by tonyeh » Sat Aug 15, 2009 2:21 pm
Have to say, I share the apprehension of some posters on here. The loss of Alonso leaves our midfield much weaker. I do believe he was the driving force there and we'll certainly miss his accurate passing. Unfortunately, Mascherano offers nothing going forward and even though he's a valued part of Liverpool's midfield defensively, I just don't think he's that smart at the end of the day. A bit of a one trick pony.
Lucas, some say he's "improved" and perhaps he has. But to me, any improvement has been from utterly shite, to just shite. He'll NEVER be a good player for Liverpool IMHO and I'm a bit surprised to see him still here.
Benayoun will be called on more often this season to fill in the gap in midfield. He is a player that has improved greatly in my opinion and may see himself as a regular starter.
Kuyt did give the two fingers to all of his critics in the latter half of last season, but he still suffers from all of the issues he has always suffered from. Hopefully he can reproduce the form of the first 5 months of this year.
Riera, I hope he can offer a more stable product this year. While I thought he was a valued member, he did have a number of games where he simply didn't hand up the goods.
Can't comment on the new boy, Aquilani, as I haven't seen much of him. So, it's best to say nothing. Hopefully, he'll be able to hit the ground running. But, his injury record has to be a worry.
Either way, I think that the release of the midfield in the latter half of last season was key to Liverpool's great results after March and Alonso was integral to that. Without him there may have to be some alterations made, as Lando has pointed out.
I also share Ciggy's worry about our lack of new blood. We absolutely REQUIRED a back up for Torres and we haven't got that. If his hammy goes again (and that's a real possibility), we have nothing.
In saying all that, I'm still looking forward to tomorrow and the start of our season and there is still a few weeks left in the transfer window left. Benitez may pull something out of the bag.
Anyway...Liverpool 1 - Spurs 0