Javier MASCHERANO and Liverpool was perhaps the darling of the night after their 2-0 win over Inter Milan. Goals from Dirk KUYT and captain Steven GERRARD in the last five minutes help to seal this victory.
It was a busy night for him, as he had to play host to a list of friends who were bound to face him and his colleague. Julio CRUZ started alongside Esteban CAMBIASSO and Javier ZANETTI. Nicolas BURDISSO was brought in the second half, as a replacement for the injured Ivan CORDOBA. Hernan CRESPO was on the bench.
As for the Italian side what can I say, after being known as the sleeping giant of world football, I guess they are still sleeping? Well maybe only on the continental front at least.
The dismissal of Marco MATERAZZI maybe was a bit helpful in the Reds cause, but still there were plenty of quality all around Inter to turns things around.
As for the rest of the Albiceleste who saw action, it was all not so good news.
FC Porto started their attacking trio of Lucho GONZALEZ, Lisandro LOPEZ and Ernesto FARIAS but it was a Kevin KURANYI strike that gave Schalke a 1-0 win against the visiting side. Mariano GONZALEZ only played in the last minutes.
Fernando GAGO was given a starting role due to the injury problems in Real but they went down against AS Roma 2-1 in Rome. Gonzalo HIGUAIN was on the bench but did not play.
Olympiaskos only manage to settle for a goalless draw against Chelsea with Luciano GALLETTI and Cristian Raúl LEDESMA in the starting line up. Fernando BELLUSCHI came in the second half and played for the last seven minutes.
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9 comments:
hey john, what do you think about Kidd being traded...
http://basketballnonsense.blogspot.com/2008/02/jason-kidd-is-like-cheese-on-macaroni.html
Hi Melvin!!!
I'll post a comment about this blockbuster trade on your blog soon.
In the meantime, I would like to share this link with everyone here. Please read it.
http://www.liverpool-kop.com/2008/02/revealed-negative-impact-of-javier.html
That article on Liverpool-Kop is a load of crap.
Mascherano breaks up the play when most needed and he generally has excellent ball distribution. Time and time again his interventions lead to LFC going on the attack.
Alongside Torres I'd rate him our most important player.
I agree with Paul; Mascherano's importance to Liverpool can't be valued.
As a Liverpool fan, I couldn't be happier with his performances. He's been man of the match for me in something like his last 6 appearances. I really could go on all day; I don't think there's a better defensive midfielder in the world.
But as you showed in your post John, Argentina is blessed with riches. I can't claim to watch them on a regular basis, but I was very impressed with Cordoba and Zanetti as well yesterday.
Hi There,
Thanks for the comment you emailed me earlier, John. I do not doubt that Mascherano is an excellent player - he is. However, his imapct has been negative for Liverpool and the statistics back this up. Since Mascherano arrived, Liverpool have failed to win 65% of premiership games in which he has been involved.
This is not a coincidence. Mascherano defends and breaks up play - he does nothing else; he offers nothing in a creative sense and 1 assist/no goals in over 60 career club games proves this.
Liverpool are too defensive minded, and Mascherano exacerbates this. If Liverpool had excellent creative players then it would be a different story - in such a situation, Mascherano would be perfect for the club.
Liverpool do NOT have excellent creative players though, so having Mascherano is detrimental to the creative impact of the team.
When the going gets tough, Mascherano will not provide any defensive inspiration. Xabi Alonso on the other hand does provide creativity, which is why he is better for the team at this moment.
Liverpool do not need to be more defensive! They need to be more creative! In my view, there is no place in the LFC team for a midfielder who ONLY breaks up play. The team needs something else, and if Liverpool keep Mascherano, then the negativity and creative paucity will continue.
As I stated in my article, the stats speak for themselves: In 29 premiership games, Mascherano has only been on the winning side 10 times. The other 19 games were draws or defeats.
Liverpool have had 11 draws in the league this season! This is approaching a record number and it's only february.
With Xabi Alonso in the team, Liverpool win more and draw less. Why? Because he ships in with goals and assists that turn draws into wins.
Mascherano does not do this, hence Liverpool's inability to win premiere league games consistently.
With respect to Jaimie I believe the post above is a perfect example of Mark Twain's quote-"There are three kinds of lies-lies, damn lies and statistics". Getting rid of Masche because Liverpool does not have enough "creative" offensive minded players strikes me as absurd. You get more offensive minded players and keep Masche. A no brainer. Why would you want to get rid of one of the best defensive midfielders in the game because you are not scoring enough ? If you do get rid of him then you will lose 3 or 4-1 instead of 2-1 !
I appreciate and respect your opinion Jaime. From the bottom of my heart, my apology in case any of my replied comment have offended you.
Now back to our argument here. Liverpool do have problem in attack, I agree. But to blame it on someone whose job is to win ball is unjustified.
I’m not going to undermined Liverpool’s current offensive players such as GERRARD and TORRES but clearly these two are class above compare to the other in the team.
I certainly feel that the likes of Yossi BENAYOUN & Jermaine PENNANT are not made to be Kop legends, Harry KEWELL is passed his best and the likes of Peter CROUCH and Dirk KUYT are simply overrated.
I can guarantee you that neither of these names will ever make it into Rafa BENITEZ’s Valencia team. Which am exactly what I though he was supposed to do in the first place. That Valencia side was such a great team to watch.
What they need are more intelligent players to beef up their attack so that the midfield can create more chances for TORRES to score.
And I’m not going to blame that much of these are caused by the American ownership of keeping to their promise as I believe they already have, its just plain simple, Rafa needs to make spot decision on signing players.
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