Hi folks, I remember watching a few games during Rafa's last season with us where Lucas played with Aquilani (Mascerano must have been suspended), and I really liked the way they played together. They played side by side just in front of the back 4. They complimented each other very well and kept the game ticking well. Lucas was doing the simple, tidy work and Aquilani was doing the creative stuff and getting the ball up into the attack. I feel if we can find another player similar to Aquilani we could build some thing strong. Thoughts?
Well that was the intention with Adam but hasn't really worked to plan so far...although Lucas getting injured didn't help.
that player was called xabi alonso. seriously guys we do not want aquilani, a light weight player is useless in our league and meireles bench warming at chelsea proves that too. Xabi had it all, the technical ability, the toughness and the work rate... he also got done by lampard in a disgraceful deliberate assault to break his ankle. buy the next alonso please (martinez maybe)
well there you go! the message has to be that yaya toure was the worst player in theory in midfield in barca. if you buy the guy whos physically able for it and has some technique you are quids in. sadly we know adam has some good points like his heading and such but he's so bad positionally and lazy and also making his set pieces look worth 10p at this point that even a lightweight would be better.
I'm sure that's what Rafa did with Mascherano and Alonso. Alonso left so in came Aquilani, Aquilani left and Hodgson tried Cole (moving Gerrard back), Cole left and in came Adam. Lucas obviously replaced Mascherano. Judging by the above, maybe we shouldn't be trying to replicate what we have done in the past. Maybe we should be looking to build a new system and team with Lucas (assuming he fully recovers) being the central point. I'm pretty sure this is what Kenny and co have been trying to do...
