Liverpool FC Forum

by **Dundalk** » Thu May 01, 2008 10:03 pm

Liverpool midfielder Xabi Alonso says he has no intention of leaving the club following The Champions League exit against Chelsea.

The Spaniard had his sights set on a place in the Moscow final but Chelsea finally undid the Liverpool hoodoo to dump out the five-time champions of Europe.

The unrest in the Anfield boardroom has put the future of manager Rafa Benitez in doubt and rumours have linked Alonso with a move.

“My future is with Liverpool because I signed a contract. There are many rumours but I do not pay attention to them,” Alonso said.

“We are proud of what we have done in the Champions League and we are behind Benitez in the dressing room. I hope to play in more Champions League finals in my career.

“This defeat has hurt us a great deal but we have to show our professionalism and get on with the rest of the season.”

So if he is staying were does this leave the supposed move for Gareth Barry. Im glad he is staying to be honest, he still has a lot to offer

by **god_bless_john_houlding** » Thu May 01, 2008 10:09 pm

glad to see Xabi staying. hasn't been at his best, but is still a top player.

by **account deleted by request** » Thu May 01, 2008 10:18 pm

Alonso: I am staying
by Richard Field, 01 May 2008

Liverpool midfielder Xabi Alonso says he has no intention of leaving the club following The Champions League exit against Chelsea.

The Spaniard had his sights set on a place in the Moscow final but Chelsea finally undid the Liverpool hoodoo to dump out the five-time champions of Europe.

The unrest in the Anfield boardroom has put the future of manager Rafa Benitez in doubt and rumours have linked Alonso with a move.

“My future is with Liverpool because I signed a contract. There are many rumours but I do not pay attention to them,” Alonso said.

“We are proud of what we have done in the Champions League and we are behind Benitez in the dressing room. I hope to play in more Champions League finals in my career.

“This defeat has hurt us a great deal but we have to show our professionalism and get on with the rest of the season.”
------------------------

If what Alonso says is true, then it puts in doubt why Rafa has been searching for CM/DM players(if indeed he has been?). Barry, Johnson etc etc.

Putting all that to one side, I would be delighted if Alonso stayed but I am still concerned by his form or lack of it! I was pretty sure this would be Alonso's last season at Liverpool so most of my thinking as been on who would be best to replace him rather than how he could overcome the problems he seems to be having since other teams have "clicked" how to best negate his passing talents.

Admittedly on last nights performance his passing was poor even when he wasn't put under pressure, but he did make one exceptional tackle that probably saved a certain goal.

Could we get better value for the money from someone else?
Is he still good enough for a title winning team?
Can he ever overcome the problems caused by his lack of pace?

I think Rafa has to do something if Alonso is ever to return to anything like his best form. Players need to be creating space by making intelligent runs off the ball rather than waiting for the ball. I don't think Alonso's style of play suits passing to feet but rather playing the ball through or over into space.

Both Babel and Kuyt are players who like the ball played to feet rather than into space. Kuyt you can understand, as 9 times out of 10 if the ball was played into space he wouldn't get there first anyway

I think to get the best out of Alonso we need good fullbacks and top quality wide players (we need them anyway whether Alonso stays or goes)

Bugger - someone beat me too it

Mods can you delete or merge this please. Sorry.

by **god_bless_john_houlding** » Thu May 01, 2008 10:19 pm

been done saint...better luck next time :laugh:

by **account deleted by request** » Thu May 01, 2008 10:21 pm

god_bless_john_houlding wrote:been done saint...better luck next time

Mine was better though John

by **god_bless_john_houlding** » Thu May 01, 2008 10:24 pm

s@int wrote:
god_bless_john_houlding wrote:been done saint...better luck next time

Mine was better though John

ok, i'll say what i said in the FIRST alonso is staying thread...i'm glad he is. he hasn't been playing at his best of late, but he has it in him to bounce back. unless a substantial bid comes in for him, i wouldn't sell. top class player on his day.

by **NANNY RED** » Thu May 01, 2008 10:49 pm

Absolutly made up here.

Well in Xabi lad

by **redtrader74** » Thu May 01, 2008 11:07 pm

He is without doubt one of those players that looks better with better players. Our forwards (Torres aside), and our full backs ( especially in the current system) lack pace and movement. Alonso at Arsenal would be exceptional IMO, and unless we get the players that can exploit his passing, then we are only getting half the player.

