What can Mascherano do for Liverpool?
Once Liverpool had gotten FIFA to agree, getting the FA to nod its head was a formality - and now they have Mascherano lined up to strut his stuff for the Anfield faithful.
The shocker (for me at least) is the lack of fanfare that will surround this - everyone is waiting to see what Mascherano does for Liverpool before placing any bets. After his spectacular failure to get a chance to perform at West Ham, the wild hype that had surrounded Mascherano last summer has finally died down.
Mascherano will be competing for one of the two (or three) central midfield berths, and as such that causes two problems:
- Mascherano is a defensive midfielder, less ‘hack-you-down’ than Sissoko but also less silky than Alonso. He’s a team player and works hard in midfield, somewhat in the Hargreaves mould if you want a direct comparison. His presence will give Liverpool much needed backup but also reinforce Rafa’s rotational policy, which will NOT help them win the title next season.
- Another central midfielder means that Gerrard will now be shunted permanently to the right, which is bad for England and potentially bad for Liverpool as well.
What do you guys think?
What can Mascherano bring to the pitch for Liverpool that they’ve lacked before?
Is more rotation a good thing?
Should Gerrard play on the right or in the middle?
- Should Liverpool Buy Mascherano Now or Wait Till Summer?
- Mascherano to Arsenal?
- Sissoko out of Liverpool?
- Liverpool need DIC to match the Big 3
- Liverpool boys still settling in
Discussion - 21 Responses
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I think Mascherano will fulfill the missing link of Didi Hamman role and He will be a big part of liverpool success next season.
Rotation is a MUST for Liverpool or other big clubs. The key to have a success here is to have all 22 of them understand each others (not just the first 11)
I believe in Rafa and I am certainly sure that he will delivery what he promises to the fan “The Premiership champion”.
Time will tell but in the mean time… Cheers!!!!!
First off Mascerano is a very different player than Hargreaves, much better on the ball and can be creative..Secondly ‘Gerrard will now be shunted permanently to the right, which is bad for England’, funny comment to make that. Here i was thinking that Gerrard in the middle wasn’t working for England and lets face it McLaren isn’t strong enough to drop Lampard or Gerrard so maybe Rafa will be doing him a favour playing him on the right..
‘Rafa’s rotational policy, which will NOT help them win the title next season’. Just like it didn’t help him win the Primere Liga two times in three years?? Make up your own opinion and don’t use that of the Pundits you see on Sky and BBC every day, they’d have you believe Ronaldo is the best player in the world right now, he is nowhere near..
Perhaps Alonso really is going back to spain in the summer?
Indeed, Mascherano is very different from Hargreaves. He is more in the Hamann mould and is possibly a direct shadow of Alonso, albeit more defensive (fetch and pass) than Alonso’s more creative abilities. Mascherano may be utilised in away matches to give Liverpool more solidity defensively in those matches. Furthermore, the way the squad is shaping up, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if Benitez uses the formation which involves 3 Centre Backs with Wing-Backs in perpetual motion on either flanks. This will mean the use of Mascherano in front of the centre halves, Alonso a little advanced in centre midfield with Sissoko as the defensive ‘hunter’ further up field and Gerrard as the attacking midfielder with one mobile centre forward. We all know just how much benitez has been persuing Daniel Alves - who will be the right wing-back next season and Fabio Aurelio on the left.
@sports devil..that thought has crossed my mind but i don’t think Rafa would be willing to sell for anything under £20million, which i can’t see anyone offering that much..Plus Alonso has come out and said recently he was loving playing for the Pool..
Don’t you think its a bit strange?
A lot of people criticised ManU for paying 14mil for Carrick (could rise to 18mil) for a 5 year contract.
Here Liverpool buys Mascherano (a player I admittedly admire) for 10mil over 1.5 years…which technically equates to 33.3 MILLION POUNDS OVER 5 YEARS!!! (and he’s not even English
Can’t quite make sense to me. Was his performance THAT good at Westham?
What can he do ? Absolutely nothing. It really makes no logical sense to buy another central midfielder when you already have 4 (gerrard,sissoko,alonso and luis garcia). The stats might say gerrard plays better on the right but liverpool play worse when he is there too.
Sean - Hamann really didnt play that much in the last 2 seasons, other than the odd cameo role, so to buy such an expensive replacement for a guy who didnt play much to begin with doesnt make sense.
Ahmed - A player of Mascherano’s cost and quality is not going to be back up for anyone, so once again makes no sense.
I think Liverpool are going to have a MASSIVE squad. They got like 6 players for the 2 left positions ( Gonzalez,Zenden,Aurelio,Risse,Kewell & Warnock until now) and now 5 in central midfield. I dont fucking understand this guy !
You should have a serious talk with yourself Mr.A. If you have problems understanding Mr.Benitez, what does it say about yourself when you still think that Steven Warnock is STILL a Liverpool player when he was transferred to Blackburn 5 weeks ago? Secondly, does the fact that in the close season Benitez will have a clear out from the present squad mean any thing to you? He can’t sell players now. Have you heard about the January and summer transfer windows? Clearly I just don’t understand what the Fcuk you’re talking about…
Plus Kewell is perpetually injured and Zenden clearly doesn’t have a particularly promising future at the club.
Mascherano is what they need. A solid, hard DM who an pass the ball well. He is a Hamman clone. Plus he gives Rafa quality cover for Sissoko
Probably Mascherano’s natural position is a defensive midfielder, but he has utility qualities, which means he can play in several positions, also he’s 22, so he still has a long way to go…lets not all forget that henry was a winger before becoming a striker…
With Sissoko injured last night and Zenden possibly past his prime we should see Mascherano playing very soon. Looks like Rafa’s cover in depth will pay off immediately. Excellent.
