Ooor midfield

[Andy @ Allerton]

A lot is made of Gerrard being excellent in midfield (Which he is!) and with Alonso - possibly the best passer in the English league - and now with the excellent Sissoko - who looks like he could really become 'world class' (Whatever that is!) - Zenden for Cover, Kewell, Speedy and Pennant available - again with Anderson as possible cover - we really seem to have cracked our midfield 'problems'

 

Is there really a better midfield in the league?

[Barnesy_10]

can't think of a better one in the world to be honest, Barca have a strong one as do AC Milan, but can't think of a more balanced midfield with so much strength in it too.

[Jacko]

I just don't know how he'll fit them all in. I know it's a squad game, blah blah blah but Alonso, Momo and Gerrard give us so much I don't know how they'll fit into a 442 unless Gerrard is on the right again which begs the question what do we do with Pennant for the majority of the games - bring him off the bench?

[AE]

Newcastle have the best midfield apparently

[JohnnyH]

A lot is made of Gerrard being excellent in midfield (Which he is!) and with Alonso - possibly the best passer in the English league - and now with the excellent Sissoko - who looks like he could really become 'world class' (Whatever that is!) - Zenden for Cover, Kewell, Speedy and Pennant available - again with Anderson as possible cover - we really seem to have cracked our midfield 'problems'

 

Is there really a better midfield in the league?

 

How can we talk about Gonzalez been excellant when he hasn't played for us yet? (bar some poor pre-season friendlies) and Pennant is hardly the finished product. Kewell is not as good as he was and is injured half the time and Zenden is getting on. Basically, how many of the top clubs would be knocking our door down for these apparantly-better-then-anyone-elses-midfielders if they came up for sale.

 

Yes, in Xabi, Stevie and Momo, we have 3 excellant midfielders for 2 positions, but I don't think we can claim to be the envy of the midfield world with the rest of our players. We have the makings of an excelant midfield should Speedy and Pennant confirm their promise, but we have to wait and see.

[Guest Jack Bauer]

Best center midfield for sure, but it remains to be seen if Pennant and Gonzalez fit in.

[_00_deathscar]

How can we talk about Gonzalez been excellant when he hasn't played for us yet? (bar some poor pre-season friendlies) and Pennant is hardly the finished product. Kewell is not as good as he was and is injured half the time and Zenden is getting on. Basically, how many of the top clubs would be knocking our door down for these apparantly-better-then-anyone-elses-midfielders if they came up for sale.

 

Yes, in Xabi, Stevie and Momo, we have 3 excellant midfielders for 2 positions, but I don't think we can claim to be the envy of the midfield world with the rest of our players. We have the makings of an excelant midfield should Speedy and Pennant confirm their promise, but we have to wait and see.

 

How many would be knocking on the door for Clarence Seedorf or Serginho?

[Guest Anders Honoré]

chelsea runs us fairly close.

[Spoone]

How can we talk about Gonzalez been excellant when he hasn't played for us yet? (bar some poor pre-season friendlies) and Pennant is hardly the finished product. Kewell is not as good as he was and is injured half the time and Zenden is getting on. Basically, how many of the top clubs would be knocking our door down for these apparantly-better-then-anyone-elses-midfielders if they came up for sale.

 

Yes, in Xabi, Stevie and Momo, we have 3 excellant midfielders for 2 positions, but I don't think we can claim to be the envy of the midfield world with the rest of our players. We have the makings of an excelant midfield should Speedy and Pennant confirm their promise, but we have to wait and see.

 

well said. People seem to have been dreaming the same dreams recently of Gonzales lifting the world cup for liverpool 3 times in a row. Give the new lads a chance to prove something to us rather than setting the bar of expectations so high that they will only ever dissapoint.

[Andy @ Allerton]

well said. People seem to have been dreaming the same dreams recently of Gonzales lifting the world cup for liverpool 3 times in a row. Give the new lads a chance to prove something to us rather than setting the bar of expectations so high that they will only ever dissapoint.

 

 

"Gonzales lifting the world cup for liverpool" That would be a neat trick!!

[Phil236849]

well said. People seem to have been dreaming the same dreams recently of Gonzales lifting the world cup for liverpool 3 times in a row. Give the new lads a chance to prove something to us rather than setting the bar of expectations so high that they will only ever dissapoint.

 

i'm not. i dreamt last night i had gone practically bald with a charlton comb-over. orrible it was

[kop205]

A lot is made of Gerrard being excellent in midfield (Which he is!) and with Alonso - possibly the best passer in the English league - and now with the excellent Sissoko - who looks like he could really become 'world class' (Whatever that is!) - Zenden for Cover, Kewell, Speedy and Pennant available - again with Anderson as possible cover - we really seem to have cracked our midfield 'problems'

 

Is there really a better midfield in the league?

 

So in summary we have 2 top class central midfielders, another hopefully on his way to way becoming top class and then a mix of untested new buys/kids or people returning from injury (though you did miss out Garcia).

