Liverpool FC Forum

[Sabre]

I'll crosspost a comment of Bigmick

3. The absense of Alonso. The pro Alonsoers are secretly p1ssing themselves as whichever combo Rafa picks in the centre of midfield seems to struggle to pass it to someone in a red shirt more than twice in succession. Could it be that the Ex Real Sociedad man with the next door neighbour haircut was the key all along? Will his reappearance instead of the monster mash be the catalyst to our revival?

Oh no, we AREN'T píssing ourselves, the important thing is the team, not being right.

A good player like Alonso is not missed because he's better than the current ones. It's missed aswell because it FORCES the other good players to play more matches, and to make different things aswell.

Gerrard had to work a lot this weeks defensively, and I DISAGREE those who say he was shíte yesterday or in Wigan. He was better than the previous matches when recovering from injury. He had to do a lot of work in this last two matches.

No doubt we miss Alonso. I don't like the debates of "who's better" to be quite honest, I like them all. But  maybe those who thought in summer we had many midfielders in the team and could consider in selling one to bring another striker have reconsidered their opinion?

Without service, and good football, No Crouch, No Torres, nobody makes goals.

[account deleted by request]

I would still sell any of our 4 midfielders excluding Gerrard to get Eto'o or Villa, I would prefer selling Crouch or Kuyt but who would buy THEM As I have said repeatedly its not the quality of our midfield players thats in question, its who plays best with whom.

I don't think any less of Sissoko because he played badly with Gerrard last night, I still think he's a great player AT WHAT HE DOES BEST, ask him to do other things like last night and he's maybe not so good.

[ConnO'var]

I don't think any less of Sissoko because he played badly with Gerrard last night, I still think he's a great player AT WHAT HE DOES BEST, ask him to do other things like last night and he's maybe not so good.

I reckon its because it's Ramadhan..... Fasting month for all Muslims....

Then again maybe not..... Toure seems to be unaffected....

[The Grudge]

I would still sell any of our 4 midfielders excluding Gerrard to get Eto'o or Villa, I would prefer selling Crouch or Kuyt but who would buy THEM As I have said repeatedly its not the quality of our midfield players thats in question, its who plays best with whom.

I don't think any less of Sissoko because he played badly with Gerrard last night, I still think he's a great player AT WHAT HE DOES BEST, ask him to do other things like last night and he's maybe not so good.

In saying 'what he does best' i presume you mean tackling and breaking up play in midfield Saint?

Well i cant remember him making one decent tackle,i cant remember him being first to any loose ball.
He was put in last night to do what he does best and failed with flying colours!

He was also at fault for their goal last night with a pathetic effort of a an attempt to get a ball that any half decent player should have won and would have won.
He was terrible last night,absolutely fuc.king dire mate.

He has played more bad games than good for us and too often fails to do his job.....In my opinion hes not anywhere near good enough for LFC and should be sold in the next transfer window!
PS this is not a knee jerk reaction from last night,i am saying what i have seen from him over the last while!

[account deleted by request]

Sissoko didn't play against Porto mate, and we wern't much better at keeping the ball then were we? I agree he had a bad game last night as did 8 or 9 others. Not many did what they do best last night did they? If you are going to play Sissoko you have to let him lose to hunt the ball, chase down players etc. Playing him with Gerrard not only restricted Sissoko's game but Gerrards as well. Crazy unbalanced team selection, and if he was as bad as we all thought (and he was) what was Rafa doing leaving him on the pitch?

I would have had Sissoko off and Mascherano on by H/T, it was pretty obvious that we had problems, didn't need a genius to see that.

[The Grudge]

Sissoko didn't play against Porto mate, and we wern't much better at keeping the ball then were we? I agree he had a bad game last night as did 8 or 9 others. Not many did what they do best last night did they? If you are going to play Sissoko you have to let him lose to hunt the ball, chase down players etc. Playing him with Gerrard not only restricted Sissoko's game but Gerrards as well. Crazy unbalanced team selection, and if he was as bad as we all thought (and he was) what was Rafa doing leaving him on the pitch?

