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Alberto Aquilani


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It's hard to reach a judgment on him at the moment, he was the only one interested in keeping hold of the ball last night, but as a creative midfielder he wasn't blessed with options was he?

 

Couldn't play the ball behind the defence because Kuyt was too slow, couldn't play it behind the full back because Degen and Riera are too slow, no midfielder making runs beyond the forwards!

 

There was one instance in the second half when he collected the ball and Kuyt came to him and ended up behind Aquilani !

 

He offers us something we haven't got, hopefully he will improve, too me he looks like he has got what we are missing, it's all down to how much he fancies it.

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it shows the depths we are plummeting to this season when people delight in what was a pretty anonymous performance. I've not seen anything from aquilani yet to suggest he's anywhere near capable enough to make it at this club or this league. in fact right now i'd say he looks more cheyrou than alonso.

 

Agree with that.

 

Don't think it is possible to judge him as a player yet based on his performances for us, as he has been pretty anonymous so far when he's been on the pitch. Needs to stop allowing players to drift past him without even shifting pace. Would like to see him look to get a shot away more often also but hard to criticize him for that without knowing what instructions he is playing too (not meant as a dig at Rafa)

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we were talking about this in the pub before the game. what worries me is he's looking for the 1st time pass because he's scared to get kicked. the number of times when someone is closing on him and he just jabs it to some random place to save being hacked worries me. it could just be settling in (or even something in his mind about his injuries) and he has to be given time to improve, but as alonso and didi showed over their time with us - if you're going to be in centre mid there, if there's no pass on, you have to be prepared to hold onto the ball and get something out of it - a side ways pass, draw a foul, anything really. You can't just jab it somewhere in the hope you don't get smashed. That's why I used cheyrou as an example in my previous post (i know he wasn't centre mid, but the point holds valid), as i believe that was his biggest issue (aside from being completely shite of course), he was the biggest shithouse on 2 legs and as soon as he had the ball, couldn't wait to get rid of it.

 

He needs to watch some tapes of Hamann and perfect the "Didi Crumple"

 

Alonso was getting very good at it last season.

 

As for Purple, he had some much more encouraging moments last night, but was very anonymous at times too.

 

Lucarse was abysmal last night, which didn't help, but thankfully Masher was in one of those moods where he'd have tackled a fucking crisp packet.

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Guest Ulysses Everett McGill
He needs to watch some tapes of Hamann and perfect the "Didi Crumple"

 

Alonso was getting very good at it last season.

 

As for Purple, he had some much more encouraging moments last night, but was very anonymous at times too.

 

Lucarse was abysmal last night, which didn't help, but thankfully Masher was in one of those moods where he'd have tackled a fucking crisp packet.

 

We must have been watching a different game, because I thought, and the concensus of those around me was that Lucas played fairly well.

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Lucarse was abysmal last night, which didn't help, but thankfully Masher was in one of those moods where he'd have tackled a fucking crisp packet.

 

One thing i noticed last night was Lucas played the ball straight to a tottenham player several times when under no real pressure. He just passed it straight to them.

 

I thought "What the fuck are you doing man"

 

But no one seems to have picked up on it, probably because he played a couple of attempted through balls which ended up rolling harmlessly to Gomes. Good effort from him though in fairness!

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Lucas did quite well I though as well. Few misplaced passes, two of them bordering on criminal, which the crowd jumped all over, but overall he did quite well.

 

Aquilani looked lively for the first 15-20 then faded. Possibly fitness. Possibly cos he's shit. Time will tell, but i still worry it's the latter.

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Funny how people can see games. He does look for the first time pass and I know that he has been told that unlike Italy he has to look for the quick pass a lot more then he was used to given how quicker he will be tackled there then back in Serie A.

 

However, when I was watching the game I was getting a little frustrated at times at how often he didn't release the ball when he had the chance. I thought he held it up too much on occasion. He certainly also released it too quick as well.

 

What I think is happening, is some people are desperate for him to succeed so they pick out the positives of his quick feet, etc, and concentrate on that, while some are so depressed with everything that their minds wont let them see any good so they only concentrate on missed passes, etc, which happens to every footballer, including Alonso, but they can see no good in him. It is certainly happening on the Degen thread where a fairly average footballer who has put in decent enough performances for us in the last 2 games is, in some peoples opinions, the worst player we have ever had!! which is just crazy. Somebody above said Aquilani has shown nothing to suggest he is anything more then a Cheryou, and that's just wrong. Very wrong. But is indicative of the depression a lot of us are suffering at the moment in this mess of a season.

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Lucas did quite well I though as well. Few misplaced passes, two of them bordering on criminal, which the crowd jumped all over, but overall he did quite well.

