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blueduck
Guest
yeah a smiley would have lightened the tone of it, but there ya go.
nice avatar btw.
Cheers, I saw it on a poster somewhere and thought it would look shweet.
14 - Javier Mascherano
- Thread starter nebeer
- Start date
Cheers, I saw it on a poster somewhere and thought it would look shweet.
AnfieldEd
I am Leg End
I honestly do feel Xabi Alonso, for a player who plays in his position gets overlooked too often as not among the best. IMO I'd only rate Iniesta and Xavi higher (for players in that position), as players who can play as well as Xabi can, when he is on form. On form being the key word here, because when he is on form Alonso is a joy to behold. Absolutely love the kind of player he is. They don't seem to come across very often.
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Ramone Starfucker
Guest
Rafa has no problem in selling Alonso..but Ruthless Rafa, will extract a big price from Madrid. Its developed into a war of who blinks first... as niether Rafa or Xabi wants us Liverpool fans, to think that he wanted to sell... or the player wants to go.
Thats the state of the play at the moment. If(and its a big if) Xabi stated he wanted to go,then i think the deal would be done quickly...as the fans wouldnt tolerate a player who wanted out,no matter who he is. But a player of his ability would be missed.
Now Mascherano is a different story altogether..... Rafa does not want to sell the Argentinian captain,and has come out and said "Mascherano has no price" and Liverpool are very aware, that Mascherano is one of their most important players,and that there is no other like him in the world (i hope laporta+pepe looks at your poll,and think the same as you,,but they know different)
Selling Xabi,Rafa can live with it...but not Mascherano....even with the best attacking midfielder in the world,and the best striker in the world..Rafa knows,without his midfielder,Liverpool will be badly weakened.
Thats the state of the play at the moment. If(and its a big if) Xabi stated he wanted to go,then i think the deal would be done quickly...as the fans wouldnt tolerate a player who wanted out,no matter who he is. But a player of his ability would be missed.
Now Mascherano is a different story altogether..... Rafa does not want to sell the Argentinian captain,and has come out and said "Mascherano has no price" and Liverpool are very aware, that Mascherano is one of their most important players,and that there is no other like him in the world (i hope laporta+pepe looks at your poll,and think the same as you
,,but they know different)Selling Xabi,Rafa can live with it...but not Mascherano....even with the best attacking midfielder in the world,and the best striker in the world..Rafa knows,without his midfielder,Liverpool will be badly weakened.
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Metaphysical
Bomb Dropper
Not every1 is intelligent enough to do so...
to be fair you could write in the most fluent and poetic spanish and txiki would probably still stare gormlessly at the page before looking off into the middle distance and grinning like a retard.
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Snyde
Guest
I recently took a different view of this Masch deal, I have no idea how or why it is even considered since he should be untouchable at Pool, however if we look at it we have
a) Cover for DM spot during ACN
b) A world class player challenging for starting XI.
c) He could free up Yaya to play a more forward role as a CM. (As you know he's an 'adapted DM', though fantastic at it) Which makes us play with a front six like:
Iniesta--CF--Messi
-------Xavi-------
--Yaya----Masch---
Obviously this makes our front six even more formidable specially in Europe and against the top teams in Liga. Clearly absent however are Henry and Keita who will have to take rotation/sub roles. What i don't like about the formation is that it means less width and breaking the best midfield partnership. However Iniesta and Messi both come more central and deeper so it's more like
---------CF---------
Iniesta--Xavi--Messi ( Serious PWNage!! )
---Yaya----Masch----
I personally like the idea of having another world class player to rotate with our starting XI. I was at first skeptical because I thought it meant removing Yaya which would have been a mistake but now it makes sense that we can have both of them.
EDIT: Like Zanela, I'd obviously choose Xabi over him though. Xabi all in all is exactly the type of option that Barca needs. Dunno why we haven't even looked at him.
(Though once I read somewhere that he's a madridsta..)
a) Cover for DM spot during ACN
b) A world class player challenging for starting XI.
c) He could free up Yaya to play a more forward role as a CM. (As you know he's an 'adapted DM', though fantastic at it) Which makes us play with a front six like:
Iniesta--CF--Messi
-------Xavi-------
--Yaya----Masch---
Obviously this makes our front six even more formidable specially in Europe and against the top teams in Liga. Clearly absent however are Henry and Keita who will have to take rotation/sub roles. What i don't like about the formation is that it means less width and breaking the best midfield partnership. However Iniesta and Messi both come more central and deeper so it's more like
---------CF---------
Iniesta--Xavi--Messi ( Serious PWNage!! )
---Yaya----Masch----
I personally like the idea of having another world class player to rotate with our starting XI. I was at first skeptical because I thought it meant removing Yaya which would have been a mistake but now it makes sense that we can have both of them.
EDIT: Like Zanela, I'd obviously choose Xabi over him though. Xabi all in all is exactly the type of option that Barca needs. Dunno why we haven't even looked at him.
(Though once I read somewhere that he's a madridsta..)
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Don't know about you guys, but for me
------Yaya-------
Xavi-------Iniesta
Is the best midfield ever ... Unless Guardiola is looking to play Yaya in defense alot next season, then I don't see why we need Masch. If it's about the African Cup, then we already have Busquets who can be a solid backup. Masch is one of the best defensive midfielders in the world if you ask me, but we simply don't need to strengthen in that area, it would be a waste of 20-30M which we could have investment somewhere else.