I would have had Sissoko off and Mascherano on by H/T, it was pretty obvious that we had problems, didn't need a genius to see that.

I know were your coming from but i dont think he is good enough from what i have seen.
Last night just made my mind up.He could have if he was up to it imposed himself last night,he failed.
To blame the fact he played with Gerrard does'nt wash either mate!Its not as if Stevie had him by the scruff and was stopping him making tackles or getting the ball...or made him keep giving the ball away when he had it.It was a bit unbalanced but that does not excuse the whole midfield being disfunctional.

As for the sub choices near the end,well yep they were as poor as the performance.

Id have had Mascherano on from the start..hes 5 times the player Sissoko could ever dream to be!

[account deleted by request]

He's hardly had much chance to shine this season to be honest. He was M.O.M against Sunderland, played well against Portsmouth (one of the few), was probably second best player after Torres against Reading. He's not done that bad mate.

I agree about Mascherano though

[Reinas No.1 Fan]

Xabi is a great player, even tho his form has been below par he is still a player that can provide that spark of genius that can win us the game.

[account deleted by request]

Family values leave Basque brothers feeling at home

Guillem Balague
When asked about the differences between Spanish and English football, players who have experienced both tend to refer to the diverse intensity of the game (“In Spain I used to run only for 20 minutes of each half,” Albert Ferrer, the former Chelsea and Barcelona defender, has said) or the different roles played in each position (Thierry Henry talks about the need “to be patient. If you are a striker you have to wait patiently for the arrival of the ball that moves around a hundred times before it reaches you.”)

Or about the pace (“You have no time to think in England,” Júlio Baptista, the Real Madrid forward, remembers of his experience at Arsenal) and the physicality of the Premier League (“The first ball I touched was followed by a kick from the back from Rio Ferdinand that lifted me a metre from the floor and when he picked me up, he said, ‘Welcome to the Premiership,’ ” Luis García, the Atlético Madrid and former Liverpool midfield player, said). For the Alonso brothers, Mikel, of Bolton Wanderers, and Xabi, of Liverpool, there is a bigger difference — England has the perfect environment to work, to focus on their job without unneeded interferences.

Xabi drives daily from his apartment in Liverpool to the club’s training ground at Melwood and stops to sign autographs for the kids who wait for him to arrive and to leave three hours later. That is the only outside interference he endures while he prepares for the next match or recovers from his injury, as is the case at the moment, but he should be back from a broken metatarsal for the game against Everton at Goodison Park on October 20.

He trains, eats, passes all kind of physical tests and, if he wants to, sleeps at the training ground, seeing always the same faces he saw the previous day. For Mikel, his trip to Bolton’s training ground is a similar experience.

The brothers are media-friendly characters, totally at easy with the cameras, joking in at least three languages with the journalist. But it is Mikel Alonso, 18 months older than Xabi, who puts it all in context:

“Nobody sees the rehearsals at theatre. So it is only right that nobody sees us prepare for matches. Preparation is the most important part of our jobs and we can do it in peace here.” Xabi adds: “Players keep their focus when there is no press around.”

It is well known in Spain that footballers often train to please their media audience, for instance, doubling their efforts in tackles or running longer distances if they have been accused of being lazy — all except Ronaldo, who did not care much about that. “I would take to Spain the facility to work behind closed doors every day — that and the noise in the stadiums. It is such a pleasure to play football in these grounds,” Xabi says.

Since the summer, the Alonso brothers — Mikel is 27, Xabi 25 — find themselves less than an hour away from each other and that is one of the most pleasing rewards of playing abroad. They grew up very close, they played the same games in school, in training, in the garden of their father’s house. Perico Alonso, who was a member of the Spain team in the 1982 World Cup finals, moved the family to Barcelona after he signed from Real Sociedad when his sons were still in nappies. Although they spent the next six years in the area, they are both more Basque than Catalan — they both have that dry sense of humour, the strong Basque accent, the combination of friendliness and distance that Spaniards relate to northerners.

