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Aquilani, in retrospect...

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Modo

Modo

A contentious scando
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Sure we got Meireles but really, we have a lack of creativity in our midfield.
This is might be a bold statement but here goes, Aquilani epitomises the style of play that Liverpool used to stand for. Simple pass and move.
I'm not trying to make him into a saviour but I really believe we would have faired a little better with him.
I mean we can barely hold the ball and our general gameplay is so unimaginative it hurts.
 
He'd be nice to have cos we're shit, and he can pass the ball.

He wouldn't get anywhere near the midfield of a Top 4 team in the Premier League though.
 
Don't know if Aquilani can epitomize "Liverpool way" for me, he is very much a product of the Italian school, an heir apparent to Pirlo, physically slight, artsy and not simple at all. I like him a lot and I am sure he will be a star Juve and scuaddra if doctors manage his body well. But he was never right for Liverpool and Premiership and the move to buy him was impulsive and poorly thought-out. I know Rafa signed off on the transfer, but I just can't believe Berto was his first choice to replace Alonso. It was obvious that Rafa had no idea how to use him in this team.
 
He's a decent player who I would rather we held onto or at least could recall at this moment, but he plays the sort of football which has been stamped out of us by two of our last managers, and so he never really fitted in, even when fit.

Often he would do sharp link-up play around the edge of the box and nobody would be able to read what he would do next. Only Gerrard was on his wave length in that regard. Pity, because he could be excellent in the right set-up, and by that I mean one which is built around him to make up for his short-comings.
 
[quote author=Squiggles link=topic=42370.msg1203247#msg1203247 date=1287718582]
He's a decent player who I would rather we held onto or at least could recall at this moment, but he plays the sort of football which has been stamped out of us by two of our last managers, and so he never really fitted in, even when fit.

Often he would do sharp link-up play around the edge of the box and nobody would be able to read what he would do next. Only Gerrard was on his wave length in that regard. Pity, because he could be excellent in the right set-up, and by that I mean one which is built around him to make up for his short-comings.
[/quote]

I like this last phrase a lot. Look at Xavi at Barca - he has obvious shortcomings in his game. He is not fast and he is a mediocre defender. Still, a lot of people consider him the best midfielder in the world because Barca's game is all about using his strengths and covering up for his weaknesses. Same thing with Pirlo in Milan.

Too bad neither Rafa nor Roy had any plans to build around Aquilani. Which is understandable (not every manager likes a system build around one playmaker), but begs the question, why did we choose to buy Aquilani in the first place? In retrospect it looks like a really poorly thought out, impulsive, unjustified 20 million purchase.
 
Wassn't Benitez' plan to spend the Alonso money signing both Aquliani & Jovetic.

Might have made the difference has it happened.
 
Big fan of Aquilani, but he just didn't have the muscle to last in the UK.

Having said that, he is a quality player and the fact that Juve are eager to get a deal sorted for him shows this.

Furthermore, the Juve ultras are not against signing him because of his quality - even though he is a Romanista and idol of the Roma ultras.

I think Juve is a good fit for him, as much as I hate them.

Their style of play suits him, and he'll play more games every season with them because they have a world class medical infrastructure.

Wasn't Benitez' plan to spend the Alonso money signing both Aquliani & Jovetic.

Might have made the difference has it happened.
Click to expand...

What did we get for Alonso? 20-25M?

There is no way we could have signed Aquilani AND Jovetic with those funds.

Viola would be insane to let Jovetic go for less than 20M.
 
I've always wondered why we signed him.

At Roma he always looked assured next to De Rossi. He would position himself alongside De Rossi whenever Roma lost the ball, but was given more licence to push forward when they had it. When we signed him I remember Benitez being strangely vague when asked what his plans were for Alberto - suggesting that he would play "somewhere between Masherano and Gerrard". Problem was, injuries and mentality aside, it quickly became apparent that Alberto needed two defensive midfielder's behind him, and he wasn't going to replace Gerrard in the AM role, meaning we had a very expensive bench-warmer on our hands.

Our transfers in the last two years of the Benitez reign all seemed ill-conceived, unthoughtful, and unresearched - which is strange given he's meant to be a football obsessive.

-shrugs-
 
[quote author=Squiggles link=topic=42370.msg1203256#msg1203256 date=1287720317]
I've always wondered why we signed him.

Our transfer in the last two years of the Benitez reign all seemed ill-conceived, unthoughtful, and unresearched - which is strange given he's meant to be a football obsessive.

-shrugs-
[/quote]


This really hits the nail on his head. I always see Rafa's successes more - but this is where he lost most people, in the last 2 years
 
We definitely signed 2 talented midfielders in Aquilani and Meireles.

But we proceeded to play both of them out of position.

Aquilani is not a midfielder who plays from deep positions, and Meireles is not an attacking midfielder as Roy has mostly been using him ... he's NEVER played attacking midfield in his career.

And to add to that... we play Jovanovic out of position. Yes he can do an OK job playing wide, but he is first and foremost a striker.
 
[quote author=Roopy link=topic=42370.msg1203264#msg1203264 date=1287720689]
We definitely signed 2 talented midfielders in Aquilani and Meireles.

But we proceeded to play both of them out of position.

Aquilani is not a midfielder who plays from deep positions, and Meireles is not an attacking midfielder as Roy has mostly been using him ... he's NEVER played attacking midfield in his career.