------Yaya-------
Xavi-------Iniesta
Is the best midfield ever ... Unless Guardiola is looking to play Yaya in defense alot next season, then I don't see why we need Masch. If it's about the African Cup, then we already have Busquets who can be a solid backup. Masch is one of the best defensive midfielders in the world if you ask me, but we simply don't need to strengthen in that area, it would be a waste of 20-30M which we could have investment somewhere else.
Galning
Moderator
The best midfield in the world.
Fourteen
Monster Masch
Of course Tam, because that's the trio we've come to love, who have produced great stuff plenty of times in the most successful season of the clubs history....That's hard to look past. However, like Snydey-Pooh has pointed out an additional world-class player in the squad to compete with players that might otherwise start to feel comfortable, is a good thing. The additional factors of the fact that Yaya and Keita will be away on ACN duties and even more World Cup Qualifiers is an additional factor that goes in favour of this move, but also, imagine a defensive midfield partnership of Yaya and Mascherano when it's needed - That's not even funny how amazing that would be.
As for Busquets, he's done terrifically and learnt so much from his experience, obviously a gifted player with tons of potential, but I feel his best position is playing as one of the two more forward midfielders in the absence of Xavi and Iniesta. The responsibility of the role of DM needs concentration and calm, which Biscuits doesn't have sometimes.
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Busquets did a good job whenever needed, even in the big matches (CL Final) .. Ofcourse Masch would be a great addition, he´s probably the best player I´ve seen who can win possession. I just don´t see him as a priority, we need to strengthen the Left Back, Left Wing, and Striker positions first ...
I don´t know, like you said, I´ve probably just got used to Yaya-Xavi-Iniesta ... and I think Iniesta is much much more dangerous in midfield than pushing him out as a left winger ... I can´t see why you guys want to change that, If it isn´t broken then don´t fix it !! lol
I don´t know, like you said, I´ve probably just got used to Yaya-Xavi-Iniesta ... and I think Iniesta is much much more dangerous in midfield than pushing him out as a left winger ... I can´t see why you guys want to change that, If it isn´t broken then don´t fix it !! lol
Necro Spaaw
NeSaVlaDiV
i hear u evil
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Snyde
Guest
@Evil: Yes, we need to strengthen in those areas as well but the fact is JM has been making noises of coming to Spain, to miss out on such an option would be pure idiocy. If you look at the three positions: At LB, LW we need only backups and Bojan and Iniesta can cover LW while Puyol at LB. While I dunno what you mean by striker? To replace Eto'o? The Villa deal is in the works. Some sub? Firstly we have Bojan and then we have almost confirmed K9.
However CM (or DM) is a position we need to look at as Yaya and Keita will be missing for ACN while Guddy is goign out and we aren't too confident on Hleb are we? Then you see that apart from Iniesta-Xavi-Busquets there is no one during that period. That is far too risky. Hence we need a quality player there.
Other than that I feel you missed out RW getting backups for which IMO is more crucial than LW.
EDIT: I'd like to add that you can't look at our midfield alone. Look at the forward line and midfield together and tell me it doesn't improve with JM. Plus with JM and Yaya behind them Iniesta/Xavi/Messi will all have much less defensive responsibilities => they'll focus more on what they're the best at.
However CM (or DM) is a position we need to look at as Yaya and Keita will be missing for ACN while Guddy is goign out and we aren't too confident on Hleb are we? Then you see that apart from Iniesta-Xavi-Busquets there is no one during that period. That is far too risky. Hence we need a quality player there.
Other than that I feel you missed out RW getting backups for which IMO is more crucial than LW.
EDIT: I'd like to add that you can't look at our midfield alone. Look at the forward line and midfield together and tell me it doesn't improve with JM. Plus with JM and Yaya behind them Iniesta/Xavi/Messi will all have much less defensive responsibilities => they'll focus more on what they're the best at.
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So we going to have 4 players competing for 1 spot ? Yaya, Keita, Busquets, and Mascherano ? Yaya and Keita will be away for 1 month only ... that's like 5-6 matches. Plus I doubt we will see Yaya-Mascherano team-up, because we never play with 2 defensive midfielders .. we are more attack minded, you guys already know that.
Fourteen
Monster Masch
To be honest, Keita has never really been competiting for the DM spot and neither has Busquets to a degree. Both players look far more comfortable in one of the two central midfield positions, although I do agree that Busquets has filled in for Yaya brilliantly on ocassions. Mascherano doesn't just have to play as a DM, and could act as an extra enforcer with Xavi or Iniesta and Yaya as DM, but either way, he'd be a fantastic addition to the squad.
Someone mentioned Xabi Alonso. I'm not sure why it appears that we're not interested in him either. He would be a smarter choice to the option of Mascherano - He'd instantly fit the way we play. Perhaps it's because Xabi is a Real target that we're not bothering.
Someone mentioned Xabi Alonso. I'm not sure why it appears that we're not interested in him either. He would be a smarter choice to the option of Mascherano - He'd instantly fit the way we play. Perhaps it's because Xabi is a Real target that we're not bothering.
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