john craig wrote:Every newspaper you read and every pundit you are forced to listen to these days seem to make reference to Alonso's departure as the main reason for our poor start this season. While I agree that the midfield is a problem at the moment, that has as much to do with Mascherano underperforming and Lucas blatantly not being up to it (never has been) as it has to do with Alonso's sale.
I think some balance has to be brought to this debate as it's starting to irritate me a bit. Firstly, Alonso wanted to go and we got a pretty good price for him if we're honest. I heard one 'respected journalist' (not by me though) on Sky's sunday supplement over the weekend saying we 'shouldn't have taken 30 million for him' and 'he was Liverpool's most important player'!! Absolute sh.ite. This is the same media that have digs every time we win saying that we are overly reliant on Gerrard, then Gerrard and Torres. I can't remember any one (pundit, journalist, ex-player etc) saying that Alonso was our most important player, or most influential player last season until after he had left. Why were the papaers not saying last season that we were overly reliant on Alonso then??
What I'll say next will undoubtedly upset a few folk on here, but imo Alonso is an overrated player. Overrated by Madrid who paid too much, overrated by the media (in HINDSIGHT only) and overrated by our own fans, who seem to have forgotten that he was distinctly average for two entire seasons before he got a kick up the backside last season and then produced a bit of form. He is still a quality player no doubt, but lets get it into perspective. His style never won everyone over. There were always fans who wished he'd get forward more or contribute more in terms of goals and assists. There were always those who thought he sat too deep and that it hindered our attacking play. But suddenly all that is forgotten and his departure is the reason we will be fighting to scrape into the top 4 rather than challenge the title?? No way.
His loss is felt mainly because there are no decent backup midfielders in the squad, at least until Aquilani is fit. Let's judge how big a loss Alonso really is after we've had a chance to assess his replacement. In the meantime we just need to knuckle down and dig out the wins we need to keep us in the running.
You're deffo right about the lazy journalists and dumb as fook ex-player/pundits who claim we should have kept Alonso at the club as if their was any choice. I agree that the fans have also gone a bit OTT (meself included) with rants about how much we're missing him. I think most of us forget that their were times last season when our performances (not the results) were almost as cumbersome and awkward (with Xabi in the team) as those we've witnessed this season.
Of course it all comes back to Xabi's replacement and the current make-up of our midfield. I still can't fathom why we didn't go out and get an insurance policy incase Aquillani doesn't cut it. A Danny Murphy or Niko Kranjar would have done nicely.
Posted: Tue Sep 01, 2009 9:32 pm
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!....There, that clears that up!. 