 

I'll wait and see how things pan out before judging our midfield against that of other clubs. We do have strength there and I am optimistic but I'm not just going to assume that everything anv every player will develop exactly to plan.

[monkey puzzle]

To be fair to Andy - he never once said that Gonzales was excellent, you appear to have dreamt that up.

[beejay]

It may be fun to debate the point but in reality you can't seperate one department from the rest of the team. For example, would our back 4 be the best in the business without a class keeper like reina or support from Sissoko/Gerrard/Alonso etc?

 

For me, we still don't retain possession of the ball in all areas of the pitch as well as all 3 of our main rivals. Rafa seems to be looking to improve this with incoming players such as Aurelio, Agger, Pennant, Bellamy who are all more comfortable in possession but we are not quite there yet. As fred milne says, Alonso is the one player with the composure to make us tick and if he's not there we become more direct which, against the best teams, makes us easier to defend against.

[Kvarme Ate My Food]

González

 

pedantic and pretentious in just one word

[Andy @ Allerton]

pedantic and pretentious in just one word

 

 

Pendantic and prententious more like

[G Richards]

Chelsea fans would argue their midfield is just as strong, if not better.

 

Essien v Sissoko

Ballack v Gerrard

Lampard v Alonso

Robben v Kewell

Cole v Gonzales

SWP v Pennant

 

I think our midfield just shades it, but it is close and is easily open to debate.

[Guz]

Regardless of the settling in of Speedy and Pennant, what htey do offer along with Gerrard, Momo and even Alonso is to emulate the great Utd midfield of the 90's and work other teams to death.

 

Eh? So it doesnt matter if Speedy and Pennant settle into the team, they're still going to emulate the success of Giggs and Beckham?

 

May have mis understood you here so correct me if i'm wrong.

[Puskas]

Chelsea fans would argue their midfield is just as strong, if not better.

 

Essien v Sissoko

Ballack v Gerrard

Lampard v Alonso

Robben v Kewell

Cole v Gonzales

SWP v Pennant

 

I think our midfield just shades it, but it is close and is easily open to debate.

You seem to have missed out Makalele as well.

[Cooldude]

Chelsea fans would argue their midfield is just as strong, if not better.

 

Essien v Sissoko

Ballack v Gerrard

Lampard v Alonso

Robben v Kewell

Cole v Gonzales

SWP v Pennant

 

I think our midfield just shades it, but it is close and is easily open to debate.

 

Essien < Momo

Ballack < Gerrard

Lampard < Alonso (Everytime Xabi's played against him Lampard went missing)

Robben < Kewell

Joe Cole > Any of our left side players

SWP - Pennant (Around the same

Makelele > All Chelsea midfielders and all of ours bar Gerrard

 

Don't see how they're as strong or better apart from Joe Cole and Makelele. In central midfield we're definitely superior. Without Makelele they'd be weakened by a far bit while we can still do without, say, Gerrard and still have Xabi and Momo doing the job, while Zenden's more than capable in the centre

[mick]

Lets try and be realistic here.

 

Pennant has the potential to be a very good player but still has a long way to go. Its not like there was a host of big clubs trying to sign him.

 

The same goes for Gonzalez.

 

Momo while very effective at closing the ball down etc. has a lot of work to do in other areas of his game.

 

Kewell is a player I have been disappointed in since he came. Although injury, loss of form and attitude may have deprvied us of that. He still has a long way to go prove himself. It wouldn't surprise me if he gets less games this year with the other options available to him.

[silad]

I reckon the choice was up to didi.

 

 

Nah, Rafa didn't want him.

 

My cousin drinks with Didi now and again and he just said he wasn't wanted.

 

By the way, they were drinking past midnight and Didi was at training for Citeh in the morning.

 

The thing with Chelski's midfield is that they rarely play 4.

 

It is nearly always 5.

 

They will miss Makele if he's injured or rested.

 

Ballack is similar to Lampard and I can't see them playing too often together, not without losing there balance.

 

Essien I don't think is as good as Momo. More experienced for sure but he doesn't impose himself like Momo. Momo scares the life out of opponents. Essien has a good engine but because of his reputation, a lot of oppoonents will want to nail him.

 

They haven't got anyone as good as Gerrard or Xabi. No were fecking near.

 

Pennant I think is gonna be fantastic.

 

Gonzalez, I think will struggle. We need Harry back fast.

Edited August 2, 2006 by silad

[R A Softlad]

Newcastle have the best midfield apparently

 

They relaid the turf again?

[Guest Cyador]

Pennants definately better than swp imo.

 

Pennant's a bit of a thinking footballer, not saying he's anywhere near alonso's level on that score, but he's definately got a football brain. SWP, well, erm.....hasn't.

[eth]

Pennants definately better than swp imo.

 

Pennant's a bit of a thinking footballer, not saying he's anywhere near alonso's level on that score, but he's definately got a football brain. SWP, well, erm.....hasn't.

...

 

Lord.