Spaniard leads mass Anfield exodus
Xabi Alonso is set to lead a mass exodus from Anfield during the summer months after falling out of favour with under-pressure boss Rafa Benitez.
The Spaniard is attracting interest from Spanish giants Real Madrid and Barcelona, allowing Rafa to cash-in on the midfielder who is valued in excess of £15million.
After the capture of Javier Mascherano in a deal worth over £18million, Alonso’s chances of nailing a regular starting slot alongside Steven Gerrard are slim and may look for a move away from Anfield, however a move to either Madrid or Barca simply wouldn’t make sense if regular football is sought after by a player, regardless of his stature.
Other casualties set to follow Xabi out of Liverpool include Dirk Kuyt, Andriy Voronin, John Arne Riise, Fabio Aurellio, Sami Hyypia, Charles Itandje and Harry Kewell.
Even Steve Finnan is under the Benitez microscope has he prepares to build a new-look LFC for 2008/09 season, let’s just hope he’s still in charge to do so!
(February 3, 2008)
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A year on from the supposed squad and stadium investment and we seem to be further away than ever from the Premier League title.
Negative tactics, containment football, inability to create, players out of position, failed rotation policy, poor formations wasted money, silly substitutions, and a seeming inability to motivate his players for every game cannot be ignored and will be the reason for Benítez’s downfall at Anfield.
Since the turn of the year Benítez’s team have only won twice in the Premier League, struggled against lowly opponents Luton, and Havant & Waterlooville and lost to Championship side Barnsley in the FA Cup. For far too long, Liverpool have settled for second best in the transfer market because they have been put off by the fees asked for top players.(Torres/Babel/Mash fingers crossed aside).
There is no clear chain of command anywhere at Anfield. Parry is a joke! The Yanks full of Bull !!!.Liverpool won the match against Inter but they could have sealed the whole tie already. A two-goal advantage is more than anyone could have expected before kick-off; after the way the game panned out, it seems like the bare minimum. Benitez was once again too slow to grasp the initiative. When the opposition have a player sent off, you’ve got to act like a predator. BenÍtez pondered again, Déjà vu or what !!! We lost the European Cup against AC Milan because of Benitez negative tactics.A game we should have won with the earlier introduction of Bellamy and Crouch .What went wrong for them against Barnsley can be traced back to the start of the campaign. In September they walloped Derby 6-0 then went to Portsmouth for their next game, made five changes and drew 0-0. The Liverpool philosophy has always been to hammer home when you have an impetus and Liverpool did not do that. They have suffered ever since.
There has obviously been too much rotation in selection and are far too cautious at Anfield.
The passing is quite frankly a joke, against Barnsley we gave the ball away without any pressure 19 times; today against Mboro same story only worse stats, 25 times the ball was given away. What the hell is going on at Melwood, the coaching appears a joke. Today’s performance apart from the efforts of Torres, Gerrard and Mash were unacceptable. Time for big changes in ownership, stewardship, and manager and playing staff. We played better football and with more passion under Houllier, Benitez can handle Europe, the Premier league he will never master.
SOS DIC.