And to add to that... we play Jovanovic out of position. Yes he can do an OK job playing wide, but he is first and foremost a striker.
[/quote]

Aquilani couldn't sit deep in the Premiership. He would get eaten alive by most CM partnerships in the Prem, and that was a large part of the problem.
 
[quote author=Ryan link=topic=42370.msg1203266#msg1203266 date=1287720821]
At last Meireles has a set of balls about him. [/quote]

Well Aquilani suffered quite a few ankle injuries in his career, so its bit unfair expecting him to go into tackles like Gerrard, Essien etc do... Rafa knew all about his injuries, so why did he:

1. Play him in a position that Aqualani is pyschologically not capable of playing?
2. Play him in a position which he had never played before? Roma never had Aquilani in a role where he was asked to make strong tackles - that was left to the likes of De Rossi, Perrotta, Brighi, Pizarro etc.

Look at Beckham also. Had ankle injuries, and in the World Cup 2002 match against Brazil he actually jumped out of the way when he was about to be tackled.
 
I'm not talking about going in for tackles per se. I'm talking attitude, endeavour, desire, and general all-round balls.

Meireles shows more of that in 90 minutes for us than Aquilani did in a fucking year.
 
[quote author=Roopy link=topic=42370.msg1203264#msg1203264 date=1287720689]

Aquilani is not a midfielder who plays from deep positions, and Meireles is not an attacking midfielder as Roy has mostly been using him ... he's NEVER played attacking midfield in his career.
[/quote]

Well, I think I understand why Roy plays Gerrard deeper than Meireles. The defensive midfield duo is the heart of the team, they determine the tempo of the game, fight for possession, start attacking moves and run to the rescue in case of any defensive breakdowns. You have to have a good understanding of the team and teammates to do all of that successfully. We literally got our heart torn out, losing both Alonso and Mascherano, and apparently Roy doesn't want 2 newcomers (or 1 newcomer + Lucas) trying to marshal the midfield, so he sacrificed Gerrard's attacking role to put him in the heart of the midfield, hoping this would at least provide some solid core in the middle that he can build on. And since Meireles is quite decent at passing and keeping possession AND has the best long–range shot on the team and is in a better form at the moment than most of our attacking players, the manager tried to push him further forward.

In the derby Gerrard actually started at second striker and Meireles formed a defensive duo with Lucas, but it was a complete disaster - we could not hold possession at all. After 30 mins or so Gerrard switched back to DM and Meireles moved further forward and our play started to improve. Another consideration is that after the loss of Alonso Gerrard is the only player we have with a good long-range pass. And as soon as he switched to DM he was able to spring Torres into life with a few of those passes, whereas before Torres was completely devoid of service.
 
[quote author=Ryan link=topic=42370.msg1203273#msg1203273 date=1287721587]
I'm not talking about going in for tackles per se. I'm talking attitude, endeavour, desire, and general all-round balls.

Meireles shows more of that in 90 minutes for us than Aquilani did in a fucking year.
[/quote]

Attitude & Desire - What exactly are you looking for here? A player who has persistent ankle problems that continues to go through rehabilition and do his best to get back on the pitch.... a player who is not a deep midfielder, yet played the position when Rafa asked him to do so...

Endeavour - impossible for him to show 'endeavour' from deep positions... and impossible for anyone under Rafa's tactics to be allowed to play with endeavour! And anyone who attempted to show it, was gone out the door - Luis Garcia, Yossi B... and when we had the chance to sign Aguero, Rafa was the one who didn't show endeavour by pussying out of signing him in the case he was a flop.
 
[quote author=Roopy link=topic=42370.msg1203278#msg1203278 date=1287722372]
[quote author=Ryan link=topic=42370.msg1203273#msg1203273 date=1287721587]
I'm not talking about going in for tackles per se. I'm talking attitude, endeavour, desire, and general all-round balls.

Meireles shows more of that in 90 minutes for us than Aquilani did in a fucking year.
[/quote]

Attitude & Desire - What exactly are you looking for here? A player who has persistent ankle problems that continues to go through rehabilition and do his best to get back on the pitch.... a player who is not a deep midfielder, yet played the position when Rafa asked him to do so...

Endeavour - impossible for him to show 'endeavour' from deep positions... and impossible for anyone under Rafa's tactics to be allowed to play with endeavour! And anyone who attempted to show it, was gone out the door - Luis Garcia, Yossi B... and when we had the chance to sign Aguero, Rafa was the one who didn't show endeavour by pussying out of signing him in the case he was a flop.
[/quote]

Aquilani was an utter fucking shithouse on the pitch. Nice player, lovely touch, skillful, blah blah blah... But seriously, an absolute vagina in all other areas. And in a midfield in the premier league, that don't cut it.
 
Could it be because he needs to protect himself, due to his old injuries, rather than a lack of balls? I always wondered if he has some serious long term damage that he needs to protect in games.

Or maybe its a bit of both. A shithouse, with dodgy knees.
 
I still think that Aquilani wasnt given a fair chance to establish himself. When fit he didnt get repeated starts.
 
[quote author=Peatcheo link=topic=42370.msg1203282#msg1203282 date=1287723475]
I still think that Aquilani wasnt given a fair chance to establish himself. When fit he didnt get repeated starts.
[/quote]

x5000000000000000000000000

He was a good player, a weakling but good.
 
aquilani is a gifted player which would have added much to our team. Him and Raul behind Stevie G central would have been nice.
 
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