Liverbird
Omar Comin Yo
- 24 July 2009
Re: Liverpool Thread
Always a pleasure to read your posts dude.thanks for the rawk explanation guys.
the first 2 are down to the fact he almost didn't play at all in the past 2 seasons. as for his back tracking that's not gonna improve... to be fair he shouldn't back track at all, as he should play way more upfront than he is playing right now.... and play a completely different game from what i saw in those first 2 matches as a starter.
for someone who saw alberto playing through the years, watching him playing right now in this system is like watching a great actor, a phenomenal, talented actor, who has always played "the bad guy role" impersonating the hero of the movie. he's actually managing to deal with the new situation (and with the absolute, unbelievable lack of movement of his teammates) in a pretty decent way, and even though he's been asked to do something completely different from what he can do, he's actually showing a very quick-adapting attitude and great determination.....
...but u just can't help but thinking "what a waste.... the movie would have been so much better if only they would have handed him the bad guy role".
as for his "misplaced passes", guys, i don't wanna sound like i'm patronizing him (as a matter of fact i repeatedly said i think he will disappoint in liverpool, afterall), but the 99,9% of those passes which didn't reach the target in his first 2 matches as a starter (which are the only ones i wached) weren't misplaced at all. the point is liverpool players right now are completely unaccustomed, unused to first touch passing and to vertical passing.
they almost act as if they think xabi were still there.... waiting for that horizontal "discharging pass"...they look like they were in trance or something..... completely unaware of each others movements, doing nothing to get rid of their assigned markers...
that easy, comfortable pass is never gonna come though.... at least not from alberto, coz that's just not him.
alberto is not the player who sets the tempo, who hands his teamates that nice, easy-to-get, velvety horizontal pass, who will give the fans that confortable feeling that "your team is in control".... that's not him.
he's not the engine of the car, he's the clutch. he is the one who breaks the tempo (not the one who sets the tempo), the one who, all of a sudden, changes the rpm. the game is going on smoothly along a specific rhythm, your opponents are getting accustomed to that rhythm...... and that's when aquilani gets the ball and fires a 10 meters first touch through ball which goes almost as fast as a shot...... and it's up to u to be there when that bullit arrives..... if u're not there, that's not a misplaced pass.... that pass was perfectly aimed... it was aimed to put u in front of the goalkeeper, while the opposite defenders ask themselves "what the hell just happened?
but if u're not there, if that pass was unexpected to u (as it was for the whole opponent's defensive line), then that's your fault, not albertos.
he's not the player u want to get your passing game "smooth".... he's not smooth, he's frenzy. he's not the one u should ask to set the tempo as he lives the game on a different tempo than his teammates....and that's most important to him as that's what makes him completely unpredictable. the regista is the one who gotta care about all his teammates movement, his duty is to "run the team" and to make sure the team runs smoothly. alberto doesn't care about this as he' not a regista. he lives the whole game "one play, one pass ahead of his teammates" (that's what i mean by "living the game on a different tempo") and he's completely focused, not on how the whole team is playing, not on how the current play is going, but on a single pass, a pass that might occur in 2, 3 seconds, or that might even not occur at all (if the opponents stop the play and get the ball before it arrives to him).
he doesn't care about anything else but that "window". he looks for that opening and when he sees it, he seizes it.
and it's up to his teammates to be ready for it. otherwise, he becomes an anonymous, pretty useless player.
and yeah, even if he would be playing in his proper role and if his teammates wouldn't dawdle around the pitch like zombies, he would still have a higher misplaced passes ratio than a player like xabi.
but then again, that's another proof of how different they are. alberto's passing game isn't aimed to make his teammates feel confortable; quite the opposite. his passing game is extremely demanding for his teammates, and that's just how it has to be in order to work.
also for the fans, his football can be quite "stressing". since he lives the whole game on an edge, a certain percentage of his plays (passes) will turn into a loss of possession, coz his teammates aren't on his same page of the script or cos he made a "miscalculation" (wich, when he's on form, happens seldom if ever). but, as a fan, u still feel those shivers down your spine, coz, as soon as he touches the ball, u know that play is gonna end with a loss of possession or a scoring chance. he's a "make it or break it" kinda player. unlike a regista, he always takes risky decisions and hardly goes for a flat play.
as soon as he gets the ball, u know that in about 3 seconds, u will be either cursing for the loss of possession or jumping on your seat, spitting your beer and screaming "holy shit, how did he even think that pass!".
so, as u can imagine, seeing him playing in such a different role, seeing him trying to "settle down" to a more flat kinda passing game is pretty sad (although he did much better than i expected).
sometimes, in those first 2 matches i saw, he even tried to play "his game" a couple of times, but his teammates are just on a different page (the only one who bothered to keep up with him was insua....with poor results.... but at least he tried).
and unfortunately i believe it will be much more likely to see him settling down to a more anonymous style of play, rather than seeing all his teammates "getting on his page".
but as i said earlier, i hope i'm wrong
