Posted:
Fri Apr 06, 2007 7:26 pm
by RedBlood
lool chill ya beanz
mascherano is quality but i knew that before we signed him, as much as i love momo i see our first choice midfield as: gerrard mascherano alonso kewell(when fit)
Posted:
Fri Apr 06, 2007 7:40 pm
by account deleted by request
RedBlood wrote:lool chill ya beanz
mascherano is quality but i knew that before we signed him, as much as i love momo i see our first choice midfield as: gerrard mascherano alonso kewell(when fit)
While I agree with you completly Redblood I think it will be interesting to see a midfield of Kewell, Momo, Mascherano, Gerrard as well. Especially once Momo gets his form back (he was out for a good while)
One things for certain we have good possibilities in midfield. It just seems a bit ironic that the left side of midfield where we seemed so well covered is now seen as the problem area.
Posted:
Sat Apr 07, 2007 12:42 am
by metalhead
7_kewell, fowler has a technical gift that none of our other strikers have in the squad. still at 32, i think.. he has great movement, quick feet, passes and finish that could net 25 goals per season, shame really that he wasn't given enough opportunities to show us that! he is still a very good striker! I'm very unhappy that he will be leaving us because i think we are getting rid of a very good striker, i don't care how old he is, look at cafu at milan, look at maldini, or inzaghi or j zanetti, they are in the average range of aprox 34 and they are still class! I agree with stu.'
as for mascherano, he has immense quality, and he has impressed me alot before, so definetley he is a very good signing.
Posted:
Sat Apr 07, 2007 3:18 am
by aCe'
mascherano isnt far behind alonso in my books... im an argentina fan and have been seein masch. play for some time now... he is absolutely fantastic... great passing great vision... gets himself in good positions and ususally follows the ball around providing support... alonso hasnt been performing as well as he could and should be and masch's presence should be his wake up call... he now is dispensable if we can get gerrard back in a central role .
as for sissoko ... hes 4th choice behind gerrard,alonso and mascherano ....still expect him to feature in many games as rafa seems to like the physical solidity he adds to our side... but def. needs to improve many aspects of his game to become anywhere near 'top class'
on the fowler issue... all i have to say is.... ronaldo is the 3rd best player in the history of the game.. just because he was benched in madrid because Capello ddnt like wat he had to offer doesnt mean he isnt a good player or wasnt by far their best forward not to mention player ... look at the forwards we have in our side... kuyt...bellamy....crouch... how can u even compare ?! u can tell by the touch of the ball..the control... unless u never played football then id understand !
fowler should start more games and it kills me to see rafa take out gonzales and put in zenden at the 60th min with fowler sitting there on the bench wondering wat the fuk it is kuyt is trying to do running around the midfielders in circles !
Posted:
Sat Apr 07, 2007 4:07 am
by bigmick
In fairness, I personally think that to compare Robbie and his situation with Cafu, Maldini, Bergkamp (as he was by an earlier poster) is folly. Fowler by his own admission hasn't taken the best care of himself and has also been stricken by horrific injuries during the course of his career, whereas these other players have looked after themselves and have largely remained injury free.
Now this argument between Stu the Red and 7_Kewell is an old one with history. During the course of it the balance of power has ebbed and flowed with each penalty converted by Robbie, with each non appearance in the starting eleven. As my name was put up earlier I thought I might as well make it clear where I stand.
Fowler clearly still posesses much if not all of his natural game intelligence. Infact it is arguable that with the benefit of experience he probably reads it now better than he ever did. He still as the fantastic technique, the sweetest striker of a football with the left foot you ever did see and a spring like a gazelle along with great timing making him excellent in the air for a little bloke. His movement is still the most cunning you'll see from any striker in the Premier league, not just at Liverpool. Any youngster trying to learn the art of "getting himself open" in the box, that is to say in a position whereby the chances of the ball actually reaching him are maximised, should study Fowler for hour after hour. The way he shows, stops, backtracks two yards and then dives back in front is absolute poetry. Watch how he "drifts" away from the play, getting himself out of line of sight of the defender before looking around him and making sure he's found just the right spot to get himself open. Watch those slow-mo replays of when the ball hits the bar and bounces down. Every player in the frame is fixed to the spot usually with comic expressions on their faces, their arms and legs fixed in some kind of drunken limbo. Every player in the shot except one. That one, the one who darts in and sticks it in the net, the one with the special godgiven gift is Fowler. I've disagreed with Stu before as he claims that Owen was the better player. Not to be mentioned in the same breath breath for me. Fowler at his very best was as good as a striker as I've ever seen. Good in the air, brave, quickish, could bang it in from distance, could tap it in, was clever, sly, skillfull, absolutely had the lot. In his prime he was a wonderful player.
That's the crux though. Despite him retaining many of his abilities, he's lost some as well. Not least of his probnlems is that if you play him for an hour he comes off dripping like a George Forman grill. Because he's lost all of his pace (and don't tell me he was never quick, he was never slow either) his chances of being involved in the game other than in the box are severely limited. Too often, balls played into him are nicked by the fella in behind because he hasn't got the pace or strength to hold posession. Too often, the full back looks for an out ball and because Robbie is either knackered or too slow or both the only option available is to ping it right into his feet from forty yards away. You can't drop it in front because it gets nicked, you can't channel it because he hasn't got the legs to get there. So you've got to hit him below the knees from forty yards. Like trying to hit a TV from a long way away with a fairly flat trajectory. Risky pass because if you don't make it, you lose posesssion. Too often if it gets played in behind and you break onto teams he hasn't got the pace to support, to get into the box early enough and find his spot. You'll see him arriving like a wardrobe coming down the stairs, like all the other mortal strikers do. And too often, the touches go astray as the fatigue sets in. The once reliable first time layoffs don't quite go where intended, and once more posession is lost. For sure, get the ball in and around the box and Robbie will get himself open. Create lots of chances for him and he will score lots of goals. But football isn't the AFL, you don't bring a bloke on to let him kick a goal and then stick him back on the bench. In modern day football players must contribute for ninety minutes and for the most part, this is seemingly beyond Robbie now. There is no greater Fowler advocate than me but time doesn't stand still for anybody, even a little genius from Toxteth.
One last thing, before I left the Uk I had a couple of bars in Wimbledon and and a few players and ex-players used to get in. One fella who used to show his face from time to time was Robbie Earle. Nice fella Robbie is, no bull and will talk football all night. More than once I've sat there long after everyone's gone home and chewed the fat with him. You ask him who was the hardest ooponent he faced, the one they spent most time talking about all week before the game and if he gives you the same answer he gave me he won't even hesitate for breath, Robbie Fowler.
Posted:
Sat Apr 07, 2007 5:41 am
by 66-1112520797
Two good posts above both interesting reads, the Fowler one was really well written and Stu's case for Owen was very good. I think both strikers were excellent for us and both were the best we've had for the last 15 years or so. Two very different players with different traits about them, it doesnt matter who was better than who. Just that we could do with either at there peak now.
Posted:
Sat Apr 07, 2007 5:45 am
by bigmick
You're right BM that it doesn't matter who was better, and also in that we could do with either at their peak right now. When you think that before either of them we had John Aldridge (who was and is still much underrated by the Liverpool historians in my opinion) Ian Rush and King Kenny it just shows you what a hard job some of these current lads have in impressing some of us older supporters.