Too similar: Lucas and
Mascherano
Jamie Redknapp examines
the problems caused for
Liverpool
when manager Rafa Benitez agreed to sell their midfield
pass master...
You only need to
look at Steven Gerrard’s body language. Liverpool's players are not happy about
the absence of their quarterback.
They used to
call them playmakers when I was trying to be like the old-fashioned
No 10, the player who excelled with the ball and ran the game at
his pace. France had Michel Platini,
Holland
had
Johan
Cruyff, England had Glenn Hoddle.
Xabi Alonso is a
deep-lying modern-day version who plays in the pocket and would
pass the ball forwards, rarely sideways. He is a player capable of
shifting the play, changing the point of attack. If Gerrard or
Fernando Torres gambled on a run, they knew the ball would soon
arrive.
Xabi has two
great feet. When I played against him, you didn’t know which way he
would go, left or right, and the game comes easily to him. Alonso
had an appreciation of the weight of a pass; either a 50-yard
‘Hollywood delivery’ inside a full back...
or a 10-yard straight ping in to feet... or into space to run on
to. Anyone can hit safety-first balls but it was his key passes
that made him stand out. Now he will be producing those passes for
Real Madrid.
Javier
Mascherano is a strong holding midfielder but lining up alongside
Lucas the pair are too similar. Each may require two or three
touches when Alonso needed one pass. This is stating the obvious
but they lacked creativity at Tottenham. Their passing wasn’t crisp
and, consequently, Gerrard didn’t get enough of the ball at the
point of their midfield three.
Compare his performance at
Spurs to that of Cesc Fabregas at Everton, where he dominated the
game. This is not how Liverpool are going to win
games.
Teams will sit
in deep and demand they create an opening. Stoke are at Anfield
tomorrow and they are disciplined and organised. It may be that
Gerrard has to drop back into a deeper role, with Dirk Kuyt
restored to the front line.
Alberto
Aquilani, their £20million signing from Roma, may well be a very
good purchase. We’ll see. What I know is that he’s out for six
weeks and, by then, Liverpool may well have a lot of ground
to recover in the title race.
Why did they
sell Alonso? The manager fell out of love with him and the damage
was done to their relationship last season. Rafa Benitez thought
Gareth Barry was a better player and was prepared to sell Alonso
for £18m. Having failed to sign Barry from Aston Villa, he
overlooked Alonso for his first line-up of the season.
Instead,
against Sunderland
he
picked Damien Plessis, who went on to make only two further
appearances all season. Real Madrid
had few such
doubts.
