Grinners89
20 Mar 2009, 03:11 AM
Mascherano, not Torres, is the real Benitez masterstroke (http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/blog/2009/mar/17/javier-mascherano-liverpool-rafael-benitez)
Not often does the person sitting at home see more than the spectator in the stadium, but it happened on Saturday when Liverpool beat Manchester United at Old Trafford. A couple of minutes before the kick-off, while the television camera was lingering on the teams lining up in the tunnel, something happened that gave a fascinating portent of the upset to come.
We had just learnt that Alvaro Arbeloa, the Liverpool right-back, had tweaked a hamstring during the warm-up and would not be playing. Rafael Benitez had reconfigured his defence, moving Jamie Carragher from centre-back to fill Arbeloa's position and bringing in Sami Hyypia alongside Martin Skrtel. In the light of the lengthy preparations that would have gone into a fixture of this magnitude – not the match of the season, perhaps, but a very important one to both sides – this represented a serious adjustment.
What the roving camera in the Old Trafford tunnel showed was a little huddle at the rear of the Liverpool line. At the centre of a group of defenders Javier Mascherano was delivering an impassioned speech, complete with heated gesticulations. It was the sort of thing one might have expected to see from Steven Gerrard, the team captain, or from the vastly experienced Hyypia, his predecessor. Two hours later, however, Mascherano had given a display confirming my belief that he rivals Claude Makelele as the best exponent in modern British football of an art to which, even now, too little importance is attached.
Gerrard and Fernando Torres, who ran the United defence ragged and scored a goal apiece, won the battle of the headlines. But it was Mascherano who carved out the space and time in which they could play, as he had done the previous Tuesday night when Liverpool produced the second of their great performances of the season in routing Real Madrid. The first of those great performances came at Stamford Bridge in October, when Liverpool's midfield squeezed the life out of Chelsea and ended the west London club's run of 86 home league matches without defeat. The third came, of course, on Saturday – when, significantly, United took the field without an equivalent player. Mascherano's excellence was a thread running through all three games.
I first saw him in 2004, when he was 20 years old and winning an Olympic gold medal with an Argentina squad including Carlos Tevez and Gabriel Heinze. No one in Britain pays much attention to the Olympic football tournament, for the simple and patently inadequate reason that there are no British representatives. Other nations, however, take it extremely seriously, making it a good opportunity to see young talent on the way up. In Athens, Mascherano, who had made his senior debut for River Plate less than a year earlier, sat in front of the defence and controlled the traffic with a calmness and technical excellence reminiscent of Barcelona's Pep Guardiola.
Four years later in Beijing he was doing much the same thing, this time as an over-age player in a squad including Lionel Messi and Sergio Agüero. The impression was the same, and so was the result: another gold medal for a man who by this time had moved from River Plate to Corinthians in Brazil and thence to England, first to West Ham – where Alan Pardew saw fit to give him only seven appearances in half a season – before finding a home at Anfield.
Most people would probably claim that Torres is the best of Benítez's many expensive acquisitions, and the coltish striker is undoubtedly a wonderfully compelling performer who adds a sense of possibility to any match in which he takes part. But my choice would be Mascherano, a player who rose above a set of tangled transfer dealings and above the inability of his first English club to understand exactly what it is that he adds to a team. Benítez could see what Pardew failed to spot, and spent £18m on a player whose contribution is proving to be priceless.
In the absence of Xabi Alonso, his usual partner at the base of midfield, Mascherano's tackles, his interceptions and his distribution laid the solid foundation for Saturday's tumultuous victory. His competitiveness and his footballing intelligence were on full view as he fetched and harried with marvellous humility and unfailing relevance. Nobody writes poems about such players, but they should
Javier Alejandro Mascherano
Age: 24
Position: defensive midfielder
Argentina National Team Captain (47 Caps)
Playing style: LIKE A MONSTER :D
Mascherano is the definition of a current, modern day monster footballer. The tactical/football definition of a monster can be outlined like this: "a player whose athleticism and versatility allows a team to push the boundaries of its capabilities. A player who can all but dominate a midfield full of world class opponents on his own." Fernando Redondo, arguably the best defensive midfielder in history, was one of these players.
