Liverpool FC Forum

by **Roger Red Hat** » Mon Jun 29, 2009 12:44 pm

Toffeehater wrote:No one said we should bid for him , where you getting that from ? Manure had a tit and he won them 3 titles on the trot , drogba was a tit and he won chelsea 2 titles . Ibra is a tit and again inter win 3 titles

you see, t!ts are goooood :cool:

(.) (.)

by **aCe'** » Mon Jun 29, 2009 2:55 pm

Toffeehater wrote:
aCe' wrote:- Gago... the interesting one in the bunch... the guy has bags of potential... can be used as a playmaker, a defensive destroyer or simply a holding midfielder... dont think the RealMadrid style suited him very well and im sure that in a different team/league hed do much better... for now though id say his displays were overall average at best... interesting one though...

-

He's fecking sh!te , one of the most overrated players , nothing spectuculat about him , bhis goal record is abysmal , only 1 goal in 71 apps ever for madrid , sorry but no thanks.

Replacement For Alonso :

Diego , he's always the creative second forward that saint is banging on about , now he's a great passer of the ball , more of a threat going forward and would have cost around 20 million. Unfortunately for us he has signed for juventus.

Ireland : He's a interesting shout as he had a great season and city are in a position where they don't have to sell . Ireland scored 13 goals last season and got a bunch of assits as well . He's a intelligent player , very very hardworking and a good but not on xabi's level of passing although they aren't many who are.

Daniele De Rossi - fantastic vision , good passer of the ball , can put a tackle in but barca are interested in him as well. How much would he cost ? Around 25 to 30 million as well . He's got 4 goals this season , around the same as xabi .

Gago hasnt been performing well on a consistent basis for Madrid.. ill give you that much... but the guy has talent, which is hard to deny imo... hes always played much deeper than i think he should be... he makes excellent runs down the middle and his passing at times is just simply sublime... has a great eye for a through ball and can dictate the game if given the opportunity to... At Madrid i have to say hes a wasted talent... Again, in a side like Barcelona or Arsenal where players are allowed to express their talents a little more i think he'd shine...

Wouldnt be top of my list simply because i dont think hed be given much freedom to do what he does best here in Liverpool, but hes a good player imo...

Diego wouldnt be a replacement for Alonso... unless Gerrard is moved back to the middle with Diego playing higher up, which wouldnt make much sense really !

De Rossi i agree.... has great drive going forward and is does his defensive duties with little trouble... doubt he'd be leaving Italy for England though... dont think Italians like the English league much..

by **Red H** » Mon Jun 29, 2009 3:24 pm

I think we want a young English replacement, and we should, we could do much worse than Noble, from West Ham.

by **aCe'** » Mon Jun 29, 2009 3:30 pm

Red H wrote:I think we want a young English replacement, and we should, we could do much worse than Noble, from West Ham.

yea we could... we could do much better too though :upside:

Scott Parker is the much better player of the two... not sure even he would be good enough for us though... When it comes to young English talent down the middle though, i'd rather have Michael Johnson, that kid from Everton whos name i cant remember, Collison, Huddlestone or even Muamba before Noble... in that order i think...

by **Red H** » Mon Jun 29, 2009 3:55 pm

Scott parker isn't exactly a spring chicken, mind you he could out run Huddlestone (and that's how slow he is). I think you mean Jack Rodwell, from Everton, pains me to say it but, yes good player, although will end up a CH, Collison not bad, but not recognized at representative level (will probably end up playing for Wales), Michael Johnson more of a Gerrard type (and still pretty raw, although could have much potential).

Still like Noble myself.

by **Red H** » Mon Jun 29, 2009 3:56 pm

Mumba, hmm, can he pass it ? Doesn't score much either.

by **crazyhorse** » Mon Jun 29, 2009 5:04 pm

aCe' wrote:
Red H wrote:I think we want a young English replacement, and we should, we could do much worse than Noble, from West Ham.

yea we could... we could do much better too though

Scott Parker is the much better player of the two... not sure even he would be good enough for us though... When it comes to young English talent down the middle though, i'd rather have Michael Johnson, that kid from Everton whos name i cant remember, Collison, Huddlestone or even Muamba before Noble... in that order i think...

Are any of these guys better than Lucas??

If they are its marginal.

by **Toffeehater** » Mon Jun 29, 2009 5:20 pm

Exactly i rate lucas higher than any of them bar parker who's a :censored:

sicknote , always injured , pointless in trying to sign him , shame though he was a class player at charlton

by **Fauxy** » Mon Jun 29, 2009 5:22 pm

Javier Martinez looks very promising and would be fairly cheap, looks a better option than Lucas. And if he doesnt cut the mustard we still have Benayoun who can play as a more attacking midfielder.

by **Toffeehater** » Mon Jun 29, 2009 5:25 pm

Red H wrote:Scott parker isn't exactly a spring chicken, mind you he could out run Huddlestone (and that's how slow he is). I think you mean Jack Rodwell, from Everton, pains me to say it but, yes good player, although will end up a CH, Collison not bad, but not recognized at representative level (will probably end up playing for Wales), Michael Johnson more of a Gerrard type (and still pretty raw, although could have much potential).

