Alberto Aquilani Player Thread

Some pressure on this lad now.

If he hasn't got the skill of Pele, the goalscoring ability of Ian Rush, the free kick ability of Roberto Carlos, the grit of Graeme Souness and the passing of Jan Molby....

then our season is fu**ed.

Hope too much pressure is not put on the lads shoulders as he is just coming back from an injury and it will be his first season in England.

The problem i have at the moment is that by the time he is fit and adjusted to our game we maybe out of the title race all ready.We cannot afford another defeat or draw now till gets into the squad

The problem i have at the moment is that by the time he is fit and adjusted to our game we maybe out of the title race all ready.We cannot afford another defeat or draw now till gets into the squad

What a fantastic post.

By fantastic i mean knee-jerking sh*t.

The problem I have at the moment is that by the time he is fit and adjusted to our game we maybe out of the title race all ready.We cannot afford another defeat or draw now till gets into the squad

The title race is a marathon, not a sprint. We've just blown the start. There's still plenty of time to come back.

The problem i have at the moment is that by the time he is fit and adjusted to our game we maybe out of the title race all ready.We cannot afford another defeat or draw now till gets into the squad

Out of it already? Grow a pair.

Still 35 games left, plenty more points to play for.

So long as we can keep it together until he comes in I think we'll be ok. Support the men we've got in the shirts or what else do we have?!

We need him fit and to hit the ground running that's for sure...

Yeap we need him to be our saviour of this campaign and to make a real difference.

Yeap we need him to be our saviour of this campaign and to make a real difference.

I dont believe we do (need him to be our saviour that is), we have arguably the worlds most complete Central Midfielder in the world at the club all ready, why not utilise him ?, Gerrard could go central Midfield and Yossi could play of Nando maybe even Lucas and see how he adapts to that role

Well our 2 losses in 3 matches shows that the midfield isn't as good as it once was or we think it is.

Well our 2 losses in 3 matches shows that the midfield isn't as good as it once was or we think it is.

There's absolutely nothing wrong with our midfield.

There's absolutely nothing wrong with our midfield.

Thats your opinion

Well I think there's something lacking from our midfield. Masch is not disciplined and concedes too many free kicks which lead to us having to deal with set pieces which we know isn't our best. Lucas is in an advanced role yet he can't play a decent ball forward enough of the time, he goes back usually, showing some confidence issues, something that i don't think Aquilani will have. On the left we don't have a permanent solution as Rafa hasn't got a number one lefty, although I think Benayoun is best there if Riera is being left out for some mysterious reason. On the right we have Kuyt who is a good player there seeing as he was originally a striker. Looking at those 4 I don't see that as our strongest midfield.

I hope that we are not assuming too quickly that he will come into the team and play magnificant football straight away.

No, but give him a little time and he will be our first choice CM.

I hope that we are not assuming too quickly that he will come into the team and play magnificant football straight away.

I'm not assuming anything regarding Aquilani, I'm taking the realistic notion of giving the lad 10-15 games to intergrate into the team before I even begin to think of what he's like as a player. He may have been good at Roma a little injury prone all the same, but neither or are a reflection of how his career will pan out here.

I think that the fact that he's injured may work to an advantage in a strange way.

Whereas usually a foreign signing may sign and go straight in this lad will have a couple of months to settle into a new country and all that comes with it.

Hopefully that may help in the long term as by the time comes where he's in full training and available for selection he'd be more used to the way of life etc.

I think that the fact that he's injured may work to an advantage in a strange way.

Whereas usually a foreign signing may sign and go straight in this lad will have a couple of months to settle into a new country and all that comes with it.

Hopefully that may help in the long term as by the time comes where he's in full training and available for selection he'd be more used to the way of life etc.

Interesting theory, sounds logical.

If it reduces the on-pitch adaptation period to a minimum, then all the better.

I think that the fact that he's injured may work to an advantage in a strange way.

Whereas usually a foreign signing may sign and go straight in this lad will have a couple of months to settle into a new country and all that comes with it.

Hopefully that may help in the long term as by the time comes where he's in full training and available for selection he'd be more used to the way of life etc.

That could well help him brush up on his English and learn what half the Scouse language means

When is he fit again?

Around 2-4 weeks.

We must plug the gap in between defence and forwards, Lucas has not been doing that and it's the most important area (or one of them), so something has to change while we wait for Aqualini, if we take another defeat say, against Chelsea it won't be the end of our title hopes, there is still a lot to play for, but if we get defeated by Bolton then that's different, because I doubt our rivals will lose there.

I don't for one minute think Aqualini will make a lot of difference initially, he must first come to terms with the premier league. I expect him to come good around December time and by then we may be playing catch up, if so we shall have to catch up by losing no games, not impossible as Arsenal did it one year....