Liverpool FC Forum

by **bigmick** » Wed Dec 23, 2009 10:28 am

kazza wrote:
bigmick wrote:
kazza wrote:
bigmick wrote:I hope I'm wrong, but this fella is going to be a mistake I think.

It bothers you so much that you always respond

The poster that shall not be named

by **Owzat** » Sat Dec 26, 2009 9:32 am

It's like reading Penguins in the Kuyt thread :no

by **Aussie Style** » Sat Dec 26, 2009 10:50 am

SupitsJonF wrote:I don't know what everyone is worried about. He is class in FIFA 10, so clearly he is going to be class in real life. Robbie Keane is terrible in the FIFA series, should of known from that he would of been a flop.

Yeah well Babel can't stop scoring everytime I play FIFA 10, so there goes that theory

by **made in UK** » Sat Dec 26, 2009 11:13 am

Owzat wrote:It's like reading Penguins in the Kuyt thread

Erh hang on a minute, you're all over Rafa like a cheap suite in most threads. Yet have the audacity to moan about another poster in another thread because he doesn't think a certain dutchman is up to the task and he's hardly going against the grain of thought.

Christ sake, get some perspective and "Bash" em both!

by **maypaxvobiscum** » Sat Dec 26, 2009 4:22 pm

he is injured again? you guys are kidding right?

by **Julio-0** » Sat Dec 26, 2009 4:39 pm

SupitsJonF wrote:I don't know what everyone is worried about. He is class in FIFA 10, so clearly he is going to be class in real life. Robbie Keane is terrible in the FIFA series, should of known from that he would of been a flop.

by **Pablo_Escobar** » Sat Dec 26, 2009 4:42 pm

Reading wikipedia stats about Aquaman you begin to wonder :

Although Aquilani has made his name as a creative midfielder, he has provided just 2 assists in his professional career.

by **Cool Hand Luke** » Sat Dec 26, 2009 4:44 pm

Pablo_Escobar wrote:Reading wikipedia stats about Aquaman you begin to wonder :
Although Aquilani has made his name as a creative midfielder, he has provided just 2 assists in his professional career.[1]

That stat is wrong and I’m pretty sure if you watch any youtube compilation of him you will see more than 2 assists.

by **Cool Hand Luke** » Sat Dec 26, 2009 4:45 pm

maypaxvobiscum wrote:he is injured again? you guys are kidding right?

Where did you get that from? He missed the last game due to a calf problem but I thought Rafa said he would be back in contention for this game.

by **maypaxvobiscum** » Sat Dec 26, 2009 4:47 pm

bigmick wrote:With news filtering through that Aquilaini is now headed for the horse placenta witch doctor, am I alone in having very grave concerns indeed that we are going to come a cropper on this one? His performaces have shown that the fella can play a bit, but they've also demonstrated that he isn't exactly overblessed from a defensive point of view. Tenacity wouldn't be his middle name that's for sure, and I'm struggling to see where we will play him.

All that is by the by of course if he's never fit, and his injury record throughout his career is very much of the remix, extended version variety. I hope I'm wrong, but this fella is going to be a mistake I think.

sorry CHL i forgot to check the date of this post

alot of posts in the last page were about how we're hoping he isnt an expensive Kewell and with this news BM posted, i got the impression he was injured again.

by **andy_g** » Sat Dec 26, 2009 10:06 pm

no feedback on his game yet??

i don't know what anyone else thought but i thought he offered us a completely different dynamic today. not everything he tried came off but he tried plenty. i especially like the way he tries clever first time passes, and fairly often passes that the opposition aren't really expecting. the midfield seemed so much more fluid today with him in it.

the half time stats showed a total of 0 tackles made, which is something we have begun to expect, but i saw him at least getting stuck in and making a nuisance of himself physically on more than one occasion. i was beginning to share some of mick's reservations about his ability to be any kind of success with us, but what i saw today gave me a lot of hope for this fella.

once he's had the operation to move his eyes slightly further apart i think he'll be the business.

by **Ben Patrick** » Sat Dec 26, 2009 10:18 pm

i wasnt overly impressed mate.
I get what you mean about the speed of his passing at times but i think at times it can look like he is shirking responsibility.