Naveed instead of shooting off your mouth in defense of the great Rafa, you should read what i said. First i said warnock UNTIL NOW, which means i know he has left. Secondly my point isnt that he doest sell, its the fact that he keeps on buying without any sense. He bought pelligrini and hardly played him, same with kromkamp and a few others i cant recall. He has so many players who already find it difficult to hold a position, buying another one makes no sense. And just because players are injured prone doesnt mean you buy more INCASE they get injured. Its a policy that makes no sense to me.
What prime? How come no one else knew anything about it?
It’s a shame Sissoko got injured. And it will be interesting to see how Mascherano fares at Pool. He needs an extended run of games to find form, let’s see if Rafa gives him that.
My feeling is that Benitez seems to enjoy a new sense of business, buying player on the cheap or free and then get their salary paid by the amount they’ll be sold. I guess that’s what will be done with Zenden, Aurelio and Voronin. They will have added something to the team without costing too much. Also, possibliy Kewell, Gonzalez (less likely), Crouch, Fowler (definitely) might go
As for Masch, I think he definitely has a role to play. I have a feeling Sissoko might go to Juve, but even then he’s injured for at least 3 months every season, albeit weird injuries, and we’ll be short of cover. This year, Rafa had to give up on the League cup to be able to have some fresh players, so maybe we might have a bigger assault next year as well as the premiership. He might start brighter next season, given that the player will be fresher!
A - your comment makes no sense at all. Why mention Warnock when he’s not a Liverpool player at all? The reason he bought Pelligrini (free) was to utilise his experience to bed the Liverpool defence in the art of ‘Zonal’ marking, in which Pelligrini was instrumental along with Ayala at Valencia, Is that so difficult to understand? Benitez is building a squad of players that will ’shadow’ each other. Contrary to conventional wisdom, Mascherano is a direct shadow for Alonso and not necessarily for Sissoko. However, having said that, the versatility of Benitez’ formation will also accommodate all 4 of Liverpool’s dynamic midfielders - Mascherano, Alonso, Sissoko and Gerrard in the side if he builds a 3 man defence with wing-backs. What does ‘A’ stand for in anycase - Anonymous?
I was thinking perhaps ‘A’ stood for Airhead or possibly A’hole?
Rush - The possibility of Sissoko going to Juve hadn’t crossed my mind actually but now you mention it they have been sniffing in that department for a while now. I Think we must all just trust big Raf which I personally have no problems with.
A: “kromkamp and a few others i cant recall”
Kromkamp was a direct swap with Josemi, cost Liverpool nothing basically and Liverpool managed to recoup back some $$ by selling him later on.
Sometimes you bring in players, they might not be able to fit into the EPL physical style. Josemi, Kromkamp are one of them. What can you say when you can’t afford to buy class players the likes of Daniel Alves or Simao? You make the best with what money you can.
The rest of those that you cant recall are probably youth/players for the future.
Look at how Finnan reacted when he had competition for his place, he improves. He might not make us sit at the edge of our seats but his performance improved because he got competition.
mascharano is a more reliable player than momo. He not only helps cover up the deficanies of Hypia, he links the team together with a calm simplistic passing game and rarely gives the ball away. Not to buy this fine young south American would be a clear sign from are American custodian messers Gillet & Hicks, they are only intrested in upping the clubs revenue for a quick buck gained. Rumours they have refused ti back the stadium build out of there own substansial personal fortunes, leaves them some what open to charges of finnacial shirkers- whom are playing dice with other peoples cultural sporting heritage.
Rafa needs what all clubs who want to stay in the top 4 need between 25 and 50 million every 2 to 3 years,. Many independant finnancial analysts,say the Americans may have jumped into quote unquote soccer with out thourghly going over the due dilligence process- And beleived Liverpool to be a quick way to make millions easilly. The reality may have hit them hard
with a 300 million loan now indebted to the tune of 100 million in interest payments- add to that 250 million a decade to buy players- and 450 million build a stadium and the future intrest rates player staff wages over a decade of 500 million, the Gillet Hicks partnership is looking at finding between 1.5 billion pounds or 3 billion dollars
or 2 billion pounds or 4 billion dollars.
The shear rate wich soccer eats its revenues may have shocked Hicks and Gillet, and left there business friendship very very strained.
In summary Hicks and Gillets may have seen Liverpool turning a profits of 50 million dolars a year- and totally underestimated the clubs future debt.
I hope they sell to Russia second richest man
Okay Sissoko is a big joke. Comparisons to Viera are utter bullcrap dat came out of the scouser’s asses. As this season has proved, no Sissoko is NOT a good player and has the potential to be at best average and just helps the opposition. This season also proved how lame dirk cunt opps i mean kuyt is. Oh yeah best striker in the world better then rooney my arse!
Mascherano is a world class player and tbh if i was the americans or rafa I would pay as high as 30m for this guy. He is amazing and one of the rare good players liverpoo have in their squad list and that is why i pray the americans do NOT buy him
He is as good as keano and viera and is awsome (and this is comming form a man united fan!) Iv admired him from way before his move to west ham and if liverpoo’s owners do not buy him, then they are seriously stupid. Are they here to buy quailty players or just for buisness? You dont see the glazers saying much when it comes to transfer fees uno.
the real good buy is cristiano ronaldo for 12million but now he can get golden boot of the year !! compared 10 million mascherano? 8.8million sisoko?(lucky sold already) 10million alonso?