Liverpool FC Forum

[aCe']

With Allen seemingly set to sign, we seem to be a little heavy on central midfield options.

-Gerrard
-Allen (?)
-Lucas
-Henderson
-Aquilani
-Adam
-Spearing
-Shelvey

8 players in the first team seemingly fighting for 3 spots. Safe to assume we'll be trying to get rid of at least one or two of the high earners to make way for Allen and the return of Lucas this season. Question is, between Aquilani and Adam, who would you keep ?

[Benny The Noon]

Get rid of both and leave us with 6 players .

Aquilani is just waiting for an Italian club to get him and Adam is never going to be good enough - hopefully swap Adam for Dempsey

[andy_g]

keep aquilani and see what he can do under a manager that wants to play his kind of football. thank spearing for his troubles too and send him on his way.

gerrard, allen, aquilani, henderson, lucas, and shelvey is exactly 'best midfield in the world' all over again but its not bad and gives a few options.

[Simari]

Keep neither.

We may have purchased Aquilani for £20m, 2 seasons ago - but it is a telling sign that there have been no offers for him. Much like Joe Cole, he's happy to sit on the wages on do nothing. I say that of Cole because he actually had to sink to new lows by selling himself to SKY via a semi-documentary (not sure if others on the forum saw it)

Adam is Mr. Hollywood - he is far too old and set in his ways to adapt to a short passing, possession type game.

The only reason to keep them would be if they dropped their wages from first eleven status to rotation.

Stevie, Lucas, Shelvey, (Allen) and Spearing (backup squad status) should be plenty for first team purposes.

Oh and Henderson, although he really does need a massive kick up the ***** or he can go.

[SouthCoastShankly]

I voted - Keep Aquilani.

Adam is not and will not be agile and quick enough to play passing football at pace, Aquilani will.

[ycsatbjywtbiastkamb]

i voted keep aquilani but going by his quotes about roma i dont think he`ll be here when the season starts, when football players start talking about voluntary pay cuts you know things must be bad.

[aCe']

I'd go for keeping Aquilani too. Not only is his style more suited to Rodger's preferred setup, he also never had the chance to prove his worth for a sustained period with us. Adam imo is more suited to a midtable club and I fully expect him to make a move to Fulham or Sunderland where he would no doubt have a great season.

Regarding the keep neither option, I wouldnt really advocate relying solely on Henderson, Spearing and Shelvey (3 youngish players who are yet to prove they are starting material) in case one of our starters gets a long term injury. I'd rather send Shelvey out on loan and limit the minutes Spearing gets despite me being a fan of his.

Obviously though, if we get a decent offer for either or both then losing them wouldn't have that drastic an impact on our side. Cant see it happening though and if we're selling for peanuts, then we might as well sell Adam.

[RED BEERGOGGLES]

Adam I'm afraid ,for me Aquilani offers so much more guile towards  linking the midfield with our attack .

[sgs]

U get the sense the Aquilani supporters on here are now running entirely on a hope and prayer...

Two top Italian teams have passed on him, even at a discounted price. 3 LFC managers in succession have all come to the same conclusion...

But the myth of Il Principe goes on....

[red till i die!!]

aqua could be a real asset to the team if kept around,he can operate well within that system under rodgers.
i voted to keep him but it aint gonna happen,he's off as soon as.

[metalhead]

sell them both, get Allen and play Allen - Lucas - Gerrard as starters and have Shelvey, Henderson and Spearing as backup.

[Kharhaz]

Keep Adam. Not a great start at Liverpool but there were times he looked very good.

[D___C]

sell them both, get Allen and play Allen - Lucas - Gerrard as starters and have Shelvey, Henderson and Spearing as backup.

No thanks. Back up (squad players) should be adequate replacements and he aint that. When Lucas got injured the replacements seen us nosedive. Had Lucas not played around 3 months of the start of last season we would have finished much worse than 8th. A team of Spearings would see us relegated. The Cup final was a suicide mission with the midfield we put out and the pint sized championship/league one level player got taken to the cleaners. As a club youth team player he is in the Premier League by default. We would never have actually bought him. Only when he is sold will he know his level which is lower half of the championship/league one. I can see him at Sheff Wed or a Tranmere.

We have one top top class midfielder who could challenge for a title: Gerrard
We have one quality midfielder who could challenge for a top 4 place: Lucas

We then have a big drop off to the likes of Shelvey, Henderson, Adam.. midtable level at best (at this point in time).

Aquilani... if he could bother to raise a leg and put in some effort.. could be at Lucas level, but hes a lazy half arsed type who prances about. Theres no fight in him. Watching him go through the motions at Milan was sickening (he was even less bothered with us).

Joe Allen i know nothing about. Only time i've watched him live was the first half of the GB vs Brazil game and he barely got a kick as the Brazilian midfield dominated possession.. but that could be the set up as opposed to being much wrong with him.

Our collapse over the last three years is 99% due to the nosedive in quality in midfield. From Alonso-Mascherano-Gerrard in May 2009.... to what we have put out since.

[killerp]

I'd trade both Adam & Aquilani for Dempsey & Allen saving funds in the process.

[damjan193]

Aqilani will leave whether we like it or not. I'd rather play Shelvey or Henderson ahead of Adam so I think he should go as well. So both I guess.