As for Liverpool’s other midfielders, I am satisfied with the depth available and still believe we have the best central midfielder in the country waiting in the wings to come back from injury and aid our cause this season. Whereas before Liverpool had an embarrassment of riches in central midfield, they now have just the right amount of quality players to cover the positions and should still be relatively comfortable in cases where there are injuries.
For now I’ll try not to dwell too much on Meireles choosing to leave Anfield as we don’t yet know the full story; was he nudged towards the door by the club or did he just find Chelsea’s project far superior to Liverpool’s? Whatever the reason was, I trust in Liverpool’s judgement on letting the Portugal midfielder leave and I don’t expect his departure to halt our rapid progression under Kenny Dalglish.
Liverpool’s squad may have been temporarily weakened by the loss of a talented midfielder but there is still an abundance of quality in that area while the depth will become even more apparent once a certain Steven Gerrard returns from injury this month. With exciting players like Stewart Downing and Luis Suarez now at his side, we may just see Gerrard raise his game to a level that we haven’t seen for a couple of years, and I for one, cannot wait to witness them make Liverpool a real force again.
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Stevie g will never be that same player again he’s gonna be hampered with injuries and from my personal point of view liverpool will do better with him as a sub, less game time but will have a great impact from the bench, and I don’t wanna see him just walk back in the team he should have to well and truly earn his place
Alonso is my favourite player of all time but im sick of people pandering and saying that he and adam are on different levels. To my mind adam has as good a passing range, better mobility and ability to arrive in the box, consequetly a better goalscoring threat, also adam matchs alonsos ability to tackle. Xabis real strenth was his technical awarness and composure, we will wait and see if adam can rival him in these areas.
People romanticise alonso because of the hasty fall that followed his departure but there were many contributing factors, the media then began to say how important he was and while this was true it was rarely preached in his time at liverpool. For example people like mark lawrenson (amoung others) used to say that liverpool where a two man team, however, when xabi left everyone proclaimed as world class, (again, i have no objection with this premise)roaring he would be missed by any team.
Also, another point worthy of a mention is that his form was not always immpecable. His first season was not unblemished in the premier league, in his second season he was more accomplished but still he was dropped from the side frequently. Of couse everyone remembers him fondly but christ, Where was this adulation when he wore the red of liverpool so prouldy.
Lets not cast restrictions on adam, nor compare him or suggest he doesnt have the ability to leave a legacy as beautiful as alonsos.
Only 2 difference between Adam & Alonso
1. Alonso starts for Spain, Adam for Scotland
2. Alonso moved to Real from Liverpool, Adam came to Liverpool from Blackpool.
Please come to the earth, British football is a laughing stock, England & Ireland are mediocre, rest 3 are minnows & their players are over hyped, over priced & over estimated. Otherwise, how on earth someone can compare Adam with Xavi Alonso?
Is there anything special in Adam apart from set piece skill? He is slow, defensively poor & a very poor dribbler. With his shooting skills, he can find forwards from a long distance, but that’s not what we call defense splitting. I am sorry to be harsh on a LFC players, but lets be realistic.
Sir Alex did praised Adam, but how much was he willing to spend? Adam ‘ll be a very good squad player, but if he starts regularly for us, then I ‘ll be anxious on the quality of our players (Already uncomfortable on the show of 51+ mn (35+16) worth “English talent).
shame to see a quality player go. but, if he wanted to go, and kenny didn’t want a quality foreign player who is better than henderson for eg, then best to let it be. best move for meireles in the circumstances. 🙂
£15m… Get in! Not a vital player at all and that money can go towards Hazard.
G
Funny how Liverpool fans keep insisting it wss £15m when every major media outlet has reported the deal as £12m. I await the next spin on the story which will ineviatably be that the player was rubbish anyway. Btw, well done Mark for a very level headed and honest article.
Regardless of anything Liverpool fans ma insist Ruiz, you have to ask yourself the question: why do you care? The story is on a Liverpool fan site, mate, it’s not our problem.
I’m gutted he’s gone but I can see the sense in it; we needed to claw back at least a small amount of the money we’ve spent and he was so far down the pecking order that it wasn’t fair for him or us to have such a quality player never playing. Good luck Raul but I secretly hope you fail.
