Tell This Newbie About Xabi Alonso
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No time for Arsenal and Chelsea?
No pace, no stepovers, hardly ever scores. Doesn't rate tackling as a skill. Saves his best nutmegs for training.
Maybe one day mate, Spurs were also tempting for a while there but no way now.
A Champions League winner with Liverpool and World Cup and European Championship winner with Spain, he was a damn fine player, pivotal to the way Liverpool played. Not blessed with pace, he had tremendous positional sense, balance and eye for the ball with a short and passing game to match and devastating shot off either foot. With either Sissoko and, later, Mascherano ahead of him he and Gerrard used to launch Torres into some devastating scoring positions.Without looking at this wider picture, Chelsea spunked £50 million on the Liverpool Torres but got a poorer version of the Atlético-Madrid-Torres.
Among other things, Benitez's reign started to unravel when he tried to bring in Barry as a replacement-- I still shake my head in bewilderment at the idea of it, bewilderment which does not go even when Benitez tries to explain it.
He was a great, great player for us and I was sad at his departure.
But it wasn't all roses.
Lest we all forget, he really only came good in his final two seasons. Rafa was trying to replace him with Gareth Barry because he didn't foresee the turnaround in Alonso's consistency for his final two seasons.
In Alonso's five seasons for Liverpool you will commonly see him referred to as poor in the first, average in the next two and sublime in the final two.
I love him for his love of the club.
But it wasn't all roses.
Lest we all forget, he really only came good in his final two seasons. Rafa was trying to replace him with Gareth Barry because he didn't foresee the turnaround in Alonso's consistency for his final two seasons.
In Alonso's five seasons for Liverpool you will commonly see him referred to as poor in the first, average in the next two and sublime in the final two.
I love him for his love of the club.
Yeah, maybe, but replace Alonso with Barry was hardly an upgrade, was it? Recall that Liverpool lost out to Man U in 2008/09 because we did not have enough guile to break down teams and eke out win in at least half of the 11 draws with lower-positioned teams.
Whichever way you look at it, Barry was not going to give us that.
And, by the way, it took shunting Gerrard to the right and then behind Torres to get the team and Gerrard playing consistently well. That team was evolving and we badly miscalculated on that one.
Commonly?
That is the first time I've ever ever heard his first season described as 'poor'.
Heh, he couldn't have been more wrong if he tried. First season poor, next two average, and the last two sublime?
It's in fact commonly acknowledged that his first and last seasons were the best for us, with the penultimate one as the worst. No idea what he is talking about.
Handsome and slightly gay.
Salif Diao at the end of that clip spoiled everything for me and brought back nightmares I had thought I had relinquished years ago.
Which just goes to show poor acquisitions have been with us for years.
If I tried really hard I could probably be more wrong.
In a word?
Intelligent.
Supremely intelligent when he was playing, but also off the pitch. Nothing flash or ostentatious about this guy. Just quiet, confident class. I was lucky enough to be at his debut and he looked the part from the word go. We would be doing brilliantly to get him back, because he'd be even smarter now.
Luke
Intelligent.
Supremely intelligent when he was playing, but also off the pitch. Nothing flash or ostentatious about this guy. Just quiet, confident class. I was lucky enough to be at his debut and he looked the part from the word go. We would be doing brilliantly to get him back, because he'd be even smarter now.
Luke
I am your father.
A bit like you about Suarez?
So, essentially, he was a really good-looking, very talented point guard of sorts?
The Jan Molby of the Noughties
They didn't want to lose him and the fans have been signing to get him to sign an extension so it's not a case of 'managing' an asset in that respect I'm afraid.
I think thats it, though Im not convinced it was ever his intention to come back, much like Ronaldo flirts with Old Trafford via the press when hes negotiating a new deal at Madrid I suspect Xabi was using our name in a similar manner.
Also at this point in his career Im not sure he has the legs for a high tempo pressing game we are trying to slowly implement, its a shame as he will always be one of my favourite players of that era
I love the nostalgia of threads like this.
Xabi was a tremendous player for us - he announced himself with the Spurs game which Molby himself described as one of the great passing displays he's witnessed. He certainly didn't have a "devastating shot off both feet". I think it would be a stretch to suggest he had a devastating shot off any feet. Yes, he did score some goals and a couple of them were rippers but he was by no means a devastating striker of the ball. One of the (very few) complaints in his first season was that he had to add some goals to his game.
He had wonderful first touch control and used the ball to beat players rather than footwork or dribbling. He also knew how to "attract" a foul when needed, was tremendously calm in tough situations and despite the austere exterior was extremely passionate. The embrace of Stevie after the Chelsea semi final is something that will remain with many of us for life.
Anyone who's had a child knows he made the right decision to be there and miss the game but he seemed to allow this to unsettle him and he was desperately average for a season and a half. He was slower than ever, failed to control simple passes, took wrong options and was out of position. His passing, perplexingly, never seemed to truly suffer other than not "seeing" the defence splitting options. I imagine his "screw you" message to Rafa after his last season was very satisfying - I've always wondered about the fact that our two greatest mid-fielders of the last 20 years had major fall outs with Benitez.
