Worst of the TLW Era - YOU decide: Centre midfield

[tlw content]

With the 100th and final issue of ‘The Liverpool Way’ fast approaching we’re looking to get your input on a series of articles featuring ‘the best and worst of’ the TLW era, which spans from August 1999 when the first issue was printed, to now as we prepare to declare once reaching a century.

 

You’ve already voted for your best team of the last 16 years (if you haven’t you can do so here) so now let’s go for the worst. The keeper and back four have been decided, and both wings have been filled so all that’s left now is the midfield engine room and the front two. We’ll get to the strikers tomorrow, but let’s complete the midfield four first.

 

We’ve got two holding players and two so called creative ones. You can either just pick the worst pair, or if you’re looking for balance pick the worst combination of both.

 

 

 

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[Bjornebye]

Poulsen and Diao. At least Aquilani was a decent player apart from the shit he served up for us! And I can remember him having 1 decent game.

[Mark M]

I've gone with Poulsen and  Aquilani.

Poulsen being shit and reminding me of Hodgson. 

Aquilani being shit costing 20 million and reminding me of replacing Xabi.

[Jairzinho]

Yeah, Diao and Poulsen. Both just pure fucking shit.

 

Aquilani was a terrible signing because his legs are made of stilton, but our consequent ridiculing from Milan and Juventus "Yeah, we'll deffo buy him at the end of the year, scouts honour" was even worse than the signing. He's also a decent player, I doubt Fiorentina would swap many of our midfielders for him.

[Grinch]

Diao and Aquilani, one not a footballer the other taking a very high paid holiday from being one.

[Trumo]

I can remember when we were first linked with Poulsen and wondering why the fuck we were going for him. He'd done quite well at both Schalke and Sevilla (does any player ever look shit at Sevilla these days?) but was useless at Juventus and an utter liability for his country at the 2010 World Cup. That would be the World Cup for which the owl was one of the BBC's studio guests. Like most British BBC pundits, he gave every impression that he hadn't bothered watching the games and seemingly understand very little about the sport. When Adebayor talks more sense than a 35-year plus veteran football manager, the alarm bells surely must be ringing. Imagine my surprise when Poulsen turned out to be every bit as mediocre as I expected him to be.

 

Aquilani, despite having plenty of ability, was never going to be able to harness it consistently because he had a body made of porcelain and an almost total lack of mental strength. I don't think he ever actually wanted to come here and in hindsight, he should have stuck to his guns and told Roma he wasn't going to budge. Maybe the lack of mental strength was a factor there too. He does have an incredibly stunning wife though, the jammy get.

 

Diao was signed off the back some good displays for Senegal at the 2002 World Cup but despite being energetic and physically strong, it was clear fairly early on that he was tactically naive and unsuited to how we wanted to play. I didn't hate the guy but I don't think he was good enough.

 

Cheyrou wasn't a central midfielder so I'm not sure why he's an option here. He had a lot of ability but he just seemed to completely go into his shell as if he wasn't cut out for the intensity of the Premier League. His best position was behind the strikers but we didn't set up our midfield in a way that would get the most out of him as well as keeping us solid, and his lack of spark made him even more ineffectual. Summer 2002 was a real waste of transfer funds.

 

I've gone for Poulsen and Aquilani. Juventus took the piss out of us with those two, first by selling us Poulsen and then getting Aquilani in on a loan deal heavily stacked in their favour.

[setreal]

I voted for Aquaman but have just remembered his GF and now regret my choice.

[Trumo]

Just in case people don't know or forgot, this is Michela Quattrociocche, Aquilani's missus. If you cross your eyes Aquilani-style, you see two of them!

 

[Ted]

Dodgy as fuck, that Aquilani signing.

[razor]

Bruno Cheyrou and...

 

is the correct answer.

[njackets]

Don't know why Aquilani is doing on there, he was miles better than the others on the list had some good games for us, in fact I don't remember him being shit when he was fit. Only reason he's on that list is his price tag and the expectation on him.

[Section_31]

Poulsen, in fact anybody Hodgson signed. He was like some kind of Ferguson double agent, if Ferguson had been a facehugger, LFC would have been eating dinner at the table and Hodgeson would have burst out of its chest and started making claims about the strengths and weaknesses of the Finnish football league. 

[cuppatea]

Aquilani was a terrible signing but a decent footballer. Poulsen and Diao were just total fucking shit.

[Russ Atmosphere]

Jean Michel Ferri must have been pre-TLW era.

[AngryOfTuebrook]

God, that was depressing even thinking about it.

 

I've gone with Poulsen and Diao - a pairing like that would re-define the word ponderous and any hungover, middle-aged Sunday league plodders would comfortably stroll past them.

[Babb'sBurstNad]

Poulsen and Aquilani as a pairing would be by far the worst. Even the comedy factor of one of Adam's wheezing runs - the kind that would always end in him falling face first into someone's legs - would look good in comparison.

 

Poulsen was a second too late to everything and never aimed for the ball, he defined "liability".

 

Aquilani on the other hand had ability, but it was let down by his small, shrivelled prune-like cowardly heart. Maybe he thought there were twice as many people coming at him when he'd shit out of every 50-50.

 

As a pair they'd be a terrifying mix of clueless and gutless.

[Tony Moanero]

Diao and Poulson.

[Russ Atmosphere]

No doubting Aquilani was a poor fit for this league and a waste of cash, but he's a good player. It seems a bit wrong to see him included.

[Ted]

He wasn't a good player for us, though.

 

Crying it off with the shits, the fucking boob.

[AngryOfTuebrook]

He wasn't a good player for us, though.

 

Crying it off with the shits, the fucking boob.

And there's the rub.

 

This "he was only poo for us" argument has cropped up a fair bit on these threads.  It makes no sense to me.  We could sign Jimmy Greaves tomorrow; the fact that he was a great player for someone else wouldn't make it a good signing for Liverpool.

[Boss]

Taking all the external stuff out of it like the never ending saga of trying to get rid of Aquilani before we ended up paying off his contract, if it's just the worst players of the liverpool way era, then it's Diao and Poulsen.

[Russ Atmosphere]

I don't think Aquilani was bad, he passed pretty well and was here about ten minutes before he broke. The shitting out of tackles stuff always gets mentioned like it happened throughout games but I don't remember him being any worse than anyone we have in his position now.

[Juan Galonso]

Aquilani "He'd have been worth 30m had he been fit when we signed him". Yes okaaay. Was style over actual substance and I'm not even sure what his style is or was.

 

Poulsen was obviously a good player in his pomp but signed as a cheap experienced alternative to Mascherano defecting. Understood the reason we signed him at the time but his legs had well gone by that point.

[Scott_M]

Diao & Poulson.

 

At least Aquiliani & Cheyrou scored a couple of goals for us.

 

Living in Leeds, I'll always fondly remember Diao scoring a winner at Elland Rd & then goading their Kop, but fuck me, what a shit player. His performance in the 4-2 win at Fulham in Benitez's first season ranks as the worst I've ever seen from one of our players - the fact we turned a 2-0 deficit with 10 men when we replaced this cunt with Alonso says it all.

 

Poulson will always be The Hodgasaurus in player form in my book, a disgracefully poor player.

[Kevin D]

No doubting Aquilani was a poor fit for this league and a waste of cash, but he's a good player. It seems a bit wrong to see him included.

Agreed.