Completely agree with you Fred. Alonso makes the right passes and decisions far more consistently than any of our other players. Gerrard is more of a game winner because of his shooting and drive, but Alonso gives us control of the games tempo. As we become more and more of a passing and possession based team, his influence can not be understated. match winners are great, but if we can control the game better we don't need to rely so much on gerrard and torres.
As for Mascherano and Lucas, I have to say I completely disagree with you Aaron. Lucas is NOT a midfield destroyer at all, and shouldn't be put in that position. We've seen that his tackling is less than stellar certainly
Lucas is a very different type of player. His strength is linking up play with short passing and movement, and while he's not very consistent with it, that's his role with Brazil. It's different from the very English ideas of attacking, defensive, box-to-box midfielders. It's much more subtle, but Lucas has the potential to become a very good one. I forget the actual name for it, some brazilian thing that means "steering wheel".
btw Aaron, did you check out the link I sent you? It really does a great job (also check out the sacchi thread on RAWK) of investigating what Benitez is doing for the long-term development of the club. Makes me even more worried than I would be otherwise if he leaves. While I sometimes want to shoot him for the bizarre subs etc, I think he's one of the best managers we could have for the long-term health of the club. He should be given the freedom and control he needs, especially with the youth system and the transfers. How many times have we been on the brink of signing a top class player, only for Parry to block the deal, (ie Alves years ago for around 15 million) because of the price, but then release the same amount or more, but for two players! Instead of sanctioning a transfer for a top player, we end up paying 7 for one mediocre player and 8 for a decent player. Of course, one could argue that the whole squad needed to be improved, but we've had opportunities to pick up top talent that doesn't come around too often, that we simply haven't taken.
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