Alberto Aquilani must be confused about his position at our football club. He was bought as a replacement for last season’s best player, and yet, despite being fit now for more than two months, he does not seem to have the confidence of Benitez. He sat on the bench last week whilst Lucas and Mascherano ensured that the Manchester City match was an utterly dire waste of time; he wasn’t allowed to play at Stoke, where it looked as if a little bit of quality might have changed the game. All too often Benitez talks about how difficult it is to play ‘physical’ teams, when his only response is to field his most aggressive eleven men and hope that they out-scrap the opposition.
Would a better solution not be to play the man for whom he paid £20 million in the summer, a player who we all thought would be pivotal to our ‘title challenge’ this season when he was bought? I have to say that this habit of Benitez’s is the one I cannot stand: he goes through phases of relentless conservatism, insisting on playing two defensive midfielders when our wide areas are hardly the most creative and our stand-in strikers are completely unable to hold up the ball. Rafa is unapologetically relying on Steven Gerrard to do something, and on the evidence of this season, that just isn’t going to happen. It doesn’t strike me as particularly fair to the captain either, considering how much pressure it puts on his shoulders. He cannot be expected to come good every time.
Sam Allardyce is a man I have no respect for in any sense; you only have to browse through previous blog entries to confirm that much. His comments in the media today are clearly exaggerated and meant to irritate Benitez ahead of Sunday’s game – for one thing, there’s no way that we’ve become like Bolton. But I’m not going to defend Benitez entirely; when he’s under pressure, he doesn’t try to make us play football. Beating City last week would have been the perfect moment to push on and wrest fourth place back from the pretenders, but we went there, knowing that City would be defensive, and decided to counter their tactics with defensive, turgid football. Lucas and Mascherano are good players but they really don’t have the cutting edge going forward (yes, I did see Mascherano’s goal the other day and based on past attempts, that’s a one in a hundred occurrence). Aquilani could have been played to give us a creative edge, to encourage us to pass, to lend support to the ailing Gerrard; but he was nowhere to be seen.
The idea that a game might ever be ‘too physical’ for a player is very annoying to me. The best players are often not the biggest and they manage to cope; all it takes is their manager’s confidence and a team around them which is willing to pass along the ground without panicking. We did that a lot last season, and whilst the football often wasn’t to Arsenal’s highest standard, it was a joy to watch the movement and verve running through the team. It seems obvious to me that the teams who finish in the top four will be the ones with the most quality; so why aren’t we actively trying to prove that we belong in that category? A big opportunity comes tomorrow against Blackburn and Allardyce; if Rafa doesn’t play a footballing team – one which includes Aquilani in a key role (doesn’t he deserve such a chance) – then I’ll be sick to my stomach. I don’t want to go to Anfield to see an expensive Liverpool team thumping it up the pitch and hoping for the best. It’ll get us nowhere.
I think it boils down to him not haveing the match fitness to be able to compete in them type of games.
I want Aquilani to play in the more advanced midfield role and Gerrard drop back or Mascherano with G&A ahead for a much more attacking approach. We may as well playa diamond midfield with 2 up front considering our wings are hardly very productive unless it’s the fullbacks getting forward or Gerrard drifting out wide anyway.
So nearly SIX months after arriving he’s still not fit - totally unbelievable
G-Man, how is he ever going to get match fit either not playing or playing for the last ten minutes? I know every foreign signing takes a season or so to settle in normally but he needs to be playing to get an idea of how the league works!
good article. Rafa got complete control over transfers and turned around to buy Aquilani, which honestly always felt like a knee-jerk reaction to the Alonso sale. There’s a saying in the NFL and NBA in america for the college draft system…don’t draft someone that fits perfectly into your system, “draft the best overall player available”. Because too often that player DOESNT fit into the system, and the team missed an opportunity to draft a star (michael jordan was drafted 3rd because 2 teams needed centers before guards…bad choice?). I think rafa probably did that with Aquilani, went a like-for-like with Johnson and Aquilani replacing Arbeloa and Alonso, when he should have slotted lucas in there and spent big on a speedy creative player or 2nd striker. still too soon to judge the Aquilani purchase, just hope he doesnt turn into another Keane
Spot on with the article. Sitting on the bench isn’t going to magically get Aquilani fit or used to the physical nature of the EPL. Play him and if it proves that he’s not up to the standard required, at least it’s been proven. You simply can’t spend that much money on a player and not use him.
Torres doesn’t even have to be fully match fit in order to be given at least 15 mins in a game, why should Aquilani be any different? The fact is that our current tactics just aren’t working consistently and while we’ll manage to get some wins, too many points will continue to go begging because we didn’t have the creativity and killer edge.
well said good piece of writing i wish benitez can read this we have the team to win a title people can say what they like but benitez is the problem i think if he doesnt pull his sox up and finish in the top 4 which i think he wont then i think him and his negative football should leave
Its not a case of Aqualini not being fit, for me it boils down to the fact you can push him off the ball with a feather. He hasn’t got the strength needed to compete in this league, hopefully this will change. Lets not forget a small striker called owen (judas scum bag) who was young and quite weak at the start of his career, he did however beef up and for a small lad he held people off very well
I just dont see any reason why Lucas will possibly start and Aquilani is on the bench.. again too much responsibility is being put on Gerard which seems so unfair and dangerous, what if he picks an injury and our dear couch is solely relying on him to do wonders.. do somthing Benitez..
I’m not a fan of Benitez at all. On the one hand he bemoans a lack of finance and on the other he spends £20 million on bench player. So many excuses for such little thought.