 

Aquilani looked lively for the first 15-20 then faded. Possibly fitness. Possibly cos he's shit. Time will tell, but i still worry it's the latter.

 

EDIT - Feck ya Tom and your quick spelling mistake edit. I had a belting joke there!

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we were talking about this in the pub before the game. what worries me is he's looking for the 1st time pass because he's scared to get kicked. the number of times when someone is closing on him and he just jabs it to some random place to save being hacked worries me.

 

I'd say it's more just his natural game to play first time football. Not a bad thing.

 

He does get caught on the ball a bit/or try and force something when pressured - but that's a reflection on the lack of options and movement around him at times.

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I think Aquilani's performances are still open to interpretation.

 

Some sublime control and touches, and then a terrible pass straight to an opponent, often within the same few seconds.

 

He did brilliantly in setting up the first goal though. It's that kind of grace under pressure that we've been lacking in the final third of the pitch.

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One thing i noticed last night was Lucas played the ball straight to a tottenham player several times when under no real pressure. He just passed it straight to them.

 

I thought "What the fuck are you doing man"

 

But no one seems to have picked up on it, probably because he played a couple of attempted through balls which ended up rolling harmlessly to Gomes. Good effort from him though in fairness!

 

the crowd did. Hence the groans.

 

He was poor last night. But then he's a generally poor footballer.

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Strange picking up on the first time passes, I think if you have a team that lacks pace then the quicker the ball is released the better!

 

I think with him, Riera (who I quite like) and Maxi there are three players with intelligence who can all spot a quick pass, with Gerrard and Masch/Lucas behind, even without Nando we can see a little bit more creativity being brought into the team.

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Thought it was one of Lucas' poorer games, but I still thought he was okay.

 

Totally agree, couple of missed passes, he has been much better in the last few weeks.

 

He's a defensive midfielder in my eyes, and his performances at Villa and Stoke seem to prove this!

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Thought he looked better high up the pitch.

 

Full strength with him and Stevie changing throughout the game and Mascher sitting behind would be immense at home.

 

As for Lucas, I thought he did fairly well.

 

Alberto's 1st time passes will come off with the Kid up top much more than Dirk to be fair

 

Same team vs Wolves

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I thought it was a mixed bag performance. Some nice flicks, tricks and use of the ball - other times wasteful.

 

However I do think he looks more comfortable in that position, where he has more freedom to roam and create - plus having less defensive duties.

 

I think it will be better to judge him more when Torres is upfront and he'll have someone with the pace, who he can feed more easily than Kuyt.

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Gerrard says he's a lot like Xabi.

 

Funnily enough, it seems many have forgotten Xabis troubles when he first joined, that baptism of fire at the Reebok.

 

Xabi took a couple of months to find his feet, prior to which it was speculated he was going to be too lightweight for the prem.

 

Its too early to tell for Aquialni, but once he's fully match fit, which he still isnt, I suspect we have a player on our hands.

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In Aquilani's defence regards him always playing the ball first time, if we had something even approaching decent movement off the ball when we have it then it would compliment his game really well.

 

As it is, we're one of the most static teams I've ever seen when we have the ball. When there is a run, our boys are often almost running backwards, looking behind constantly, rather than making the run and just waiting for the ball to feet. This makes us slow and ponderous and predictable.

Bizarrely, we seem to move better when we don't have the ball!!

 

our team badly needs several hours of five a side footy a week. There's no "instict" to our passing and movement. it's all very staid and robotic. Some fluid and fast paced five a side could help with that I reckon.

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strange to see the criticism of Lucas last night, i genuinely thought he was our best player over the 90 minutes. Maybe i'm just nuts.

 

There were a few misplaced passes but to me the worst of those were both due to the player he passed to changing his direction as the pass was about to be made.

 

I thought his defensive work was excellent and bearing in mind that we were poor for most of the game, only really playing well as a unit after the 70 minute mark, the majority of what he did well was necessay closing down, harrying, tackling and playing it simple.

 

It reminded me of his performance against united (his best to date) but with Mascherano not doing as much alongside him.

 

As for Alberto, promising is the word. I think Gary Mac summed it up well just before the start of the second half. Sky showed some highlights reel of backheels and flicks and movement trying to make out he'd been zidane, and McAllister said that he'd had an ok game so far, but like the rest of the team, it had been about grinding things out and nothing special.

 

I think it was promising, and hopefully he can build on it, and the 80 minutes will have done him a lot of good.

 

Also showed why NGog is a good option from the bench too, thought he was excellent in the time he was on, and did exactly what we needed him to do at that time. His turn and shot was superb.

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