Alberto Aquilani

[zigackly]

The Midfield Morientes?

 

I agree that his role in the team seems ill-defined.

 

I certainly don't see how he can "replace" Gerrard, because he simply hasn't got the explosiveness to burst into the box and score the goals we would need.

 

He's a 5 a season man. Tops.

 

I always felt Morientes problem was that he wanted the ball to feet and was at too late a stage in his career to adjust to a league where this rarely ever happens. Aquilani should at least be young and fit enough to adjust his game.

 

I agree that he won't give us the same thing as Gerrard in an attacking midfield role, but that's not the only way to play it. At one point in his career I thought Gerrard was going to be unsuitable to that position because he didn't seem clever enough on the ball, and lung-bursting runs on their own are not enough. Well he proved me wrong about that, because he's developed a much more intricate game over the last few seasons.

 

Aquilani has all the intricacy, but we haven't seen the physicality yet. However he certainly had it in Serie A: not in an intimidating way like Gerrard, but in terms of being quick and making the right runs.

 

I think he can definitely do a job there in the long term, but he's a pure luxury player at the moment and luxury is something we can ill afford unless the team is playing well.

[PaulMcC]

Thought he had a good game.

[Cardie]

We don't do 5-a-side in the traditional two goals, fat men running around a leisure centre sense but we do play possession football in a small area. They do it during the warm up every game which is no doubt a carry over from an exercise they do in training.

[Christian]

At times our movement was non-existent last night, but we picked up significantly in the last 25 mins or so to avoid an Arsenal repeat result. Only a glimpse of Maxi but I am loving his technique on the ball. Alberto done OK, looks off the pace still, but brighter than his initial performances - as to be expected I guess.

As for Spurs, Harry Redknapp couldn't organise a Porn Party for perverts when away from home. I thought they were pretty shambolic.

 

Can't fault our committment last 2 games, that's for sure.

[redrosetints]

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.

 

That can also be attributed to the fact the 11 players havent played much football together as an 11 and therefore lack the understanding of each others play. A couple of times Aquilani played passes through where the intended recipient went the other way.

 

Its all part of building an understanding and partnerships.

 

When Rafa first came, he rotated a too much, thus making it more difficult and a slower process for the players to gel and form the partnerships and understandings required to play fast paced intuitive football. In my opinion a reason why we've often started seasons slowly under Rafa, whilst building these relationships and ending the season on a strong note, once the understandings had been forged.

 

Only Masch and Reina of the spine from last season occupied their places last night (Carra at RB). Lack of confidence, form and understanding are all quite normal when you are missing so many of your regular lineup.

 

This season was always going to be hard enough trying to replace Xabi in the lineup, building up the understandings again from such a crucial position and so far we've barley had chance to do that, as repeated injuries have made it impossible to play a settled 11, never mind build up the partnerships and telepathy we'd enjoy with our regular 1st choice out there.

 

We've had little luck this season after much luck last season, thats football and whilst you cannot argue against it being a disappointing and frustrating season, we have to acknowledge that having so many players injured, so often and for such lengths of time as we've had are going to disrupt any side. Even United have struggled this season and thats just with their defence, we've had new players, partnerships and relationships being built all over the park.

 

How many times have our strongest back four played together ? How many times have Masch and Aquilani been in the centre ? How many times have Torres and Gerrard played ? and how many times have they all played together ?

 

You see, thats why we look so static and cumbersome, we havent just changed overnight from the side that demolished all in the back end of last season. I know its not fashionable to try to reason and gain an understanding of our problems and much easier to kick out and criticise, but sometimes, you know, you have to think and look at the big picture.

[Soleilrouge]

He's all a bit Luis Garcia without the important goals at the moment for me.

 

Lots of great looking flicks and first time passes but he's operating on a wavelength that the others can't keep up with.

 

I too am desperate for him to be our saviour but at the moment I'm not convinced.

 

i think you'll find his retention of posession is much better than little luis - he was an absolute nightmare for many years in many games

[RedKnight]

He'd do something fairly decent then totally shin a ball up in the air and out of play. He'd do better behind the striker if the striker wasn't Kuyt.

[INTORRESTING]

I don't think we will get much out of him until next season. There is a lot of adjusting to do.

[silverlining]

He'd do something fairly decent then totally shin a ball up in the air and out of play. He'd do better behind the striker if the striker wasn't Kuyt.

 

Yes, Kuyt was rubbish last night

[RedKnight]

Yes, Kuyt was rubbish last night

 

Or... Kuyt has no pace so a through ball to him is pretty pointless, Torres has plenty of pace and Aquilani would be able to play first time passes through to him and keep the defence on the backfoot.

 

I can't work out why you give Lucas dog's abuse but seem to think that Kuyt is an essential player. Both are average.

[WhiskeyJar]

Or... Kuyt has no pace so a through ball to him is pretty pointless, Torres has plenty of pace and Aquilani would be able to play first time passes through to him and keep the defence on the backfoot.

 

I can't work out why you give Lucas dog's abuse but seem to think that Kuyt is an essential player. Both are average.

 

You saw the impact that both players had on the game last night.

 

Comparing one to other is unfair to Kuyt.

