SouthCoastShankly wrote:I too side in favour of Mascherano leaving over Alonso. But who will fill his place?
Yaya Toure straight swap. Absolute beast of a player, has turned down a new contract at Barcelona and is a better passer of the ball than Mascherano.
Agree with the notion that of the two, I'd be happier seeing Mascherano go (as much as I love the guy). In my opinion Alonso is our best defensive player because of the way he keeps posession of the ball and play the right passes to his team mates which makes it easier for them to keep the ball also combined with the fact he always makes himself availible for a pass to help out his team mates.
If you dont give away the ball going forward you hardly ever need to make last ditch tackles as the team as a unit will be in balance when the opposition attack. When this is the case, your reading of the game is your most essential ability as you will posistion yourself in the right space at the right time and will not need to hurry into zones because you were out of position in the first place.
Alonso is the ultimate player to have in a zonal system as he covers his zone perfectly because of his reading of the game(vision and intelligence).
The defensive game is all about balance and covering zones and if you are able to master this the ability to tackle is almost just an luxury.