I miss him good luck to him though I still love to see him doing well...obviously this thread will descend into the usual Alonso...did rafa piss him off and did he only have a couple of good seasons blah blah blah...so all I'll say is...he's a class act who has gone on to prove himself just that he still has total affection for LFC and that's enough for me. Top bloke IMO
I honestly think England look better and more successful without Barry in the team. Shows you just how good Yaya Toure is at man city carrying Barry.
Its a complete mystery to me how Barry gets a game for City and gets into England squads. Hes bottom half of the prem material imo.
Simple, you don't get 100 caps in this Spanish midfield without being a top class player. Wish he was still here, him and Lucas in the middle would be ideal at dictating the tempo and keeping possession.
I expect Muppet General to be here any second to justify the decision by claiming that Barry had scored more goals in a season than Alonso therefore it was another genius move by Rafa.
Just came across a stat: Out of all the players that have reached 100 caps for their country, Xabi Alonso has the highest win rate at 78%.
I love Alonso as do most LFC fans but at that time, Alonso was struggling - lack of form, injuries or still adapting? Pick your reason. It was quite clear that our team lacked balance as we did not have many left footed players in the team/midfield which is why we were looking at Barry. Thankfully, it didn't pay off and maybe it prompted Alonso which led to his best season for us. Would he have perfomed like that had Rafa not have tried to sell him? Who knows? And for those berating Barry, the man was won the league with Man City and was a key part so he can't be all that bad. Of course, it's now easier to see that Alonso 10x the player Barry ever was or ever will be but I find it ridiculous that people forget these facts which caused Rafa's decision.
If H&G hadn't have pulled the plug on the finances, Rafa wouldn't have to sell to buy. Does anyone think Rafa would have been looking to offload Alonso then...? He was trying to generate some much needed cash
"Does anyone think Rafa would have been looking to offload Alonso then...? He was trying to generate some much needed cash" By that logic, we should be thankful that Rafa didn't sell Gerrard and Torres to fund another batch of £5m - £10m mediocre deadbeats.
That's a little different, Gerrard and Torres were our so-called 'two man team', well, until Alonso left and that 'two man team' became a 'one man team' and that one man had left .
I thought it went from 2 man team to Alonso leaving, he was the third man, then Mascher, he was the 4th man, then Arbeloa, can you replace his consistency, yada yada. **** do I miss those players!
Alonso made Gerrard looks better than he was, and your whole team in fact. Top class player who you should of done anything to hang on to.
What I said was true. Alonso is class. Thats why he is playing in the midfield alongside two of the greatest players of all time - xavi and iniesta - and still looks like he is at home there. Meanwhile your current lot embarrased themselves with England and displayed the terribleness of Kenny's tactics to buy young british players for £35m or £20m when they cant even pass from A to B. Alonso is about 10 leagues above what carroll or henderson will ever be.
I didn't say it wasn't true. Just hadn't seen you on the Liverpool board for a while Your comments in that last post where embarrassing to you though pal. Fair enough, opinions vary on Johnson but Gerrard is being talked up for England's player of the tournament and Carroll clearly had a positive impact in every game he played. Henderson didn't do anything wrong in his brief cameo appearances. Downing couldn't have done worse than Young but (fortunately) didn't get on the pitch. Nor did Kelly.
Some english fans and media think carroll had a good tournament. Thats true. And that is why england are the ****test side in europe and have been for at least 20 years. They value the wrong attributes (like kenny) because they are stuck in the 1980's. It doesnt matter how many big headers andy carroll won really. He cant run or pass or control the ball at all. Vs italy we played on the break but unfortnatly whenever we broke we had carroll up there ruining everything (not on his own admittedly). You can rate a big lump like him if you like but I doubt he would even be a professional in spain. But hey, maybe the spainish, germans and italians are wrong and we have it right. Maybe we rate players correctly on the basis of their size, speed and determination above their technical ability. Maybe we are just unlucky, maybe the tactics are just wrong, the weather, the pitches, the refs, the food before hand, the altitude, the alignment of the stars. Thats possible I suppose. On the other hand england could be **** precisely because we even rate him highly enough to take that big lump of awfullness that is andy carroll to the euros. I bet the germans were quaking in their boots at playing against the "unplayable" andy carroll and are relieved they only have to deal with slow and small Pirlo.
