Despite Liverpool’s excellent display against Manchester United at the weekend, I still feel that if we are to compete for the title within the next few years, we will need a player in the guise of Javier Mascherano to really help the Reds break up attacks, not only against the best teams but also against the less talented, more physical opponents in the Barclays Premier League. Lucas has played very well for the last year but it is clear he will never be the most physical of holding midfield players. Although he can break up play and pass neatly, he will never outmuscle opponents. Certainly, this doesn’t mean we have to go for a like for like replacement for Mascherano but for me, to give us a different option to Lucas, we need somebody who is both physically up the challenge but also able on the ball to the pass the ball like the Brazilian. The five options below have all been linked with us in the past couple of months. Who would you pick?
Moussa Sissoko – Probably the prime candidate for the Reds for a few reasons. 1) He is strong and physical, making him the ideal defensive midfielder to break up play and outmuscle opponents. 2) He has played further forward over the last couple of seasons for Toulouse and has scored his fair share of goals, giving the player an added dimension to the rest of the players on the list. 3) He is young, talented and French meaning Damien Comolli will know all about Sissoko, and will no doubt have scouted the player on a number of occasions.
Yann M’Vila – Another young French star who has probably caught the eye of Comolli is Rennes’ holding midfield player M’Vila. Tall and rangy, he is an excellent tackler but lacks the forward thinking ambitions of Sissoko. Despite this though, France coach Laurent Blanc has used the 20 year old regularly in the national team and impressed playing for France against England back in November.
Blaise Matuidi – Another young Frenchman, Matuidi has most likely been linked with Liverpool due to Comolli’s prior association with St Etienne. Still he is the club’s captain at the age of 23 and has already been capped by France. Considering Comolli has stated he wouldn’t buy players off St Etienne however, it is unlikely the Reds will move for the player, although he maybe a cheaper option than the rest of the players on this list.
Lassana Diarra – Probably the least likely player to move to Liverpool on this list as in recent weeks, he has been back in favour with Jose Mourinho at Real Madrid. If the Portuguese manager does depart in the summer though, the French midfielder may opt to leave the Bernabeu if Real’s hierarchy deem him surplus to requirements. A talented holding midfielder with experience of the Premier League, as well as having the capability to get forward, if Diarra was available he would probably cost a significant amount more than the other 4 on this list.
Fernando Gago – More in the mould of Lucas than the rest of the players on this list, the Argentine holding midfielder has been linked with a move away from Spain. His agent today failed to rule out a move away from Real Madrid, and with Gago being both young and talented, the Reds have been linked with the player. Whenever I have watched the player play for Real though, I feel he wouldn’t necessarily be the type of midfield destroyer we would be looking for.
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Moussa Sissoko would be the best option and Andre Wisdom should also be given game time in the Premier League and in the mickeymouse cups next season.
Moussa sissoko because he has quality in attack, box to box player like meireles, he is a powerhouse like essien and he wants 2 cum 2 liverpool unlike M’Vila who wants to go 2 da MANKS but u knw if he changes his mind i wudnt mind both of them coming but moussa sissoko 1st choice
sissoko then m’vila then blaise. Forget the other two
agreed, except I’d overlook Blaise also – the team needs more pace, power and size throughout (and technical ability too of course) and a ‘beast’ in the centre of midfield should be a priority for us
M’Villa is a Man U fan, so no thanx! I quite like the idea of having another Sissoko in the team. There’s also a friend striker called Cisse, that would be great.
what a load of nonsense – what difference does it make what team a player supports!?
Owen and Carragher were both Everton fans; that didn’t stop them having successful careers at LFC did it??
yes… i think liverpool must get 4 more player.
1. sissoko
will defensive mid and cover area meireles and gerrard. he is good player for 3/1/4/2 system.
………………robinson…………….
…….cara……..skertel………..agger
……………….sissoko…………….
johnson….meireles……gerrard….downing
…………..suarez…..caroll…………
2. downing
what a value of this player???.. his better for left flank.. he can run.. shoot.. dribble.. he can play at right too.
3. taiwo / coentrao
good player both.. if we not get downing.. this 2 player must liverpool have..
if we get downing.. better we get taiwo..
coentrao look good for attacking mid and he was proving in 15-20 meter shoot.. downing can do that.
4. gervinho / rossi / livezzi
some player are good for another league but not come good in BPL. we more like to bring rossi or livezzi come to mersyside.. livezzi are more run and he can make defender in trouble. he was play in high lavel in italian leg.. south american leg.. more option in strike with suarez.. kyut.. caroll n el poco.. uhhh… crazy team.
