Liverpool FC Forum

bigmick wrote:

kazza wrote:

Fo Dne wrote:Nowhere near as good a CENTRAL MIDFIELDER as Alonso or Gerrard. End of.

I would agree this year but you could not have said the same last year so it is relative. Having said that I think Alonso at his best is better than Mascherano at his best, but Alonso is considered in his prime (age wise) and Mascherano is still developing whether you think he will improve further or not. To be captain of Argentina and at such a young age, I would say he is better than you give him credit. Since returning from the Olympics however (and been made captain of Argentina) he has not been as consistant for us. He was better last year.

Maradonna claims that he will build the national team around Mascherano, so he will get plenty of chances in the coming years to show whether he is overated or not. My guess is he is a good little player.

Incredibly enough I actually agree with pretty much all of this post.

Back to Sabes point about "compatability" I think it's probably worth viewing the debate about Masherano/Gerrard as opposed to Alonso/Gerrard in the context it was spoken of at the time. At the time, people were claiming Alonso was playing just as well as he always had done, his form hadn't dipped one iota At the time, Alonso was more "compatable" with Carragher than he was with Gerrard as he spent the entire 90 minutes stood within five yards of the centre halves.

The manager was so unimpressed as to Xabi's contribution that he hawked him around europe trying to flog him off. The football managers throughout Europe were so unimpressed with Xabi's contributon, that not one of them was prepared to pay the same fee for his services that Tottenham paid Charlton for Darren Bent. This is the context in whcih the original debate took place, and I think it's probably worth remembering that before the smileys come out 

Of course Alonso is now playing much better than he was previously, everybody (even his fan club) accept that. His form is unrecognisable to last season. Equally, Masherano is playing nowhere near as good. So the comparison has changed, and if you were to pick two central midfielders based purely on current form/compatability, it is obviously Alonso and Gerrard.

Simple really. And people accuse me of always wanting to be proven right lol. I was just the bloke who was saying in the middle of the whole debate how firstly the opposition had managed to nullify Alonso (and they were even talking about it on the "soccer" coverage over here the other day ) and secondly, how Xabi could change his game to be more effective in England.

Jeez I was soooo wrong on both counts   

JoeTerp wrote:

Sabre wrote:

Fo Dne wrote:

JoeTerp wrote:a note to the anti masch and home crowd.  Is it a different proposition when Torres is in the team?  I am not talking about the lowest of the lows now, but I could see mach being useful against mid table teams at home if we have torres. In theory it should allow us to get stevie further up the the pitch while continuing to dominate the play in the middle.  Maybe it would become more of a viable option if we had a bigger goal scoring threat than Kuyt out wide right.

Absoloutely not!

He's right IMHO. I'm a bit surprised Mascha isn't used more.

However, when one year ago you were almost alone saying Alonso and Gerrard being a good pairing against the serious mantra of the knowledgeable people who said they were not compatible, you were spot on.

Incompatible? My árse.

can't tell who you are agreeing with. shouldn't use pronouns when quoting two posts. And Stu, would  you care to explain further?