Masch's 'monster' abilities allow us to play a high-pressing game, while he also is able to protect Xabi and other midfielders from having to do this work, therefore improving the effort that the other midfielder can put into attack.
For a player his age, his competitive experience is almost un-matched by anyone in world football. He has played in the FIFA U17 World Championship, FIFA World Youth Championship, 2004 Olympics, 2004 Copa America, 2005 Confederations Cup, 2006 World Cup, 2007 Copa America, 2008 Olympics as well as playing for Liverpool for the last 2 seasons playing in the current beast domestic league and the Champions League.
Defensively...you wont find a better midfielder in modern football. His tackling, positioning, work-rate, tactical awareness, marking (eg Kaka in CL final) and ball retention are better than any other modern midfielder and arguably, better than any defender in modern football.
His passion for the club, as shown by his celebrations after every goal scored by any player in the squad is truely heart-warming. His attitude towards the team, club, supporters and his own game and form is top class and as shown by his move to RB, he is not only tactically aware/versatile, but also does not complain.
While we know that his defensive game is arguably perfect...his attacking game has also been improving. His short passing and quick decision making have always made him the perfect volante de contencion. Towards the end of last season and especially this season, we have seen his passing range expand and his passing accuracy improve (approx 85%). He has only provided 2 assists this season, however other central midfielders, Alonso and Lucas, have provided 3 and 4 respectively...so he's not too far behind.
Another major improvement that he has made, something that Rafa has made a big point of throughout Masch's Liverpool career, is his long-range shooting. During his first first 6 months, his shooting couldve been compared to Momo's...however now, he seems to testing the GK at every attempt, or at least getting it within 1 foot of the frame. His left-foot effort against Madrid in the first 5 minutes showed exactly how much he has improved. He can hit the ball first time, or after trapping the ball with much greater technical correctness and skill. Hopefully we will see a few more goals from him during his entire Liverpool career.
Also in his attacking game, one thing that might not be noticed by so many is his dribbling and ability to beat a man. This season, I have seen him beat a man and make himself some space on a very regular basis.
His touch with the ball at his feet seems to have improved in all facets of the game.
Another important and interesting point.
Watching Rafa communicate regularly with Mascherano during matches and watching Mascherano communicate with the back 4 in the tunnel prior to the Man Utd match cemented his place as Rafa's eyes and ears on the pitch. While Pepe and Carra are also the major "voices" on the pitch in terms of organisation and direction, Masch is the main man when it comes to preparing the defence, midfield and forwards in our pressing game.
Although we have seen many of Masch's wonderful celebrations after a goal is scored, you'll find that he is one of the first ones that Rafa talks to to ensure that the team is prepared and need to receive any instructions.
He is and will be the key player to our spine for at least the next 6 years, which could be more like 10 years if he doesnt slow down when he reaches 30. If you look at our line-up, you cant imagine anyone else would provide such protection to our defenders as Masch does. He is a big reason why our team concede the least amount of shots on goal out of any Premier League team.
He is part of a group of core players at Liverpool who really do the job of two or three ordinary players on their own. Those that can adapt to any strategy or balance that Rafa employs and whose mentality and leadership is beyond question.
Reina, Carragher, Skrtel, Agger, Mascherano, Alonso, Gerrard, Torres.
We also have a group of younger players who could and IMO will make this group of core players. They are Lucas, Insua, Pacheco and Nemeth (Babel has this opportunity to be world class, but he isnt a core player in this mould that I described in the previous paragraph).
From Rafa:
“The workrate of Javier Mascherano in the midfield is amazing,” said Benitez.
“He can give the other midfield players more freedom. If you go with more offensive players you know he will be in a good defensive position, and that is very important for the team.
“The only player who covered more ground than Mascherano was Momo Sissoko. The difference is Javier has more experience. Momo was amazing and Mascherano is as good as Momo in terms of the workrate but also has better positions.”
Ill finish with the now famous Maradona quote recently.