I have always liked him as a player, and am happy he wants to stay, but we need to maximise his talent. His lack of pace does not worry me, if the players around him made the moves and runs then the game would stretch and the space around him increase. Thats not to say we accomodate Alonso, because these are things we should do better in any case.

by **tubby** » Thu May 01, 2008 11:14 pm

I think its a good thing. He has come into form of late. To be honest I think against Chelsea at home he was one of out best performers. He has just been unlucky with injuries this year thats all.

by **JoeTerp** » Thu May 01, 2008 11:17 pm

I would still be open to hearing what the figures for his services would be before I categorically said there is no way we are selling him. Who knows what the transfer kitty is going to be this summer? and everybody knows we need help out wide, although I think if Alonso left, we would either have to bring in Barry or Michael Johnson or switch systems. something like a 4-1-4-1 or 4-1-2-1-2 (aka 442 diamond)

by **SundanceKid** » Thu May 01, 2008 11:20 pm

Doesn't his contract last till 2010?

by **Reg** » Thu May 01, 2008 11:47 pm

If he returns to the form he had 2 years ago, fine, otherwise it looks like he's just taking the money for being a squad player and he's FAR better than that.

I dont understand why he went off the boil, he was confident, played superb and also played a leadership role which he seems to have relinquished.

He has next season to sort it out however he need to decide whether he wants to give 100% again, especially in the key games.

by **Sabre** » Fri May 02, 2008 12:34 am

SundanceKid wrote:Doesn't his contract last till 2010?

Yes. But it's a newkit mantra that he's been poor the last two seasons and many people think that this summer he'd be off. At some point even sums like 10M qud for a Spanish international were shuffled, mind you.

I haven't seen much of players like Barry or Johnson, but I doubt they'll improve what Alonso provides, Alonso is after all a Spanish international and it's expensive to reach there -- ask Arteta. Aragones has said yesterday in a conference in my town that he'll be key in the Spanish squad in the next years

Unlike many posters here, the Spanish coach thinks that Alonso's game has progressed and the only thing that he didn't use to like about Alonso's game, some "defensive details", have been polished in these last years in Liverpool. IMHO, he's more a mature player than the still unexperienced --2 years on top division in not a big club-- player that came from Spain.

If we lose a spanish international in the holding mid position, then I'd want someone, prefferably international of a important football country (Mascherano like) as a replacement. Otherwise, we'd lose quality and having a deep quality squad is a must if you want to be more than simply good and you want to compete for everything.

Always nice to hear that he wants to stay, but that's not much of a surprise.

by **bigmick** » Fri May 02, 2008 12:36 am

It really does depend on what the plans are for the formation next season as far as I'm concerned. I've been on Alonso's case (as if he gives a flying feck what I think but you get my drift

) for a while now about coming out of his comfort zone, the "pocket" in front of the centre halves and joining in with Gerrard/Torres more. This was based on the assumption that we already have the best holding midfielder in World football (Masherano) to do the sitting job, but expecting Gerrard and Torres to operate as a two man raiding party against top teams is ultimately going to lead to toothless attacking as we saw against Chelsea.

Unfortunately for me, yet another of my theories has proven to be total b0ll0cks as against Chelsea, it was ALONSO who was the deepest midfield player and the creative genius of Masherano who was asked to get up and join in the play. It does seem to me kind of like asking MichaelAngelo to paint the fence while you've got "Derek from the pub" painting a mural on the front room ceiling but there you go.

Ultimately though, can a team play TWO holding midfielders against good teams who play a sitter to counter Gerrard? Well you certainly can't do it if you have Kuyt in one wide midfield slot and Benayoun in the other. If you had Christiano Ronaldo down one side and a young John Barnes down the other it'd no doubt work, but then so would most systems.

This really is the crux issue for me though. I think whether you are playing 4-4-2 or 4-5-1, one holding midfielder is enough. One of the big differences the other night between the two teams was that as Gerrard and Torres desperately tried to maintain some sort of umbilical chord between each other and the rest of the team, Ballack and Lampard were allowed to bomb on by the single sitter, Makeleli. That they were able to be so effective at finding space in and around the sitters and centre halves is one of the reasons I don't like the idea. I think it can lead to players not actually defending properly, believing they can depend on a numerical superiority and looking at each other quizzically when anything goes wrong. Four defenders and a full time sitter should be enough to cope with anybody, plus Gerrard and the other midfielder should be more than capable of tracking back given all the resting and rotation they get these days.

If you buy into the "one sitter" theory then you either chosse Masherano or Alonso as your first choice and the other has to buy into being a rotational "option". If you want to go down the Ronaldo/John Barnes route, then we'd better start looking for some different wide midfielders.

For me, I think we should play with one sitter and I think it should be Masherano. I think we would get low teens of millions for Alonso, and given that I'd get rid.

by **laza** » Fri May 02, 2008 12:55 am

I keep Alonso fullstop (though insert biased rose coloured tint fan disclaimer), i still have vivid memories after international break or suspensions in recent times when we had someone of the ilk of Salif Diao in the first XI and people moaning we needed a quality squad to win anything

When Alonso arrived, some fans were already packing Didi's bags for him, lucky that didnt happen.

He shown he has what its take in league and hopefully bounce back next year and prove the critics wrong

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