[size=14pt]REDS DON'T MISS XABI SAYS AQUILANI [/size]
Tom Lake said:ALBERTO AQUILANI reckons Liverpool are a BETTER side without Xabi Alonso.
The Italian midfielder was signed from Roma for £17million in the summer, three days after Alonso joined Real Madrid. He has made just two Premier League starts for Rafa Benitez's side after recovering from an ankle injury picked up last season.
Since Alonso quit Anfield, Liverpool have crashed out of the Champions League and have struggled in the Premier League. They are 12 points adrift of leaders Chelsea and have scaled their ambitions down to a top-four finish. Aquilani was bought to replace Alonso but has so far failed to convince the Liverpool faithful. But he insists the Reds are a stronger team without the influential Spaniard.
He said: "Benitez and my team-mates have told me that before this season the whole Reds game went through Xabi. With me just in front of Javier Mascherano and Steven Gerrard just behind the front man, we now have even more solutions in midfield.
"Xabi and I are two very different kinds of player. He is a much better playmaker, or 'regista' as we say in Italy, the one who starts the play. I like to get hold of the ball more and go inside or perhaps shoot after a 'give and go' with a midfield partner such as Stevie G or a striker like Fernando Torres, who is a magician when it comes to opening up space. In the early part of the season, we struggled a bit because I was injured and the team lacked this midfield geometry.
The injury-plagued Aquilani has endured a miserable time in England, making just five Premier League appearances so far. But the 25-year-old insists he's now ready to help turn Liverpool's faltering season around.
He said: "I feel reborn and I want to smash the world. It was so hard being all that time without playing. Believe me when I say to you that watching your team-mates training and playing while you do nothing but physiotherapy, gym exercises and routines in the swimming pool for rehabilitation is really difficult. But now that is over. I am fine and I just want to put it all behind me and not think about anything but playing. The rest will follow. If I remain in good health, I know I can play at a certain high level. "
"I know I have the confidence of manager, the rest of the management and my new team-mates. I know what I am worth on a football pitch and I want to do my absolute best in a very difficult season like this for the club and the fans."