits our players, so why mess all that up to accommodate Villa?

The only way we could do would be to remove our wingers. Go back to the Roy Evans days of three centre halves, two wingbacks, three central midfielders and two centre forwards. That way we'd have Carra, Dagger and Marty all playing, Johnson and, when fit, Aurelio providing the width further up field which both prefer. Masch and, if staying, Xabi sitting deep with Stevie pushed up still giving us the Torres/Gerrard partnership as well as Villa/Gerrard and Villa/Torres partnership. But then we've got Kuyt, Benayoun, Babel and Riera all sitting on the bench.

by **crazyhorse** » Tue Jun 30, 2009 4:17 pm

From seeing all the possible alternatives.. we should be 100% determined and dedicated to keeping what we have.

by **Toffeehater** » Tue Jun 30, 2009 5:44 pm

Has anyone seen much of moutinho this season and yes veloso is a excellent shout , he was linked to bolton with a 12 million move earlier this season

by **agoodmentality** » Tue Jun 30, 2009 9:37 pm

I see spurs are asking Villareal for cash plus Marcos Senna and (some player i dont know) for Pavlyacheko,,

If he's up for a move to the prem, I think he is a player who can play the 'Alonso' role in our midfield, I know he's old,
but if the numbers add up, I can invisage 2/3 seasons of good ball retention, quality set pieces and superb long range shooting.

Lets face it, Xabi wants out,

We can't hang around once this transfer window opens.

by **hello_red** » Wed Jul 01, 2009 2:34 am

I have to say if we lost Alonso, although I would be gutted, I think Lucas and Spearing (more so Spearing) are more than capable of replacing him. Although they both have a different type of game to Xabi, Spearing especially IMO has the potential to be a started for us in a season or two after watching him in the reserves and on his fleeting first team appearances. Just need to take a risk on him. As for Mascha, I think we would struggle to replace him.

by **LFC4allseasons** » Wed Jul 01, 2009 2:54 am

hello_red wrote:I have to say if we lost Alonso, although I would be gutted, I think Lucas and Spearing (more so Spearing) are more than capable of replacing him. Although they both have a different type of game to Xabi, Spearing especially IMO has the potential to be a started for us in a season or two after watching him in the reserves and on his fleeting first team appearances. Just need to take a risk on him. As for Mascha, I think we would struggle to replace him.

Why?

Spearing is much more in the Masch mould. Young Jay would replace Masch easier than he would Xabi.

by **JoeTerp** » Wed Jul 01, 2009 6:45 am

Spearing is not in the Mascherano mold. He is like a less physically gifted Gerrard if anything

by **bigmick** » Wed Jul 01, 2009 6:53 am

Lets be brutally honest here, Spearing isn't good enough. He is more akin to filling Masherano's role from what I've seen as he is a terrier like ball winner, but he is a mile behind the Argentine. As for covering as a like for like swap for Alonso, not in a million years.

Good luck to the lad and all that, but my opinion is that he isn't good enough to make it either at Liverpool or any other Premiership club.

by **account deleted by request** » Wed Jul 01, 2009 7:36 am

There is always Plessis as well. He seems to have dropped completely off the radar since the beginning of the season when he was keeping Alonso out. Admittedly he didn't exactly shine, but the previous season he had a couple of good games most notably against Arsenal.

by **JoeTerp** » Wed Jul 01, 2009 7:49 am

s@int wrote:There is always Plessis as well. He seems to have dropped completely off the radar since the beginning of the season when he was keeping Alonso out. Admittedly he didn't exactly shine, but the previous season he had a couple of good games most notably against Arsenal.

Plessis had a terrible season in the reserves, but played really well in his last 3-4 games, so who knows what the f.cuk is going on there. Even if he had progressed in a reasonably positive level form his first season, it would still be questionable if he could make the step up.

While Spearing does win balls back in a terrier fashion at times, he does not play in a Mascherano role for the ressies, as Plessis is usually the one to sit deeper, sometimes much deeper than Jay.

by **LFC4allseasons** » Wed Jul 01, 2009 3:03 pm

JoeTerp wrote:Spearing is not in the Mascherano mold. He is like a less physically gifted Gerrard if anything

I forgot Jay isn't like Masch because Jay can pass and knows what it means to get forward.

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