Torres tells Rafa to get Villa

[Randy Marsh]

I'd absolutely blow my load non stop for a week if we signed villa. Sadly we are fuckin skint so there's no chance... Actually , 17 mill for Johnson? Maybe we are not as skint as we think. The only way we could sign him is if villa came out and said we where his only choice, then we may be able to get a more suitable price as balenthia ideally need to sell. I reckon they'd rather not see him go to a direct Spanish rival anyway. Really is no chance of the above happening though sadly.

[Herp McDerp]

Valencia can play hardball as much as they want, they need the cash badly and if they distance everyone from Villa price-wise, it will be reeled back a bit

 

I don't see anyone (including United) going as over-board as they seem to want.

 

Not to say a high price won't be reached.....but i keep reading these articles feeling as if Valencia wants a Kaka type bid

 

Manure might blow the rest out of the water, they will need someone to score a fuckload of goals for them now that the tranny has left. Villa is the only player they can get that'll replace Ronaldo's goals and he might even top that. I hope to fuck Madrid or Barca get the deal done ASAP, the thought of Villa moving to the scum gives me the shits.

[Guest simon]

___________________Reina__________________

Johnson________Carra_____Skrtel________Insua

______________Masch/Alonso_depinding if still here

Kuyt_________________________________Riera

_________________Stevie_________________

___________Torres_______Villa_______________

[1892-LFCWasBorn]

Manure might blow the rest out of the water, they will need someone to score a fuckload of goals for them now that the tranny has left. Villa is the only player they can get that'll replace Ronaldo's goals and he might even top that. I hope to fuck Madrid or Barca get the deal done ASAP, the thought of Villa moving to the scum gives me the shits.

 

Repped for calling the cunt a tranny.

[Guest Slim(fast)Shady]

Surely a place for Benyoun.....played a blinder last year!

[Little Sammy]

I think we should offer Dossena and Deggan in a straight swap for the lad.

 

That would be impossible. Throw in Eggface N'Gog and we may have us a deal...

[Tom R]

Like Owen?

 

hehe.

 

We need more than one striker in an ideal world though, especially if one of them is completely free! At the end of the day we only have one striker at the moment in my opinion.

Villa would be genuine competition or a class partner for Torres, and Owen is a million times better than anything else we currently have up front.

 

Owen, for me, is a total no-brainer signing.

[shaunstrudwick]

i know i'm going to be quoting The S*n but - Villa has issued a "come and get me" imo

 

* link removed by aws*

[Herp McDerp]

You're a tool.

[shaunstrudwick]

it's on the BBC gossip page - that's where i saw it

 

apologies

[Calum]

Reading between the lines, with Torres saying that Villa is the man he would like to have playing alongside and Villa's expression of interest in playing only for Rafa.

I would say, that if we could scrape together something in the region of £30/£40m, he could be ours.

Sadly, without a very big sale (like Mascherano) that seems impossible in our current financialy constrained circumstances.

But watch this space as the transfer market warms up! Latest speculation is that Barca will bid for Pepe! Who knows where we are headed to in this window!

[Tom R]

As much as i dearly love them both, I'd quite happily sacrifice either Alonso or Mascherano for Villa to be honest.

 

Having Steven Gerrard play in the centre of midfield, behind Villa and Torres, with either Alonso or Mascherano next to him is hardly a bad situation to be in.

[shaunstrudwick]

As much as i dearly love them both, I'd quite happily sacrifice either Alonso or Mascherano for Villa to be honest.

 

Having Steven Gerrard play in the centre of midfield, behind Villa and Torres, with either Alonso or Mascherano next to him is hardly a bad situation to be in.

 

i agree - except that i would want to keep Mascherano over Alonso

[Tom R]

Tough one that to be honest. Both are genuine world class players. But I think Gerrard could do what what Alonso does, albeit we'd lose smoe of his attacking influence, but I'm not sure there's anyone who can do what Mascherano does.

However, how many games do we really NEED a player like Mascherano? Only in the very toughest of games against the very best I'd suggest we NEED someoone to break down and harry the opposition, so perhaps he's a little more expendable?

 

In an ideal world we could keep them both and sign Villa. But in a bad shitty nightmare, which is what we seem to live in, we'll lose one of them and won't even sign Dave House.

[SpeedyG]

Tough one that to be honest. Both are genuine world class players. But I think Gerrard could do what what Alonso does, albeit we'd lose smoe of his attacking influence, but I'm not sure there's anyone who can do what Mascherano does.

However, how many games do we really NEED a player like Mascherano? Only in the very toughest of games against the very best I'd suggest we NEED someoone to break down and harry the opposition, so perhaps he's a little more expendable?

 

In an ideal world we could keep them both and sign Villa. But in a bad shitty nightmare, which is what we seem to live in, we'll lose one of them and won't even sign Dave House.

