Well, well, well.. After the lad broke my heart by playing.. Well playing ****. Suddenly he has that beautiful elegance which wooed me, his exquisite first time passing, the way he glides like a squirrel with roller blades and his defending like a reinforced brick wall. Welsh Xavi.. With good looks.
Played very well today, he is a decent player - the guy just gets on and does a job for the team that goes without credit so fair play to him. Also can't be easy to gain form by being in and out of the team like he is
OptaJoe 3 - The 3 players to cover the most ground in the Liverpool v Man City game were Lallana (11.9km), Allen (11.6) & Henderson (11.4). Energy. 01/03/2015 14:19
Was outstanding today. Didn't see him misplace a pass, won a few tackles and pressed Toure/Fernandinho into making mistakes all throughout the game. Added to that his positive passing and even a mazy dribble Needs to keep doing that for the rest of the season and playing next to Henderson with the same players and tactics, no reason he can't.
If we just play with a settled team now and Brodgers doesn't bring Gerrard straight back in for hero worship hour then I see no reason why Allen can't push on now, he's had two very good games () and is finally starting to show up and play his role in the team Gerrard should just be a sub now. The way forward is so clearly without him, he wasn't missed at all today and I doubt we'd have been as good with him playing. But you know he'll get the nod for the FA Cup.
Played well today, but still a long way to go to convince me of him being anything more than a last resort. Still a better option than Gerrard mind.
once he's got his fitness up by playing a few he's done better. He's still bang average... theres nothing wrong with that as i always say... as long as you have a coutinho as your main man a guy being the water carrier on the left of midfield covering moreno and therefore letting coutinho drift yeah sure its a good thing Its all about getting match fitness as he looked really bad when he first got in
I'm an Allen fan - he's a very good squad player to have. Best way to sum him up is that he's very good at doing a simple job. Give him something else to do, and he'll struggle. Keep him fit and he can be an asset.
good way to look at it. I say he is average... if you are asking an average player to play a big role like oh i dunno henderson wants to he'll struggle (lesson to henderson that) but if you ask them to support and cover better players they have their place. We've seen all the best teams have the same sort of average player who does a job.... just don't expect a goal or assist contribution for him but if he allows coutinho to drift about by covering the left channel then fine. Lovern, allen and moreno covered the left well enough despite consistent targeting by city this weekend.
Average isn't a fair word to use. He's brilliant at what he does. What he does just isn't the spectacular part of the game. But look at City, now they're 4 midfielders are all arguably better than ours (Coutinho apart) yet they had no balance. They had 3 players wanting to attack and only 1 do the dirty work. We on the other hand had Allen and Hendo doing the dirty work which allowed courino to go and flourish. Partly down to formation and us outnumbering them but also because we had players who could perform a role for the greater good of the team and not for individual acclaim.
At least i'm not calling him a journey man! he is an average prem player.. just average IMO. means he'd fit in at a mid table club nicely. he is not nor never will be a front line top 4 or top 6 player... he should be squad for us and if we are serious about things we will be buying a gerrard replacement this summer... just as an example. I agree on city but i'd say one thing... silva and nasri are not CMs they are really winger to no 10s. nothing wrong with having the player but... lets not make him out to be something he's not. as long as he stays as a player to do what you said and not expected to be a deep laying playmanker or something like that fine. come in and do the job.
Allen had a brilliant game; he pressed, ran his bollocks off, kept the ball and passed it to better players. Having a brilliant game doesn't make him a brilliant player. Nor does it make him brilliant at what he does. He's still an average player who can only do simple things. It just so happens that every team needs guys mixed in around the better ones to plug gaps and work hard. It's like Lucas/Allen/Henderson of last year when Gerrard was out. Laughed at by rival fans, but completely bossed other 'better' midfielders be being water carriers who ran their socks off and kept it simple in the middle. Simple players do the leg work which makes the better ones look good. Better players do the skillful things which make the simple players look good. Like others have said, it's just balance. By the way, how long are people going to keep repeating the old "does the things no one notices but does it very well' because when everyone says that he does the simple things which no one notices, well, everyone IS noticing it. They just accept it's kind of the standard minimal benchmark of a midfielder so don't harp on about it. Even average players can have great games (lower teams in cup ties, for example, knocking out PL opponents), but they're still ultimately average. There are players out there who do the simple things just as well as the Welsh Xavi, but do so much more too. He should keep his spot, he's deserved it, but he'll loose it soon to Gerrard as we all know.
I don't. He's experiencing the Stewart Downing effect. Since he didn't make ANY impact in the previous two or three years, any minor impact is now considered more than what it is. Allen needs to go in the summer, he needs to be replaced by someone with the ability to actual impact a game. People always say "he does things no one notices" but they can't name any of them. Shuffling the ball isn't a useful skill when your entire style of play is based on counter-attacking and pacey transitions to your forwards from the defence. We don't unlock defences like Barcelona so we don't need a shuffler. A shuffler is someone who is afraid of the ball, if they absolutely never do anything with it otherwise. I can count the amount of times he's ran forward with the ball on one hand. This slows down our play and allows their players back to defend. Even today. He played well, but he gave the ball away a few times with pointless passes. It's weird to see that Joe Allen, (who will be 25 in a week) is constantly being given second, third, fourth, 66th chances, even if he's been nothing more than average throughout his career. Yet a 21 year old Markovic (who played very well for a month) has a few off days and everyone's calling him a weak link, asking for him to be dropped, etc. Yeah, if we have no one else available I'd be okay with him staying. But I'd have Coutinho, Henderson, Can, Lucas, Gerrard, Markovic, Ibe, Sterling, Moreno and anyone else ahead of him in the lineup.Sure he's a different kind of player. But given how lightweight he is he isn't even that much of a balancing presence in midfield. Replace him with a better, more direct version of him. The way he's been playing lately, combined with Gerrard's recent form, I'm not AS disappointed to see him on the pitch as I have been for the past two and a half years. But I would be disappointed if we didn't get someone better in the summer.
Allen has been very good in the last 2 games, problem is he's still going to be on the bench when everyone is fit. If he's happy with a rorational role then we keep him if not he goes.
Why change a winning team other than to rest players? Allen has been superb last couple of games and his partnership with Henderson in the middle of the park is fantastic. To think that we have Can and Lucas also for the CM slots, we look good (atm!) At this rate, if we get to the cup final, Stevie G will find it hard to get a game
It was a winning team before Allen was put in, a fit Lucas gives us more aggression and a better defensive player. At some point we will need that. If fit I'd put Lucas back in.
Nice problem to have tbh....although I can't see BR dropping Allen for Lucas if the former is on form.......he bought him after all and he does like pointing out what a bargain he was!! I'm just happy that our midfield is functioning without Lucas as when he got injured, I feared the worse!!
Yeah I was worried about the midfield after us doing so well but Allen has stepped up at the moment so credit to him.