A lot is being made of Meireles being reunited with his former boss Villas Boas but the reason he signed for Liverpool in the first place was that Villas Boas benched him at Porto!
We don’t know the full story but i’m amazed at some of the vitriol i’ve seen against Raul. I frequent many LFC forums and was staggered by the angry, vicious response to a players who was a fan favourite last year.
My take on it is that he was offered a short term lower salary when he signed with the promise of a pay rise at the end of the season. I think that he expected this and that he was also happy at LFC. I guess that his increase was put on hold as the Club had to balance the books with Aqua, Cole, Poulsen, Jova et al. The fact that we weren’t able to generate good fees from these players and that we’re still paying substantial wages or paying up contracts has meant that he had become one of the main saleable, but expendable, assets. The press had said that LFC had him up for sale for weeks. It also seems that Chelsea had him as a second or third choice so it was always going to go to the last day of the window. As Chelsea only offered 12m its not inconceivable that Raul put in a transfer request to waiver any sale bonuses and facilitate the sale. That is conjecture of course but i doubt very much that he waited til the last 30 mins to put in a request.
Anyhoo, im sad to see him go and think that he’ll be a real asset to Chelsea. He’s better than Ramires, Essien is always injured and will go, along with Mikel to the African Cup.
Fortunately LFC probably have just enough to cope without him. Fingers crossed.
If anyone had benefited from the arival of Suarez it was Meireles, to allow him to leave along with Aquilani makes no sense to me. Both players offered something that no other player in the current squad has – the ability to see a defence splitting pass and deliver it accurately (apart from Stevie G) Adam puts the ball into space and leaves the recipient with a lot of work to do. to me KK seems to be dismantling a potential Liverpool, and building a blackburn rovers, yes, we have a “stronger squad” but now a less skilful one.
you know what guys,,this deal had been done a long time ago & KK did not have him in his plans. The whole handing in a transfer request at the last minute and it being accepted just in the nick of time seemed a bit too well choregraphed. Come on guys they want it to seem like they had no other choice but to let him go & make him to be the bad guy ,if they wanted him to stay they would have kept him!! I just hope our midfieald doesnt lose form,if it does, its all on KK head..
I will be very right in saying that Raul is a loss, and most LFC fans would have dearly wanted him to stay. we do not quite know the true story as of yet, it is a little hard to believe that he was given indications by the club that he is surplus to our requirement.
We did not want him away, but having said that if we look at the squad what we have at our disposal is quite sufficient, as pointed out by Mark in the article.
While Spearing is not world class, but he has done the job when asked to step up. Lucas and Adam are more in the holding midfielder mould, but Hendo and Jonjo are ones for future, and not too distant future at all. Jonjo is a top top notch talent, who I really believe will bloom into an absolute asset in very near future. Stevie G will be back soon, and WILL prove his doubters wrong (needless to say). Then there is Pacheco, we have not sold him for one reason and that is he still has something to offer (He is more a forward/attacking midfielder though). And of course everyone knows what Sterling is turning into.
Meireless was not in the starting 11 and probably never would be so he would be on the bench. If he is on the bench then the young players like Shelvey, Spearing & others would never get any minutes. If we were in Europe this season I am sure we would have kept him but as it is we don’t have as many games to play so the playing time for all the squad is reduced. We should make top 4 this season so I expect a few more quality arrivals in due course to help us with all the extra European games next year.
Well hopefully we will have Gerrard back soon and with Raul gone it should give Shelvey more of a chance to shine.
meireles no doubt a quility player but da truth is he did not fit into kenny’s plans rigth from da start of da season,i think he will be a better player @ chelsea but when Essien return he will be drop.Long live LFC.
I don’t think Liverpool will miss him at all. If he’s sat on the bench its another temptation to shuffle the squad. Liverpool looked incredibly strong against Bolton with Adam and Henderson, and if Gerrard comes back fighting then there is more than enough quality in midfield. It is the return of Bellamy that is exciting. Bellamy and Suarez will be a nightmare for any defense.