Yesterday’s team sheet for Liverpool offered few shocks, with the expected returns of Reina and Kuyt, plus Jovanovic and Cole making their league debuts. Torres’ name on the bench meant Ngog started up front – but one senior player was conspicuous by his absence.
Alberto Aquilani, last season’s £20m signing, was nowhere to be seen. With Lucas, Maxi and Babel offering the midfield and attacking options, our Italian schemer failed to make the match day squad after featuring in both of our qualifying matches against Rabotnicki.
At first glance, this could be construed as either a serious oversight on the part of the management – surely he offered more than, for example, Ryan Babel last season? – or a clear indication of the perceived value of Aquilani to the team.
However, cast a wider view and this can be seen as not only a good thing for the team but also something which may become commonplace this season. Not necessarily with always Aquilani being left out, but certainly one or two senior players.
A strong 7-man bench would generally consist of a ‘keeper, a full back and a centre back, two midfielders and two attackers, of varying positions depending on the system of the team in question.
With Babel, Cole, Maxi, Aquilani, Kuyt and Jovanovic offering competition for our attacking midfield places, it seems clear that at least one of these might always have to miss out on a squad place for each match day, which while maybe being irksome for the unlucky one or two is surely a huge benefit for Liverpool Football Club.
Our bench last season on the opening day consisted of Cavalieri, Kelly, Ayala, Dossena, Spearing, Benayoun and Voronin – 3 at-the-time untested youth players, plus massive under-achievers Dossena and Voronin.
That team was not without its injuries, as Aquilani, Agger, Riera and Degen were all missing, but should the loss of four seniors mean 3 youth players are needed? The squad we have at the moment is only missing Benayoun, Riera and Degen from last season, neither of the latter two whom made any real contribution to the campaign, and already we have Wilson, Aquilani, Poulsen, Insua and Kyrgiakos who did not make the bench for the first league game. This shows we have an improved squad depth from last season, which was a real factor at times when we had ten or eleven players injured at once.
Of course, it is still possible that the likes of Mascherano, Cavalieri and others may leave, on loan or permanently, but with one or two more new faces we may have the strength in depth needed to put in a decent challenge in all four competitions this season.
Allied to that, the youngsters who were blooded last term have all got an extra few months and few games experience under their belts and several, including Spearing and especially Kelly, look set to play a big part in our first season under Roy Hodgson.
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Ye, I was baffled myself at this. He would surely have been a better option than Rodriguez or Babel as they both play the same positions.
Hope he gets some game time, so we can see him in action. Would like to see him start against the turks as im sure they will be dropping deep and he has a bullet of a shot.
He should be given his chance!
He’s a very good player and will be seen this season I’m sure, given the chance to get a run of games underneath his belt…
To the guy who said navas… I haven’t seen him at club level, but in the world cup I did see him and concluded he could not cross a ball… This after 25-30 attempts! Though he foes know how to beat a man with ease….
But maybe the world cup is not the best gauge, thinking about Torres and rooneys performances.
Aquaman was sick on Sunday – he had the runs, seriously – that is why he wasn’t on the bench.
Some real idiots posting here, still having digs at Rafa. Tell me guys, what do you make of Sky superimposing Roy’s face (next to Rafa’s) on the Kop banner, or journalists tweeting ‘Jovanovic, another astute signing by Roy’. Come on, you guys seem to be brainwashed by the drivel the British media spout out!
I strongly believe that the team should be built around Aquilani. He is an extremely intelligent and skillful player. His quick short passing, can bring back the attractive football Liverpool used to play in the 80 and 90s. It would be a big mistake Hodgon sells him.
im sure roy had his reasons for not playing aquaman.give roy a break, he is trying to sort our club out and all i see are idiots here posting telling him what he should do with the squad.have faith in the man.y.n.w.a.
Hmm, you don’t really follow through on why this is a good thing for Liverpool. Are you referring to the youngsters being given a chance? What youngsters? The only decent ones we have are the likes of Pacheco and Nemeth. I see though, that you mentioned Spearing and Kelly. While Kelly is a decent young player, he is highly unlikely to even nail down a place. As for Spearing: he is mediocre at best, and if you would rather he had a place on our bench ahead of Aquilani then you seriously need to reconsider your view on how successful you want Liverpool to be.