[ATXRED]

Don't really know how I feel about this...I'm on record earlier in the season as feeling Xabi was the most crucial player to the way we played, but over the season, our formation and style of play has become more dynamic and less focused on completely controlling the game. With Torres, Babel, and Gerrard we can break forward with pace, and unfortunately, this is where I feel Xabi is getting left behind. He can't keep up with the attack, and thus rarely contributes. He ends up have to hit the ball more straight up the pitch, and those types of balls are so much easier for defenders to cut out.

He's still a beast when it comes to dictating tempo, but I'm not sure that's what we need anymore. I feel what we need is a CM who can take the ball out of defense, and move it up to attack. If Gerrard gets stuck doing this, Torres is isolated, if Masch does this he typically runs out of ideas and the attack dies. Maybe it's hurt Xabi's game to be without Agger, who allows the entire team to play further up the pitch and thus allowing Xabi to play closer to the front four, but he wasn't all that great last year.

I don't want to see him go, he's a wonderful player, and an incredible professional, but I feel like just maybe our style of play doesn't suit him as well as it did in the past.