5. robinson
great action and more good from reina.. reina not consisten now and he lost a focus.
out for next sesson :
insua – 3.5 elestone – 2.0
poulsen – 2.5 spearing –
aquilani – 12.5
kocesky – 2.5
degen – 2.0
aurelio – 1.5
reina – 22.0 << better sell him now.
nabil – 1.5
maxi – 4.5
ngog – 3.5
stay
gerrard, cara, jones, johnson, kelly, jonjo,
soto, skertel, agger, meireles, caroll, suarez, kuyt, lucas, pacheco, joe
in
sissoko, taiwo, downing, livezzi, robinson
promotion
raheem sterling, suso, cody,
one more sesson (in danger situation):
joe, skertel, lucas, soto, pacheco, agger
Moussa Sissoko without a doubt. His style of play suits Liverpool and the Premier League perfectly. The guy is physically strong and has the ability to break up opponents’ attack, very solid defensively. Also, he is only 21 and can only get better playing for a top club like Liverpool. Comolli knows all about him and I’m sure he wouldn’t be too expensive.
Lassana Diarra would cost too much though he is a good player. FSG would also prefer younger players like Sissoko. As for Fernando Gago, he is not that kind of midfield ‘destroyer’.
If i could interject, there are better options than the ones mentioned above.. Ever Benega, he is a killer def mid but unlike masch he has vision and skill and a killer long ball. We would essentially be resolving two issues in the one player. The loss of masch and Alonso. From what i have seen from the bunch listed above, they are not what i would call world class, at least not yet, and yes they are decent holding mids. But at the moment so is lucas. Is that we are after, another lucas?.
What we need is to replace the world beaters we had, and IMO that is exactly what Benega is!!!
Great point Antix1 ! I agree, but I’m not sure Benega is suited to the pace of the premier league because whenever I see him he does’nt seem to cover much ground and always likes to slow the game down.
newcastle Tiote is better than the 5 midfielders
we shud go for either sissokho or m’vilt know why everyone is talking about attacking capabilities of defensive midfielders, their job is to break down opposition attacks and as long as they do that properly, nothing else matters..sure, its nice if they get a few goals but it shudn’t be the main criteria when looking for defensive midfielders…
its like when u buy a striker, u luk at his goal scoring abilities rather his defensive abilities…
luk at mascherano, he wasn’t very gud going forward, but for my money was and still is one of the best defensive midfielders around…
if you look at these players and go and do all that you can to then comment then;
We would not buy a player who has come out and siad many times that he dreams of playing for man utd, its sounds silly but why would you, you want players who are either liverpool fans are even better want to show DESIRE to come to the club.
so can we rule out big time this over hyped YANN M’VILLA who is nothing like a good player going forward while the man sissoko can do both and is going to be a better all round player.
GAGO- to injury prone, might not settle as quickly and for me has missed many games and why would we want a player form real madrid just because he desnt play there, also he is not the powerhouse that we need, he is not even as good as lucus and lucus will end up being a squad player rather than a 1st teamer next year if we buy a powerhouse player in the essien mould.
MOUSSA SISSOKO – This guy is just 21 and has it all, he gives us height, strong in the tackle, can run all day and can go forward, would let us press teams better to, when you have him valued at around 12-15 million nowadays thats cheap for me it would be the one.
MATUIDI- NO THANKS, average player with a powerful game, that doesnt make you a great player with a great future, for me would be behined m’villa, who then is behined then very man – sissoko.
outside bet would be banega. what a young player he is, while not as tall or strong in the air, he is clever and can do it all, can pass and can press well and is playing in a better league,
id like to see this;
EVER BANEGA- REPLACE POULSEN
MOUSSA SISSOKO- COMPETITION FOR LUCUS AND ADD TO DEPTH OF SQUAD.
FABIO COENTRAO- REPLACE KONCHESY, INSUA, AURELIO AND BE THE FIRST TEAM LEFT BACK, THIS LAD CAN PLAY ANYWHERE ON THE LEFT SIDE AND IN MANY MANY DIFFERENT TEAM PATTERNS, THSI HAS TO BE THE NUMBER ON TARGET.
GARY CAHILL- WITH CARRAGHER GETTING ON, WITH SOTO USEFULL BUT NEVER GOING TO PLAY WEEK IN WEEK OUT, AGGER HARDKY FIT, SKRTEL GOOD BUT PLAYS ONLY 2 GOOD GAMES OUT OF 5, IF THAT, WE NEED ANOTER CENTER HALF.
EZEQUIEL LAVEZZI- has it all, and if your telling me we are well covered just becasue we have kuyt suarez and hardly fit carroll then we are kidding our club, we need more up top and this guy runs and runs all day can cross can compete and would we great for luis suarez too, this guy is 22 and will get better and better.
ASHLEY YOUNG- can play left or right wing and behined the striker and yet again would give the team so many more options in just buying one player, with the english lads at the club and the fact he has settled up north, he would settle well.
