ponsaelius

His knowledge of football outside Britain must be shocking as all he ever seems to do is pay over the odds for average home grown players. His tactics are 1 dimensional aswell imo, I repeatedly get very bored watching Villa play. Can't argue with his relative success like, just don't think he has what it takes to take a team further than he's took Villa. The real loss for Villa here is if Young and Milner are being flogged, the wheels could well and truly start to come of if players are being sold.

O'Neill is overrated imo.

I smell bullshit.

Where is this coming from?

GTFI.

His crossing and shooting is better than Jonas' like. He's definitely not as rough around the edges technically as Jonas is.

You'd hope so, because we certainly need them.

Zinaldo I'm excited about this guy but you're making him out to be the next Platini if Hughton can work his magic

Didn't say anything we already knew tbh. Just said fee was agreed and terms and medical still need to be completed. Just SSN being slow on the Marseille owner story was the way i saw it...

Aye just saw that.

Colo is our best CB, keep him there.

I'm glad Valencia is right sided and should be against Enrique. Mind then they've probably got Nani up against Perch

Damn it damn it, sign him man!

If Jonas, Routledge and Ben Arfa () play then maybe.

We're fucking doomed whatever we do tbh

I agree, but what else do we do?

yup and without alonso to get the ball to gerrard and torres they were feeding off scraps, aqualini i suppose was the apparent replacement but hes a crock The thing with Aquilani is he's more like Gerrard than Alonso. It was a stupid signing allround.

Liverpool's problem once they got rid of Alonso was they had Lucas and Mascherano in midfield. Both of those players are negative and only served to split the team in 2.

That's exactly the argument for bringing in a player of this ilk surely. Guthrie and Barton don't have energy and Nolan certainly doesn't have either. Someone sitting in front of the 2 central defenders is going to bring movement and energy? Have I missed something? All it's going to do is crowd out the middle of the park which will inevitably send Jonas further up the pitch which would be stupid as he's great tracking back. Same with Routledge. All it is going to do is provide protection for our slow centrebacks, allow our attacking players and fullbacks to focus more on attack, and provide an outlet for our unfit midfield. And we're going to be able to attract a good ball winner who will protect the back 4 aswell as having great distribution who will improve our midfield instantly? Unless Liverpool decide to give us Mascherano it's just not happening. Mascherano's apparently the best DM the world has ever seen but Liverpool went to s*** because they got rid of Xabi Alonso. That's why the best teams have 2 players that can compliment each other. A Mascherano and a Xabi Alonso, in our case we have only have Xabi Alonsos. That last bit sounds ridiculous.

I think you're selling the position short with that description, there's a reason why so many teams use it and there's a reason why Makelele is so highly regarded. In our case it's not about getting somebody in who does fuck all but tackle and fulfills the 'DM' role. It's more about bringing somebody in who has the physical capabilities to offer energy in midfield both defensively and breaking from the back. The reason we're suggesting buying a 'defensive midfielder' is because naturally it's this kind of player who offers these attributes that we desperately need in the middle of the park.

That's exactly the argument for bringing in a player of this ilk surely. Guthrie and Barton don't have energy and Nolan certainly doesn't have either. Someone sitting in front of the 2 central defenders is going to bring movement and energy? Have I missed something? I don't even think it has to be somebody who just sits infront of the defenders. It just needs to be a midfielder with the legs and dynamism to get across the pitch, cover defensively and give us some energy in the centre of the park. Nearly all 'defensive midfielders' offer this. For example 2 players mentioned in this thread (Reo-Coker and Annan) both offer these qualities. I'd much rather have 2 CM that both defend when we've not got the ball and bothsupport the attack when we're going forward. Don't think we're in a position to have one specialised defensive midfielder and one asked to create. We're going to be stretched all over the place and we need the midfield to be as mobile as possible, in both directions. Each to their own though. But both Barton and Guthrie are useless defensively and both have limited physical attributes. Neither of them have the aptitude to provide mobility in both directions like you are saying. Are you suggesting we go out and buy 2 new midfielders who can do it all? (very hard to find) I agree with you that assigning a role entirely is not productive in this instance but getting somebody in who has the adequate attributes to do the defensive/physical work is important imo. In this instance somebody like Annan actually offers just as much going forward as he does defensively tbh. He's like Essien-lite.

Put it this way, I'll use Annan for purely examplary purposes. Jonas - Annan - Barton/Guthrie - Routledge is FAR more balanced than Jonas - Guthrie - Barton - Routledge