There seems to be an instant connection as soon as they arrive in the Liverpool restaurant we met in. Work made the friends part company in the summer of 2004, when Xabi decided to sign for Liverpool from Sociedad. Mikel went on loan to Bolton this summer from the San Sebastián club because Sammy Lee, the manager, got an excellent recommendation — someone told him he could be a player that would fit the style he wants to implement. Xabi denies he was the talent spotter. “When I decided to move here, it certainly helped to have as a reference the positive experience of my brother,” Mikel says. “We used to watch lots of Premiership matches together. Maybe if he hadn’t been here I wouldn’t have had the chance to come.”

The Alonsos are a football family in which the emphasis is first on family and then football. “Our father was a footballer and later on he became a manager,” Xabi says. “Because my parents knew that football meant so much to us, he had to motivate us to study and to be focused on that first. But finally he left us freedom to make our choices. Of course he helped us a lot to become good players. Whenever he had spare time he allowed us to play with him and we really enjoyed that. He never pushed us to be footballers, but we used to watch matches with him on TV. He did not tell us too much but he always tried to focus on the important things of the game — he pointed out little but really important things about a pass, a body move, how you protect yourself.”

Mikel and Xabi are passers of the ball first and foremost. It all comes down to what you learnt as a child. “We always played together and always with the ball,” Xabi says. Mikel adds: “Mostly passing the ball, long and short passes. We have invented games with the ball that some people say now they have started — like ‘crossbar challenge’. You were given different points depending on where you hit the ball, the distance, etc. You had to reach 2,000 points. We loved to make up new games every day.”

Mikel is older and wiser — or so he says with a smile. “I don’t accept Xabi’s advice,” he says. “Maybe one day, if he wants, I will give him some advice as I’m the older brother. But seriously, he has helped me a lot since I arrived to this new country, especially off the pitch. On the pitch, one of the ways to learn is to watch Xabi play.”

There is a famous incident involving two other brothers — Diego and Gabi Milito. While they played for Racing and Independiente, the Argentine clubs, respectively, Diego, the striker, asked the referee for a yellow card for his brother after a tough tackle. “Yes, we would do the same if it is required and then we will go out for dinner to laugh it up,” Mikel says.

The Bolton midfield player made a good start to his Premier League career but lost a bit of confidence after a couple of mistakes in the 2-1 defeat against Everton last month. He is now back in contention and he wanted to play against Chelsea yesterday, despite passing out as a consequence of a knock to the head during the Uefa Cup win over Rabotnicki Kometal on Thursday. He was taken to hospital but will be ready for the game against Arsenal after the international break.

Mikel is happy he has found in Lee a manager he can trust. “It is a big honour to play under him,” he says. “He was a footballer, a top one, and you can tell he is a real professional, one who understands what all this is about. We are all working hard to do our best to help this new project, nobody more than the manager.”

And when there is a need to cheer up or have a bit of banter, at the other end of the phone, or less than one hour’s drive away, Xabi will always be available for a chat.


For Sabre 

[Sabre]

hehe.

Xabi's dad was a great footballer. Rock solid defensive midfielder, less gifted in touch than his youngest son, but you still can see some gestures in Xabi that are learned from his father.

Mikel the older brother is shíte. He's like Gerrard, but without the passing, the tackling, the long shot and the strenght. Not a surprise he's been dropped from Bolton, even the other Bolton midfielders aren't great.

[JamCar05]

Mikel the older brother is shíte. He's like Gerrard, but without the passing, the tackling, the long shot and the strenght. Not a surprise he's been dropped from Bolton, even the other Bolton midfielders aren't great.

So basically he's like Gerrard in the sense that he is a central midfielder (and a human being of the male kind)    Just kidding mate, but what are his strengths then (he must have some)?

[Sabre]

Mikel the older brother is shíte. He's like Gerrard, but without the passing, the tackling, the long shot and the strenght. Not a surprise he's been dropped from Bolton, even the other Bolton midfielders aren't great.

So basically he's like Gerrard in the sense that he is a central midfielder (and a human being of the male kind)    Just kidding mate, but what are his strengths then (he must have some)?

