Let’s face it, Javier Mascherano is a great player. There’s no doubt he is the best in his position and a match winner on his day. We are grateful for his contribution, so it will be sad to see him leave Liverpool. We won’t be able to replace him, but should we be trying to anyway?
With Mascherano leaving, we will lose a destructive midfield monster, but with change comes opportunity. Let’s take this opportunity. They say that the best form of defence is attack. How often are team’s caught defending a lead? When you start thinking defensively you start thinking negatively.
Rafa started 3 of our 4 central midfielders in 63% of league games last year, and had all 4 on the pitch on more than one occasion! Little wonder then, that injuries and suspensions took their toll. Pouring over the stats from last year, if Mascherano had been unavailable all season, then Jay Spearing (as fourth option) would have been required to start in midfield on only 3 occasions, early in the season when both Aquilani, and Gerrard were recovering from injury. In preseason Jay has impressed Hodgson and Roy told Liverpoolfc.tv:
“Spearing in particular has done well over the last two games and definitely deserves to be a part of our first-team squad.”
So trust him to fill the fourth midfield spot and also allow him to develop in the cup competitions. We only have 38 important league games to think about this season. Play Gerrard and either Aquilani or Lucas centrally. We won’t miss Gerrard playing as a second striker, as Joe Cole is the perfect replacement. Leave the forwards to be responsible for their work, but give them support by adding another quality striker and left sided player. If Roy is concerned about depth then bring in an experienced player for free, who is versatile and would be happy to be a bit part player, like Paul Scharner.
Rafa’s defensive stance made watching Liverpool painful at times last season, so why would we go back to those tactics? Don’t spend the money from monster’s sale to clutter up midfield, even if Scott Parker and Ever Banega are quality players. The last great player to play on the left for Liverpool was John Barnes! So let’s use the money to buy some quality, and Attack, Attack, Attack!
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YES WE NEED TO GET RID OF MASCHERANO AND FORM THAT MONE WE SHOULD SIGN ARDA TUDAN AND REST SPENT ON LEFT BACK AND IF POSSIBLE GET A GOOD DEAL OUT OF DEGEN AND KUYT AND GIVE PLAYES SUCH AS PACHECO AND AMOO AND ECCELSTON SOME CHANCE AND IF WE GET
MASCH : 25MIL
DEGEN : 3M
KUYT :8M
TOTAL :36 MIL
BUY :
ARDA: 13MIL
DEFOUR:12MIL
TIAWO :9MIL
TOTAL:34MIL
AND GET SOMEONE LIKE DEFOUR IN THE CENTRE OF THE PARK
YES WE NEED TO GET RID OF MASCHERANO AND FORM THAT MONE WE SHOULD SIGN ARDA TUDAN AND REST SPENT ON LEFT BACK AND IF POSSIBLE GET A GOOD DEAL OUT OF DEGEN AND KUYT AND GIVE PLAYES SUCH AS PACHECO AND AMOO AND ECCELSTON SOME CHANCE AND IF WE GET
MASCH : 25MIL
DEGEN : 3M
KUYT :8M
TOTAL :36 MIL
BUY
ARDA: 13MIL
DEFOUR:12MIL
TIAWO :9MIL
TOTAL:34MIL
AND GET SOMEONE LIKE DEFOUR IN THE CENTRE OF THE PARK
Arda Turan
Why are you screaming with all those capital letters mate?
arda turan!!!! marek hamsik!!!!! fucile!!!!
Reina
Jony/Cara/Agga/Bridge
Stevie/Aquilani
Ribbery/Cole/Robben
Torres
Hogson should sign da followin players: tiago, christian, bridge, salcido,remy & ireland. Kuyt, javier, & degen out.