"I am awake at 4am designing a team. The selection? It's Javier Mascherano and 10 more."
:)
Not often does the person sitting at home see more than the spectator in the stadium, but it happened on Saturday when Liverpool beat Manchester United at Old Trafford. A couple of minutes before the kick-off, while the television camera was lingering on the teams lining up in the tunnel, something happened that gave a fascinating portent of the upset to come.
We had just learnt that Alvaro Arbeloa, the Liverpool right-back, had tweaked a hamstring during the warm-up and would not be playing. Rafael Benitez had reconfigured his defence, moving Jamie Carragher from centre-back to fill Arbeloa's position and bringing in Sami Hyypia alongside Martin Skrtel. In the light of the lengthy preparations that would have gone into a fixture of this magnitude – not the match of the season, perhaps, but a very important one to both sides – this represented a serious adjustment.
What the roving camera in the Old Trafford tunnel showed was a little huddle at the rear of the Liverpool line. At the centre of a group of defenders Javier Mascherano was delivering an impassioned speech, complete with heated gesticulations. It was the sort of thing one might have expected to see from Steven Gerrard, the team captain, or from the vastly experienced Hyypia, his predecessor. Two hours later, however, Mascherano had given a display confirming my belief that he rivals Claude Makelele as the best exponent in modern British football of an art to which, even now, too little importance is attached.
Gerrard and Fernando Torres, who ran the United defence ragged and scored a goal apiece, won the battle of the headlines. But it was Mascherano who carved out the space and time in which they could play, as he had done the previous Tuesday night when Liverpool produced the second of their great performances of the season in routing Real Madrid. The first of those great performances came at Stamford Bridge in October, when Liverpool's midfield squeezed the life out of Chelsea and ended the west London club's run of 86 home league matches without defeat. The third came, of course, on Saturday – when, significantly, United took the field without an equivalent player. Mascherano's excellence was a thread running through all three games.
I first saw him in 2004, when he was 20 years old and winning an Olympic gold medal with an Argentina squad including Carlos Tevez and Gabriel Heinze. No one in Britain pays much attention to the Olympic football tournament, for the simple and patently inadequate reason that there are no British representatives. Other nations, however, take it extremely seriously, making it a good opportunity to see young talent on the way up. In Athens, Mascherano, who had made his senior debut for River Plate less than a year earlier, sat in front of the defence and controlled the traffic with a calmness and technical excellence reminiscent of Barcelona's Pep Guardiola.
Four years later in Beijing he was doing much the same thing, this time as an over-age player in a squad including Lionel Messi and Sergio Agüero. The impression was the same, and so was the result: another gold medal for a man who by this time had moved from River Plate to Corinthians in Brazil and thence to England, first to West Ham – where Alan Pardew saw fit to give him only seven appearances in half a season – before finding a home at Anfield.
Most people would probably claim that Torres is the best of Benítez's many expensive acquisitions, and the coltish striker is undoubtedly a wonderfully compelling performer who adds a sense of possibility to any match in which he takes part. But my choice would be Mascherano, a player who rose above a set of tangled transfer dealings and above the inability of his first English club to understand exactly what it is that he adds to a team. Benítez could see what Pardew failed to spot, and spent £18m on a player whose contribution is proving to be priceless.
In the absence of Xabi Alonso, his usual partner at the base of midfield, Mascherano's tackles, his interceptions and his distribution laid the solid foundation for Saturday's tumultuous victory. His competitiveness and his footballing intelligence were on full view as he fetched and harried with marvellous humility and unfailing relevance. Nobody writes poems about such players, but they should
Javier Alejandro Mascherano
Age: 24
Position: defensive midfielder
Argentina National Team Captain (47 Caps)
Playing style: LIKE A MONSTER :D
Mascherano is the definition of a current, modern day monster footballer. The tactical/football definition of a monster can be outlined like this: "a player whose athleticism and versatility allows a team to push the boundaries of its capabilities. A player who can all but dominate a midfield full of world class opponents on his own." Fernando Redondo, arguably the best defensive midfielder in history, was one of these players.