 

I understand this line of thinking, it is less games but the games you need him for are the ones that are most important, they are the games you have to win to win trophies.

[shaunstrudwick]

Yeah - Gerrard and Xabi didn't really work as a partnership before though - that would be my only concern

 

tbh if Masch leaves for Barca but we get Villa in it wouldn't be that bad imo

[Code]

Yeah - Gerrard and Xabi didn't really work as a partnership before though - that would be my only concern

 

tbh if Masch leaves for Barca but we get Villa in it wouldn't be that bad imo

 

This is a myth, they work wonderful together.

[The 5th Benitel]

This is a myth, they work wonderful together.

 

 

They dont, certainly not against quality teams. We were too vulnerable to the cunter with Gerrard up the pitch and Xabi not mobile enough to cover like Mascher does. The first half in Istanbul is as good an example of that as any.

[silverlining]

They dont, certainly not against quality teams. We were too vulnerable to the cunter with Gerrard up the pitch and Xabi not mobile enough to cover like Mascher does. The first half in Istanbul is as good an example of that as any.

 

Given that we don't play against Kaka every week, could you please furnish us with some more examples apart from 45 minutes of a European Cup final.

[SpeedyG]

Given that we don't play against Kaka every week, could you please furnish us with some more examples apart from 45 minutes of a European Cup final.

 

Difficult to do as Benitez doesn't trust Alonso to play the DM role against anyone that could exploit his lack of mobility anymore.

[The 5th Benitel]

Given that we don't play against Kaka every week, could you please furnish us with some more examples apart from 45 minutes of a European Cup final.

 

It never worked that well which is why we spent so much money on Mascherano. If it had done i'm sure we could have spent that money somewhere more worthwhile than a defensive mid we didn't need. Fact is you need a player who can get across and cover the back 4. Xabi just isn't mobile enough, which is why you can see the contast in the standard of defensive play between him and Mascher, and you want Gerrard pushed further forward than that.

[andymc]

in the big games you need someone like the chief, just look at the way the mancs were raped against barca, would anyone really fancy xabi (as much as I love him) coming out on top in a physical battle against players like essien?

[Code]

How has our defensive game changed with Mascherano in our team?

 

The last 4 seasons we have had an almost identical amount of goals conceded, but we have seen some changes in how we have conceded these goals if we look into the numbers from open play/dead balls/penalties.

 

With a quick look at things the first impression you might get is that we concede less goals from open play since we bought Mascherano, but why are we conceding so many goals from set pieces in the same seasons?

 

Its a very complex matter but I will post the numbers in case anyone is interested.

 

Goals conceded in the league:

04/05: 41 - 28(68,21%) open play - 12(29,26%) dead ball - 1 pen

05/06: 25 - 17(68%) open play - 5(20%) dead ball - 2 pens

------------------------------------------------

06/07: 27 - 21(77,77%) open play - 5(23,80%) dead ball - 1 pen

07/08: 28 - 10(35,71%) open play - 14(50%) dead ball - 4 pens

08/09: 27 - 16(59,25%) open play - 8(29,62%) dead ball - 2 pens

 

 

So with this in mind, seeing as most goals in the games against other top clubs often are decided because of set pieces, how important is really Mascherano for these kind of games.

[Calum]

Wouldn't like to lose either Masch or Xabi, would rather lose Pepe than either of those two! There are some good goalies out there who could be bought pdq!

[SpeedyG]

How has our defensive game changed with Mascherano in our team?

 

The last 4 seasons we have had an almost identical amount of goals conceded, but we have seen some changes in how we have conceded these goals if we look into the numbers from open play/dead balls/penalties.

 

With a quick look at things the first impression you might get is that we concede less goals from open play since we bought Mascherano, but why are we conceding so many goals from set pieces in the same seasons?

 

Its a very complex matter but I will post the numbers in case anyone is interested.

 

Goals conceded in the league:

04/05: 41 - 28(68,21%) open play - 12(29,26%) dead ball - 1 pen

05/06: 25 - 17(68%) open play - 5(20%) dead ball - 2 pens

------------------------------------------------

06/07: 27 - 21(77,77%) open play - 5(23,80%) dead ball - 1 pen

07/08: 28 - 10(35,71%) open play - 14(50%) dead ball - 4 pens

08/09: 27 - 16(59,25%) open play - 8(29,62%) dead ball - 2 pens

 

 

So with this in mind, seeing as most goals in the games against other top clubs often are decided because of set pieces, how important is really Mascherano for these kind of games.

 

What jumps out at me is that the season Alonso was our primary DM we conceded 41 goals. Once we added Momo and then Mascherano to the mix we've never conceded more than 28. :whistle:

 

And if I remember rightly we lost to the big 4 only once, when Mascher wasn't playing and primarily because of set pieces. Which if I remember rightly one of which Alonso was culpable for.