He was never a better passer than Gerrard but took the simpler option more often which aided our control approach to games. He lacked Stevie's dynamism, his goal scoring prowess and his ability to cover the turf but was far more disciplined which amplified the calm control he could exert from the back.
Certainly not as great as many on here would have you believe - he was never a danger of being the best player on the planet. However, the way he started and the way he finished was mesmerising and, with the help of nostalgia, covers any short comings. I quake to think how highly our captain with be rated 10 years after he's retired and nostalgia has taken hold of his memory as well.
Xabi was a tremendous player for us - he announced himself with the Spurs game which Molby himself described as one of the great passing displays he's witnessed. He certainly didn't have a "devastating shot off both feet". I think it would be a stretch to suggest he had a devastating shot off any feet. Yes, he did score some goals and a couple of them were rippers but he was by no means a devastating striker of the ball. One of the (very few) complaints in his first season was that he had to add some goals to his game.
He had wonderful first touch control and used the ball to beat players rather than footwork or dribbling. He also knew how to "attract" a foul when needed, was tremendously calm in tough situations and despite the austere exterior was extremely passionate. The embrace of Stevie after the Chelsea semi final is something that will remain with many of us for life.
Anyone who's had a child knows he made the right decision to be there and miss the game but he seemed to allow this to unsettle him and he was desperately average for a season and a half. He was slower than ever, failed to control simple passes, took wrong options and was out of position. His passing, perplexingly, never seemed to truly suffer other than not "seeing" the defence splitting options. I imagine his "screw you" message to Rafa after his last season was very satisfying - I've always wondered about the fact that our two greatest mid-fielders of the last 20 years had major fall outs with Benitez.
He was never a better passer than Gerrard but took the simpler option more often which aided our control approach to games. He lacked Stevie's dynamism, his goal scoring prowess and his ability to cover the turf but was far more disciplined which amplified the calm control he could exert from the back.
Certainly not as great as many on here would have you believe - he was never a danger of being the best player on the planet. However, the way he started and the way he finished was mesmerising and, with the help of nostalgia, covers any short comings. I quake to think how highly our captain with be rated 10 years after he's retired and nostalgia has taken hold of his memory as well.
I've heard some try to suggest this before.
Nobody but nobody hits a driven pass better than Gerrard. He could practically trade mark it.
Last season in La Liga Alonso managed a pass accuracy of 83% with the average pass being 19.8 metres in length.
Last season in the EPL Gerrard managed a pass accuracy of 85% with the average pass being 21.3 metres in length.
Xabi's best season in the EPL was his last in terms of accuracy of passing; he managed an accuracy level of 75% for long passes
Gerrard has had higher passing rates than last season but under Rodgers he moved to the quarterback role and hit 79% of long passes.
I went through Squawka, EPL Index, Premier League stats, Opta and several others. I genuinely could not find a stat which presented Xabi as having a better passing game than Gerrard. The one exception is this season where, thus far, Gerrard has an accuracy level of passes at 87% at an average of 22 metres. Alonso has 90% at 20 metres according to Squawka. This is the only passing stat I could find putting Alonso ahead of Gerrard and it's a stat over only half a season.
I'm a fan of Xabi and I would genuinely sign him ahead of almost any other player if it was possible. It would be Fowleresque. I just don't get the efforts of some who think they need to promote the Spaniard at the expense of Gerrard. Xabi was/is an unbelievable passer of the football. The fact he's not better in this department than Gerrard is not a criticism nor does it reduce him in some way. He's one of the top 3 or 4 passers in world football and I'd have him back here in a heartbeat.
Nobody but nobody hits a driven pass better than Gerrard. He could practically trade mark it.
Last season in La Liga Alonso managed a pass accuracy of 83% with the average pass being 19.8 metres in length.
Last season in the EPL Gerrard managed a pass accuracy of 85% with the average pass being 21.3 metres in length.
Xabi's best season in the EPL was his last in terms of accuracy of passing; he managed an accuracy level of 75% for long passes
Gerrard has had higher passing rates than last season but under Rodgers he moved to the quarterback role and hit 79% of long passes.
I went through Squawka, EPL Index, Premier League stats, Opta and several others. I genuinely could not find a stat which presented Xabi as having a better passing game than Gerrard. The one exception is this season where, thus far, Gerrard has an accuracy level of passes at 87% at an average of 22 metres. Alonso has 90% at 20 metres according to Squawka. This is the only passing stat I could find putting Alonso ahead of Gerrard and it's a stat over only half a season.
I'm a fan of Xabi and I would genuinely sign him ahead of almost any other player if it was possible. It would be Fowleresque. I just don't get the efforts of some who think they need to promote the Spaniard at the expense of Gerrard. Xabi was/is an unbelievable passer of the football. The fact he's not better in this department than Gerrard is not a criticism nor does it reduce him in some way. He's one of the top 3 or 4 passers in world football and I'd have him back here in a heartbeat.
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