THE ALONSO DEBATE

One thing is for sure, Xabi has nowhere near matched the levels he reached in his first season for Liverpool.
When he joined for the start of the 2004 season, we'd not seen passing like it since the days of Jan Molby.
Long, short, the ball always seemed to fizz straight to the feet of attackers moving forward, in front of them, where they wanted it. He seemed like the perfect buy.

He had a great first season. It was a privelege to witness Alono's range of passing - all done with elegance and class.

Memorable highlights were that goal against Arsenal which he crashed into the top corner of the Annie Road net.
And I'll always remember his lionheart performance away at Juve in 2005 when he came back after Lampard had crocked his ankle and played like he wanted to be Steven Gerrard.
All over the pitch (Gerrard was missing that day), putting in tackles, dying for the cause, rampaging forward. Brilliant.
The Kop loved him for that and for the fact you could make his first name sound Scouse. Try it by putting 'lad' at the end of it.
'This is Shabeee from Kirkdale.'
Of course, there have been other stand-out moments along the way, the two outrageous long-range strikes against Luton in the FA Cup in January, 2006, and his embarassing of Newcastle's Steve Harper at Anfield with his now trademark own-half lob.

Since those heady days, however, he has failed to deliver and become a pale shadow of his former self.
Yes, he has been unlucky with injuries which has left on the sidelines on a few occasions and left him with a longish road to get back to fitness.
But, i don't think many people would disagree that over the last two seaons he just hasn't performed up to the standard we know he's capable of.
It's a difficult to put your finger on.
One of my arguments is that he suffers playing next to Gerrard. Anyone who is looking to be creative suffers next to Gerrard.

Mascherano is fine as he is looking to break up opposition attacks and is content with tapping the balls to Gerrard to let him get on with it.
With Alonso, of whom we expect a lot in an attacking sense, it's a different affair.
The Gerrard-syndrome seems to work wherby the captain is so much the focal point of our play, and by far our best player, that anyone else comes looking to show some flair comes a poor second.
It's easy for that mentality to seep into your thinking.
'So, I've got the ball. What should I do with it? Oh here's Stevie, I'll just tap it to the left to him. Run for you life Capt'n.'
Furthermore, Gerrard bombing forward has meant Alonso has been forced to play a holding midfielder's role.

Let's be honest. He can't do it. He can't even tackle. A Xabi booking is almost a given now. He has a nasty habit of giving very stupid free kicks away on the edge of our box.
I'm pretty sure Milan's Champions League Final free kick in 2006 came from an inadvisable Xabi challenge.
He doesn't look comfortable being told to play as a workhorse in front of the back four. He wants to get the ball half-way in the opponent's half and to unleash players like Torres, Babel and Gerrard.

What's more, with such a great dig on him, its imperative he starts getting the ball around 30 yards from goal.
It's very frustrating. I remember thinking football was so simple when done right after I saw Liverpool score against West Brom at the Hawthorns in 2006.

Alonso picked up the ball still in his own half, pinged an outstanding ball 60 yards to a speedy Cisse. His pace took him round the keeper and he slotted in an empty net.
Easy.

That's another thing which Alonso has a habit of doing - trotting back to our centre halfs and accepting a two centimetre pass from them.
And although ut worked on that occasion, it should be a no-no.
If Alonso is getting the ball half-way inside our own half, our strikers are collecting his passes on the halfway line and we're so easy to defend against.

If Alonso gets the ball halfway inside the attacking half, then the stikers are making runs inside the opposition box.
So if the ball is a good one, we're looking at goals.
Rafa should be telling Skrtel, Agger and Carra that he'll dock them £500 wages every time they allow Xabi to do his trotting back routine.
'Do one Shabeee lid! You know what der gaffer says! Up der park!' (that's if it's Carra speaking, the Slovak and the Dane aint' doing the Anfield Rap just yet)
Even centre halfs should be footballers these days boys and be able to pass.

Sadly, Xabi has put in a lot of indifferent displays this season. Chelsea away in the CL, Man Utd at Old Trafford in the league (with his half-hearted grab at Masch) and a lot of others.
But every so often, he produces a performance, the semi-final first leg against The Russians was an example when he was arguably man of the match
So, with his stock relatively high, what do we do with him?
He's still coveted enough by top clubs - Juve was the last rumour - that we'd probably get £15m for him.
Gerrard and Mash are guaranteed starts and playing three centre mids just leaves us imbalanced as we're asking our captain to keep a tentative eye on the lefthand side.

Then we've got Lucas to come in if needed, Plessis looks good, Benayoun is more effective in the middle, Barry may be on his way....
Room for Alonso? Could that £15m be better spent in areas where we really need quality, full back, centre forward, wingers...

It could be good football business sense. Yet, there will be many fans will have a huge regret that we'd just let go and player of genuine class.
It was strange thing, when we went on our dodgy run of form this season, we were crying out for someone who could pass. We were crying out for Xabi.
He came back for the Arsenal home game and showed us in decent dollops what we'd be missing.

We were suddenly keeping possession. That good form, however, didn't continue.
It'll be interesting to see what happens with Xabi this summer. It'll take a brave Rafa to let him go, but then the boss tends to like his natives.

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