They call it the problem every manager would love to face; having too many players to choose from in one particular position. At Liverpool, Rafa Benitez has this problem in his central midfield. With the seemingly immanent signing of Gareth Barry and now with Alonso’s transfer to Juventus looking unlikely there really is an embarrassment of riches for Benitez.
First of all you have Steven Gerrard who along with Fernando Torres and Jose Reina is one of the three players that will be the first name on the team sheet for every important match. So this is one position of the central midfield that will already be filled. Javier Mascherano has proved himself to be one of the best defensive midfielders playing at the moment. After signing from West Ham most fans including me had doubts about his ability though he certainly put everyone in their place by making absolutely crucial challenges and constantly performing to high standard. However one of Liverpool’s main problems is not being able to finish off teams when playing at home, this is seen with the nil-nil draw with Birmingham and the one-one draw with Wigan. With this said playing a defensive minded midfielder like Mascherano in games where there is no excuse not to win seems like a mistake. This is where Gareth Barry can come in; he is an excellent player who can certainly help us stop drawing at home to lower teams with his passing ability and creativity. So if this were the solution; playing Barry in the matches against lower teams, this doesn’t leave much room for players like Alonso and Lucas and youngsters like the very impressive Damien Plessis and Jay Spearing. At least Rafa off-loaded Danny Guthrie to Newcastle, the last thing we needed was another senior central midfielder in the squad.
Xabi Alonso who was one of Benitez’s first and most impressive signings as Liverpool’s manager has been a very good player for us over the years, however in the past two seasons he has struggled with inconsistent form and at times he has looked quite poor, there is no doubt to me that Gareth Barry is a more consistent player than Alonso, although both players are quite similar in terms of general ability.
Lucas has looked very promising in the games that he has played though there are many areas of his game that could use a bit of work, in particular his passing. At the age of twenty one he has already made it as a fully capped international for Brazil, which is always a magnificent achievement. Liverpool should definitely hold on to this lad as he certainly has a lot of potential in the team.
In the 07/08 season Rafa decided to play a different formation than his usual 4-4-2, this being the 4-2-3-1. This formation proved very effective with Gerrard playing in ‘the hole’ behind Torres and in front of the two Central Midfielders. This formation would seem the most logical choice given the amount of Central midfield choices Benitez has. This way Rafa would be able to rotate the squad and rest Barry for the home games against the weaker sides and rest Mascherano for the away games against the more difficult sides.