[shaunstrudwick]

Torres has plenty of pace and Aquilani would be able to play first time passes through to him and keep the defence on the backfoot.

 

if Rafa stays and he insists on only having Torres as our main striker then Aquaman must play higher up teh pitch - with Gerrard pushed out the right or dropping deeper

 

hopefully there will be money for a Silva type to come in and give more going forward

 

-------Torres

Silva*--Aqua--Maxi

----Masch--Gerrard

 

*doesn't have to be Silva

 

n.b - i still think 2 strikers is the way forward

[silverlining]

Or... Kuyt has no pace so a through ball to him is pretty pointless, Torres has plenty of pace and Aquilani would be able to play first time passes through to him and keep the defence on the backfoot.

 

I can't work out why you give Lucas dog's abuse but seem to think that Kuyt is an essential player. Both are average.

 

Kuyt isn't essential. But he is a good player. He proved that with 15 goals last season, and plenty of assists.

 

Lucas, on the other hand, is really poor and nearly every club in the Premiership has at least one CM player better than him. And many have two or three.

[Soleilrouge]

if Rafa stays and he insists on only having Torres as our main striker then Aquaman must play higher up teh pitch - with Gerrard pushed out the right or dropping deeper

 

hopefully there will be money for a Silva type to come in and give more going forward

 

-------Torres

Silva*--Aqua--Maxi

----Masch--Gerrard

 

*doesn't have to be Silva

 

n.b - i still think 2 strikers is the way forward

 

i think gerrard on the right iwith aguilani/yossie behind torres is the solution

[JohnnyH]

It really is hard to to try and pick out all those negatives after a good win but well done to the angry mob. Here's hoping we don't have one of those nasty wins again next week or you'll all have to work so hard again.

 

As far as I can tell the players we played last night were so utterly abysmal that I'm surprised they didn't trip over each other when running onto the pitch prior to losing 12-0

[Whelan]

It really is hard to to try and pick out all those negatives after a good win but well done to the angry mob. Here's hoping we don't have one of those nasty wins again next week or you'll all have to work so hard again.

 

As far as I can tell the players we played last night were so utterly abysmal that I'm surprised they didn't trip over each other when running onto the pitch prior to losing 12-0

 

I think you will find it would be 0-12.

 

Idiot.

 

 

 

 

Don't worry, we will be back to normal by tomorrow.

[JohnnyH]

Yeah, they went to reply for teh goal, but when they came back he was up and running which surprised me. I expected to see him going off on a stretcher. Dawson certainly went in to hammer him. That was a lovely bit of control of the bouncing ball as well to be fair.

[zigackly]

Johnny I think people are giving their honest assessment of the player so far, not looking deliberately for negatives. A lot of positives have also been mentioned and I don't think the thread today is so biased as you're painting it.

 

No point blowing smoke up his arse though, he's a way off being ready to automatically improve our team yet.

[Kevin D]

I thought he looked like a very good player last night, that will surely become more evident when the better players are back in our squad, because they'll thrive on his first time passing and intelligence. One thing that did annoy me was the way he had seemingly never seen Kuyt play before, as if he's going to outrun King.

[Whelan]

Johnny I think people are giving their honest assessment of the player so far, not looking deliberately for negatives. A lot of positives have also been mentioned and I don't think the thread today is so biased as you're painting it.

 

No point blowing smoke up his arse though, he's a way off being ready to automatically improve our team yet.

 

Just as you felt a lot of people were criticising Hiddink to defend Rafa, I personally don't think it is beyond the realms of possibility to think that some people will criticise Aquilani as a way of emphasing their point regarding Rafa!

 

Not everyone, but some.

 

Some would have Heather Mills in the team if she changed her name to Xabi Alonso.

[Guest TK-421]

He's going to be fucking amazing. You can tell because he's foreign and has a high scoring Scrabble letter in his name, and it ends with a vowel. All of this points to skillz and succezz.

[JohnnyH]

Johnny I think people are giving their honest assessment of the player so far, not looking deliberately for negatives. A lot of positives have also been mentioned and I don't think the thread today is so biased as you're painting it.

 

No point blowing smoke up his arse though, he's a way off being ready to automatically improve our team yet.

 

I was referencing a few threads to be fair. Any bit of positive and a few on here are slamming it down. It looks like some people are gutted we won. I know (well, I hope) this isn’t the case, but it is coming across that way. No one is saying we battered Spurs last night, but we certainly deserved to win (Christ even Andy Gray and Keys were saying that) and had we scored 2 more no one could have complained. No one has said Degen was excellent, just that he has pulled his weight in the last few games, yet some will have you believe we’d be better playing with 10 and just leave him off. Some said they saw some real positives in Aquilani, and you just had to look at some of the clips when Sky did their little montage on him, to see his real positives, but some on here are calling him the “midfield Morientes” and they already fear he won’t be good enough – it is horrible and pathetic teenage ‘I want it now’ attitude that is not what I remember this clubs fans been about.

[Guest LFD]

He's got a very good first touch.

[shaunstrudwick]

i think gerrard on the right iwith aguilani/yossie behind torres is the solution

 

but that means playing Lucas - yikes!

[JohnnyH]

He's got a very good first touch.

 

I've no idea why, but I finished that sentence in my head with '...for a fat bird'....