Still like Noble myself.

Johnson has put on loads of weight and doesn't look like the player 2 seasons ago with massive amount of potential , shame though i always had high hopes for him , hope he can get back to his best . Rodwell is a good shout but he's much too young to be replacing anyone , collision as well. Noble has talent but again is pretty rare , parker is injuries are as bad as aurelio's

by **bigmick** » Mon Jun 29, 2009 9:13 pm

Not an original thought as somebody mentioned him elsewhere, but if we lost Xabi all this looking for a "direct replacement" might be the wrong tree entirely. Perhaps if we are to keep Masherano and trust him to do the cleaning up, we can look for a different type of midfielder to Xabi. Perhaps it's not the Molbyesque pass pass pass which would serve us best, maybe we could look at a ball carrier.

Maybe we could look at a guy who is absolutely proven in the Premiership, has played for a top team, is the right age and would be pick-uppable for around 10-12 million I reckon. Alexender Hleb, always liked him and he would fit snug as a bug in a rug with Gerrard and Torres.

by **Toffeehater** » Mon Jun 29, 2009 10:00 pm

How many of arsenal's players have done well after leaving them , i can only think of henry and that was this season , under rikjaard he wasn't as effective as he has been. Pires , Viera , Flamini , Reyes , are the notable ones that i can think of at the moment , helb's the player who can unlock those tight defenses but the problem is , he's not a central midfielder and who will partner masch for the season , Lucas? Helb's a winger and unless mick you mean playing yossi or babel in the gerrard role and helb on the left?

by **bigmick** » Mon Jun 29, 2009 10:09 pm

No mate, I'd play Hleb central with Masherano if he stays.

by **Rafas-Y-Fronts** » Mon Jun 29, 2009 10:45 pm

If either or both of Alonso and Mascherano leave I am confident we will be able to cope and Rafa will have made provision for this with other targets.

I base this on Manchester United being able to win the Premier League with their midfield which isn't anywhere near as good as either ours or Chelsea's.

They have Anderson who is a good player at best.

Carrick is another good midfielder but not in the World Class bracket and this also applies to Park.

Scholes and Giggs are obviously class players but used very sparingly due to their age.

Ronaldo is their only world class midfield really which shows that they won the league through being clinical in the final third.

Our shots to goals ratio simply has to improve next season and we will be able to turn some of the draws into wins if we do this.

Creating 20 chances a game and converting only one of them cost us big time last season and we need to be more clinical.

Mascherano is quick and without that he would be a fairly average defensive midfielder in my opinion as his distribution isn't particularly good.

It will be difficult to find someone with the passing ability or range of Alonso but he does need time to pick a pass.

Someone with more pace and a creative spark would be a good replacement for Xabi as now we have Johnson at right back we will hopefully be using the width of the pitch a lot more before the ball even reaches the midfield.

This will cut down the need for 40 yard passes from central midfield to the flanks and instead we would be able to work the ball with short quick triangles and pass and move football.

Arsenal do this well without having anyone with particularly outstanding vision and passing ability but they play quick, crisp balls into feet and move into space using their pace.

Lucas could develop into a good first team option shortly as he keeps things simple and plays the easy pass. I think his ball retention is good and he slows the game down well for us.

Once he has beefed up a bit he will be able to compete better against his opponent and then we will see him begin to justify his fee.

by **LFC4allseasons** » Tue Jun 30, 2009 12:10 am

bigmick wrote:Not an original thought as somebody mentioned him elsewhere, but if we lost Xabi all this looking for a "direct replacement" might be the wrong tree entirely. Perhaps if we are to keep Masherano and trust him to do the cleaning up, we can look for a different type of midfielder to Xabi. Perhaps it's not the Molbyesque pass pass pass which would serve us best, maybe we could look at a ball carrier.

Maybe we could look at a guy who is absolutely proven in the Premiership, has played for a top team, is the right age and would be pick-uppable for around 10-12 million I reckon. Alexender Hleb, always liked him and he would fit snug as a bug in a rug with Gerrard and Torres.

Hleb is not a ball carrier mate. He's a more skillful, tricky player. He's a player in the Benayoun mould and the only way to fit Hleb in would be to drop Stevie back into the middle and play the Bulgarian in the hole which I don't think Rafa is gonna be doing any time soon.

The sort of midfielder we need is a box to box midfielder and they are very rare in the modern game since such stupid phrases like "defensive midfielder" came about. A midfielder's job is to attack when we attack and defend when we defend. Players like Sidwell, Noble or Michael Johnson are the ones we need. I'm not saying any of these three should be our top targets or even on our wish list, although I'd snap Noble up if he became available but players of that ilk. The box to box midfielder which we haven't had since the early days of Gerrard.

I don't know how he's getting on these days but a few years back I always liked Torsten Frings. He always impressed me when he played for Germany. Van Bommel was another who impressed me but he went off the boil when going to Barcelona but seems to be impressing again at Bayern. Cana, that Marseille lad is another who I think has the sort of qualities we'd be lacking if Xabi or Masch go.

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