i think we need arda turan and maynor figueroa and salcido as LB for this moment and then when we’ll have a new owner we’ll can buy anything we want.now we need a left winger(we don’t have one-maybe maxi,but he is old) and a LB
We don’t need Turan, he is not as good as some people would like us to believe. Also, Farhan, on which planet do you think someone will pay £3m for Degen? £3 maybe! Give Pacheco a chance, definitely. Give Spearing a chance, yes though less so. Give Eccleston and Amoo a chance? No, they aren’t ready. They have not played great in our first two games where they should have been screaming ‘look at what i can do’ but they have not. Why the hell would you get rid of Kuyt and play either of those two? Madness! Kelly has done well, Ngog is still worth persevering with, but we also need to bring in further experienced talent. Cole is excellent but he isn’t going to turn things around on his own. Even with Torres (hopefully) staying, we need another goal-scorer. Jovanavic has looked ok but not great, happy to give him some time though. Aquilani needs to prove why we paid so much for him now. We can manage without Masch because he was particular good at playing the Rafa way. Not at all convinced he would have been so good the Hodgson way and that is where we are now. Frankly, I am delighted at that!
you are all assuming that the shysters who are our caring custodians would allow Roy to spend any money that he gets for selling as opposed to lining their greedy coffers and paying off their loan for our club!
Firstly, to the author, sorry dude, but I think this is just the kind of playstation thinking that undermined Rafa. If the 4-2-3-1 formation is so bad, why did so many teams use it at the world cup?
And as for some of the posters here. Guys, for heaven’s sake, this is not Fifa2010, leave the big decisions to Roy. Trust Roy please otherwise as soon as we lose a game it’s going to be a nightmare.
Mounir….”Ribbery/Cole/Robben”, do you think we are going to get a 100 mil loan from IMF or something? If you dont think that way then you definitely have lost your mind.
IF NOT ANTHONY ANNAN OF GHANA LIVERPOOL WILL NOT GET A GOOD REPLACEMENT FOR MASCHERANO ECCEPT MICHAEL ESSIEN OF CHELSEA AND GETTING ESSIEN WILL BE DIFFICULT AS MANY INCLUDING ME AGUARBLY THINK ESSIEN IS THE BEST MIDFIELDER IN THE WORLD WHICH WILL MAKE ESSIEN EXPENSIVE, MIKEL WILL HAVE BEEN A PLAYER WE CAN AFFORD BUT MIKEL IS NOT AS QUALITY AS MASCHERANO SO THE BEST REPLACEMENT FOR MASCHERANO WILL BE ANNAN OF GHANA WHICH MANY THINK IS AS QUALITY AS ESSIEN. ANTHONY ANNAN THE COUSIN OF FORMER U.N SECRETARY GENERAL MR KOFI ANNAN WILL BE A PERFECT REPLACEMENT FOR MASCHERANO
Let’s allow Roy take dis decisions PLEASE
Dont underestimate Rafa – he is going to play it long in signing Mash – knowing full well that by 20/08 we will take £19 million- we have no bloody chance of getting £30.Roy is going to sign three more players but please please please lets have one super quick winger who can scare the life out of defenders – kuyt is not a winger – never will be and neither is Maxi or Milan. Oh for a Peter Thompson………………. remember him Roy??
Cazorla, Montolivo and Forlan then we could win the league.
Matty34 – yes teams played 4-2-3-1 in the WC but the front 4 players were very fluid, and in Spain’s case one of the defensive midfielders (Alonso) also pushed up on occasions.
Rafa’s 4-2-3-1 was very rigid. How often did Lucas/Mascherano get anywhere near the opposition box to create anything?
I agree with this article. If we persist in cluttering the CM spot younger players (who could be future greats) in that position, such as Spearing and Irwin, would never get a chance to develop. Money from Masch should go on a quality LB and a wide man. I would consider maybe Ziegler and Elia/Turan, all left sided players. I’m a huge fan of Kuyt’s tenacity down the right, and even though he isn’t a natural wide player Johnson can provide some much needed width on that side. We should then develop Amoo to be like Valencia of Man U, so in the future we will have natural width. Anyway, I feel we only need a few quality signings, no cluttering in positions, move Babel to ST and we’ll be set for the title next season 🙂 YNWA
EDEN HAZARD
@Red Barron & Shibashis – nice to see some common sense!
@Matty34 – But most of the World Cup games were terrible and extremely dull!