For me Gerrard is one of the best midifielders of the world.

He reminds me him in how *he tries* to play football and run with the ball, he tries to do the same kind of football, but heh, let's say he's unsuccesful achieving it.

His strenght is his stamina, he runs a lot of Km during a game, but that's not a good thing because most of the Km he makes are due to him not being in the position he should. He has a decent technique controlling the ball, and is a decent short passer, but since he rarely moves to a place in which he can do harm, 90% of his passes are useless. The funny bit is when he tries to be Gerrard or ALonso in a long pass. 

If you see him training you might think he's good as he does a couple of things well done, when you see him in the pitch you realise how important is to understand position notions, and how important is to offer yourself in the correct position, let's say he just doesn't have that football brains, unlike Gerrard.

Since he's on loan, not signed up I did lurk Bolton forums in the hope that they liked him and sign him up to get some money. Bolton fans were a bit deluded by the "Alonso" name and they liked him, but seems that Sammy Lee has finally seen the truth. A pity, because he's a good lad, no doubt about that.

A typical case of a player that was strong for his age, and thus had his brother in the bench when he was 16 (Mikel was the good player at that age, and Xabi was on the bench as he wasn't strong physically!), but then when they're adults they're quite limited.

[JamCar05]

Mikel the older brother is shíte. He's like Gerrard, but without the passing, the tackling, the long shot and the strenght. Not a surprise he's been dropped from Bolton, even the other Bolton midfielders aren't great.

So basically he's like Gerrard in the sense that he is a central midfielder (and a human being of the male kind)    Just kidding mate, but what are his strengths then (he must have some)?

For me Gerrard is one of the best midifielders of the world.

He reminds me him in how *he tries* to play football and run with the ball, he tries to do the same kind of football, but heh, let's say he's unsuccesful achieving it.

His strenght is his stamina, he runs a lot of Km during a game, but that's not a good thing because most of the Km he makes are due to him not being in the position he should. He has a decent technique controlling the ball, and is a decent short passer, but since he rarely moves to a place in which he can do harm, 90% of his passes are useless. The funny bit is when he tries to be Gerrard or ALonso in a long pass. 

If you see him training you might think he's good as he does a couple of things well done, when you see him in the pitch you realise how important is to understand position notions, and how important is to offer yourself in the correct position, let's say he just doesn't have that football brains, unlike Gerrard.

Since he's on loan, not signed up I did lurk Bolton forums in the hope that they liked him and sign him up to get some money. Bolton fans were a bit deluded by the "Alonso" name and they liked him, but seems that Sammy Lee has finally seen the truth. A pity, because he's a good lad, no doubt about that.

A typical case of a player that was strong for his age, and thus had his brother in the bench when he was 16 (Mikel was the good player at that age, and Xabi was on the bench as he wasn't strong physically!), but then when they're adults they're quite limited.

Ok fair play, thanks for the elaboration. Doesn't exactly sound like he's the best of players then   I hope your team is able to get him sold, even though he isn't getting much time on the field for Bolton atm. Might be nice for Xabi to have him around as well.

[66-1112520797]

Well, I'd just like to add as good as Alonso is IMHO he'd make no difference in our current situation. IMO he wouldnt help the team play much better, infact its probably better for him that he's not playing right now, because like his eleven teamates taking the field at the mo, his own form will probably be dragged down to.

Its much easier for a player to come back into a 'Full of confidence team' where their on a winning streak. I dont think Xabi's got the kind of game to pull us out of a rut (so to speak) TBH, only the likes of Gerrard and possibly Torres have at LFC I think.

[Sabre]

Well, I'd just like to add as good as Alonso is IMHO he'd make no difference in our current situation. IMO he wouldnt help the team play much better, infact its probably better for him that he's not playing right now, because like his eleven teamates taking the field at the mo, his own form will probably be dragged down to.

Its much easier for a player to come back into a 'Full of confidence team' where their on a winning streak. I dont think Xabi's got the kind of game to pull us out of a rut (so to speak) TBH, only the likes of Gerrard and possibly Torres have at LFC I think.