It is great to keep the ball moving but you also need to be productive with it. There were too many times today where i thought it was moved on too quickly just to get rid of it.

Looks tidy enough and has good feet but for me he will need to take far more responsibility if he is going to be our playmaker.

by **bigmick** » Sat Dec 26, 2009 11:32 pm

I know it was very early when I passed judgement on him, but I didn't see anything today to make me start reaching for the humble pie. It's worth considering though that I never saw him play for Roma, so I'm basing my assessment solely on what he's done in a red shirt. For all I know, he might be a tireless box to box enforcer when fully fit, I'm just saying he doesn't look like one from what I've seen.

Todays perfromance was fairly typical of what we've seen so far. Some nice touches, clever flicks, the occasional raking pass. My difficulties with him remain firstly that I can't see what type of player he is going to be in order to be a success in England, and secondly I can't see what he has that tempted us to pay so much money for him, particularly given his injury record.

On the first point, I just can't work out what he's going to try and become. He isn't in my view going to score or make goals regularly, so he's not going to be a Lampard, a Gerrard, a young Scholes, a Fabregas etc etc. Neither though is he a good enough defender to be another Alonso (nor a good enough passer in truth), so he's not going to be a Gareth Barry, a Michael Carrick sort of player either. Neither do I see him as a replacement for Gerrard, simply because although the captain could do the central midfield job no problem, I don't see the Italian as contributing enough off the front man. Now he may have lots of qualities which I haven't seen yet, but for me the modern midfielder has to be multi functional and so far I don't see it.

It therefore follows that I don't think he is worth anywhere near what we paid for him based on what we are seeing so far, nowhere near it. Now I know people will say give him time and all that stuff, but what do they think he will do differently given time? I'd certainly accept based on his past that by all accounts he has a good shot and will probably score from distance a few times, but other than that he simply doesn't look like a player who is built for English football to me. We'll see.

by **andy_g** » Sat Dec 26, 2009 11:56 pm

i can understand your reservations, mick - but i actually do think he will contribute a fair bit to our attcking play. i think he'll score a few (thought not lots) and i also think he'll get a few assists. what i'm sure he won't do is a lot fo defensive work, but i'm not overly worried about that seeing as we have enough defensive players in the set up already. obviously it'll be better when these defensive players get their collective sh'it togther but thats another story.

so i think that a comparison with a young scholes or fabregas isn't too far off the mark, but i'll agree he's not the gerrard or lampard type. and i don't think its a question of how he'll fit into the team, i think its more a question of how the team becomes more of a fluid unit that works with him. if and when torres and gerrard, plus benayoun and riera, are all on song, with aquilani as some kind of drifting fulcrum with mascherano or lucas holding the fort behind them i think we'll play good football. the thing that's weird to get your head around is that it'll have to be a different kind of football than we've got used to.

by **Cool Hand Luke** » Sun Dec 27, 2009 12:08 am

I think some of the comments directed at Aquilani are a bit harsh as I thought he did O.K for his first real start. The team isn’t playing well period so to expect him to come from Serie A and a 6 month lay off too being a dominant playmaker in a new league in a side which is in a big rut is asking a bit much. He showed some decent stuff today but I felt he didn’t fit in well with the team.

Saying all that I’m not sure what Rafa has in mind for him as I don’t see how he is going to fit into our system unless we change it. I also don’t think he will fit in with our style of play. A number of times he played short passes and immediately looked for a return after a small movement but was ignored as Gerrard and Co were looking for the Hollywood ball without doing the groundwork. He is a pass and move player but it will only work if the majority of our team play that way but they don’t.

Part of me has a feeling that Aquilani is going to go in the same direction as Morientes but part of me wonders how he would have done if he joined last season when we were playing some fantastic stuff and winning almost every week.

Liverpool FC Forum

ALBERTO AQUILANI - Official Thread

Who is online