I’ve been saying that Sissoko should be a major target for over a year now (just like I was spouting off about Suarez for God knows how long also) and remain convinced that he should be our main option in the centre of the pitch. I’d be more than happy to give up Poulsen and Lucas/Meireles also if that meant that both Sissoko AND M’villa came to boost the midfield alongside Gerrard.
At the end of the day, Lucas and Meireles are decent/good players, but they don’t have the potential to lead LFC to elite status. Neither would Diarra, Matuidi, Gago or any other ‘decent’ little guys
i agree about sissokho but the rest of what you’ve said is utter cr*p..
firstly, we dont need both sissokho and m’vila as both are defensive mids, how many defensive midfielders do u want to play in a team..??
secondly, lucas might be just about decent but meireles is a class act and will have a big hand in liverpool’s progress in the future…
Alonso + Mascherano/Hamann = 2 defensive midfielders, Busquets + Mascherano = 2 defensive midfielders, De Jong + Toure = defensive midfielders, Fletcher + Carrick = defensive midfielders, Essien + Mikel = defensive midfielders, Lucas + Sissokho/M’villa = 2 defensive midfielder, 4231 formation uses TWO defensive midfielders, so I guess the answer to your question would be TWO defensive midfielders. What is so hard to understand about that??
Meireles is good and I’d have no problem with him sticking around, but I will be VERY surprised if he turns out to be a great player that dominates the midfield for years to come. Just like Lucas, he’s just not strong enough!
in all the midfield combinations you’ve given, one is a deep lying playmaker or a passer and the other is a combative defensive midfielder..
alonso-passer, masch-combative mid..
if u play lucas with either of them, they wud be too similar in their style of play as none of them are playmakers…
in all the midfield combinations you’ve mentioned, one is a deep lying playmaker or a passer and the other is a combative defensive midfielder..
alonso-passer, masch-combative mid..
if u play lucas with either of them, they wud be too similar in their style of play as none of them are playmakers..
Really? Who was the playmaker when we had Lucas partnering Mascherano every week? Just because two players are defensive midfielders by trade it does not mean that they both have to play in the same manner
And even having two out and out defensive midfielders wouldn’t be a problem either if you aren’t sending out a team that also has a ‘defensive winger’ and an ‘anonymity’ as two of your main attacking options…
Diarra is the best option by a mile, he’s the only proven player in england and has improved loads at madrid, the other players have potential but are too risky for the money their clubs will want.
Diarra is proven to just be ‘decent’ – that level of player might be slightly better than what we have now, but it isn’t going to elevate us back to title contention. Sometimes you have to take a risk and do some polishing to uncover a gem…
SIGN JOEY BARTON, HE’S A SCOUSER AND COULD REACH HIS FULL POTENTIAL AT LIVERPOOL
I think the main priority should be two decent wingers now we have carroll, Arda Turan is a must! would also like to see ashley young on the opposite flank, why do we need a midfield destroyer?the best form of defense is offense which KK has brought back i feel the two midfielders we should look at is steven defour and charlie adam who have great vision and pose a threat.
Bring back Alonso and El Jeff
The club definitely needs a midfield destroyer with a bit of forward thinking Moussa Sissoko fits the bill perfectly.
Everyone saying Sissoko is playing football manager too much, because i doubt all of yous are watching french football that much and there isnt that many places to watch live french football in the uk and its only the goals usally shown
yous are reading reports yous read about him or signed him in football manager, either way you dont have a clue what he is really like.
diarra is the person to sign
you obviously haven’t heard of internet streams or espn…
I doubt all these people are streaming Toulouse matches
I guess – I would’ve said that more for the people in love with Arda Turan despite Turkish games being pretty tough watches in the UK, but you probably are right that most fans are lauding players that they’ve never actually seen play through even a single game…
BRINGS ON VALUABLE PLAYERS LIKE:GARRY CAHILL,ENRIQUE,
Shaqiri,YOUNG,GARETH BALE,ALEXIS SANCHEZ,BOJAN,LUKAKU,YANN M’VILLA,SISSOKO,LAVEZZI,ERIKSEN,TAIYE TAIWO,(KEISKU HONDA FOR MARKETING ASIAN COMPANIES),GEORGINIO WIJNALDUM,DZSUDZSAK AND G.KEEPERS ROBINSON & SHAY GIVEN.
SELL ALL THE AVERAGE PLAYERSLIKE ,CARRAGHER(NOT CREATIVE AND CAN’T SURGE TO RUN AFTER OTHER PLAYERS),POULSEN,JOVANOVIC,DEGEN,INSUA,AURELIO,KONCHESKY,EL ZHAR,NGOG,PACHECO,MAXI,SOTO,JONES,DARBY,ECCLESTON,AMOO AND MAVINGA
u are bonkers…who do u think we are, man city????
Moussa or M’Villa, my fav is M’Villa because hes more like Essien and more versatile can play number of positions if needed, but Moussa is also in the Essien bracket both would be great at Liverpool……YNWA