I agree the shelvey been stuck in all sort of positions but the fact is his work rate is not up to playing CM like he wants to. him AND gerrard deosn't work is my point... I'd rather alonso in there. My point on alonso relates to his won stats when playing for us. he constantly topped the distance ran charts, he covers more gorund than anyone, kuyt included. Now dirk just ran out of puff and wasn't doing it last year and decided to move on for regualr football. My point is if alonso can no longer cover 12-14km per game then bringing him back would be a mistake. Alonso's work rate was do huge and yet under rated. Him and mascherano basically let gerrard wander about not tracking back and being the hero.... lucas and allen don't seem capable of doing the same as they seem to be constantly leaving gaps between them and the back 4 that teams like even qpr (second half) seem to be able to play through. If we brought back alonso he has to be able to cover the ground... it's not pace, he never had that.. no its pure work rate. thats my point on him.
Doesn't mean we shouldn't be demanding that level from the players though mate! If we ask for that level of committment but get slightly lower, atleast that would be more than we've had from some players over the past season or two - If that makes sense
As said on another thread, henderson is the better long-term option for that forward/centre midfield role than Shelvey. Work rate AND control - how many times did Shelvey simply miscontrol te ball against Stoke? Shades of Kuyt when he first came here, but without Kuyt's eye for goal. Be interesting to know Alonso's optima statistics too, as I seem to remember him having pretty good figures for kilometers covered. (yeah, you've covered that, but i mean now as I don't beleive his style was based on sprinting so much as endurance, and that increases in your thirties if you look after your body).
Yeah that's fair comment and I'd expect nothing less in a Red shirt to be fair. I just can't see that his level will have dropped far enough (if it has dropped) that he wouldn't be able to improve us right now. Like I say I can't see it happening but I'd be more than happy if it did
He has 18mths left on his contract so we would have to buy him. Probably a none story and he is just trying to extend his current deal.
Finally some people who agree with me on Shelvey. I can't see a player in him no hard I try. I know he's been asked to play out of position, but his first touch is tripe. He hardly shoots from outside the box as well. I think he's awed by Suarez but thinks he's a better player than he thinks