Masch's 'monster' abilities allow us to play a high-pressing game, while he also is able to protect Xabi and other midfielders from having to do this work, therefore improving the effort that the other midfielder can put into attack.
For a player his age, his competitive experience is almost un-matched by anyone in world football. He has played in the FIFA U17 World Championship, FIFA World Youth Championship, 2004 Olympics, 2004 Copa America, 2005 Confederations Cup, 2006 World Cup, 2007 Copa America, 2008 Olympics as well as playing for Liverpool for the last 2 seasons playing in the current beast domestic league and the Champions League.
Defensively...you wont find a better midfielder in modern football. His tackling, positioning, work-rate, tactical awareness, marking (eg Kaka in CL final) and ball retention are better than any other modern midfielder and arguably, better than any defender in modern football.
His passion for the club, as shown by his celebrations after every goal scored by any player in the squad is truely heart-warming. His attitude towards the team, club, supporters and his own game and form is top class and as shown by his move to RB, he is not only tactically aware/versatile, but also does not complain.
While we know that his defensive game is arguably perfect...his attacking game has also been improving. His short passing and quick decision making have always made him the perfect volante de contencion. Towards the end of last season and especially this season, we have seen his passing range expand and his passing accuracy improve (approx 85%). He has only provided 2 assists this season, however other central midfielders, Alonso and Lucas, have provided 3 and 4 respectively...so he's not too far behind.
Another major improvement that he has made, something that Rafa has made a big point of throughout Masch's Liverpool career, is his long-range shooting. During his first first 6 months, his shooting couldve been compared to Momo's...however now, he seems to testing the GK at every attempt, or at least getting it within 1 foot of the frame. His left-foot effort against Madrid in the first 5 minutes showed exactly how much he has improved. He can hit the ball first time, or after trapping the ball with much greater technical correctness and skill. Hopefully we will see a few more goals from him during his entire Liverpool career.
Also in his attacking game, one thing that might not be noticed by so many is his dribbling and ability to beat a man. This season, I have seen him beat a man and make himself some space on a very regular basis.
His touch with the ball at his feet seems to have improved in all facets of the game.
Another important and interesting point.
Watching Rafa communicate regularly with Mascherano during matches and watching Mascherano communicate with the back 4 in the tunnel prior to the Man Utd match cemented his place as Rafa's eyes and ears on the pitch. While Pepe and Carra are also the major "voices" on the pitch in terms of organisation and direction, Masch is the main man when it comes to preparing the defence, midfield and forwards in our pressing game.
Although we have seen many of Masch's wonderful celebrations after a goal is scored, you'll find that he is one of the first ones that Rafa talks to to ensure that the team is prepared and need to receive any instructions.
He is and will be the key player to our spine for at least the next 6 years, which could be more like 10 years if he doesnt slow down when he reaches 30. If you look at our line-up, you cant imagine anyone else would provide such protection to our defenders as Masch does. He is a big reason why our team concede the least amount of shots on goal out of any Premier League team.
He is part of a group of core players at Liverpool who really do the job of two or three ordinary players on their own. Those that can adapt to any strategy or balance that Rafa employs and whose mentality and leadership is beyond question.
Reina, Carragher, Skrtel, Agger, Mascherano, Alonso, Gerrard, Torres.
We also have a group of younger players who could and IMO will make this group of core players. They are Lucas, Insua, Pacheco and Nemeth (Babel has this opportunity to be world class, but he isnt a core player in this mould that I described in the previous paragraph).
From Rafa:
“The workrate of Javier Mascherano in the midfield is amazing,” said Benitez.
“He can give the other midfield players more freedom. If you go with more offensive players you know he will be in a good defensive position, and that is very important for the team.
“The only player who covered more ground than Mascherano was Momo Sissoko. The difference is Javier has more experience. Momo was amazing and Mascherano is as good as Momo in terms of the workrate but also has better positions.”
Ill finish with the now famous Maradona quote recently.
"I am awake at 4am designing a team. The selection? It's Javier Mascherano and 10 more."
:)