Mascherano is playing Champion's League football and West Ham is fighting relagation. Mascherano played well not great against Chelsea, he lost a few balls that turned into Chelsea chances but overall played pretty well. Why did he not get any chances at West Ham? Is it because the position he plays is regarded as less skillful and the preference is to give it to an English player rather than waste a non-EU spot on it?
We don't have a limit on non EU players. It's because he was crap at West Ham, clearly he was not motivated.
Its not the mascherano is crap, its just that clearly the english league isnt suited to him. I could see him in italy, as it is a thinking man's league, where as england is pure pace and attack. I'm sure if you were to put Masche in a team such as AC Milan and play him as a central defensive midfielder you would see the difference.
Now you know why West Ham fired a manager and is battling relegation. When two world class players fall in your lap, there's no excuse not to plug them in and improve your mediocre team.
I was sitting here reading these responses and finally come across one that makes sense. Mascherano has been on the field basically since he got to Liverpool. They are in the champions league final. West Ham just fought for their lives.
Mascherano made a good decision in joining with Liverpool. Now he's on the verge of winning a Champions League trophy in his first season in Europe.
Plus Rafa allready considers him one of his 4 Regular starters for next year (xabi, gerrard, sissoko, macherano).
Italy is a thinking man's league? Are you insane? Italy is the dirtiest league around. I'd rather watch the Eredivise over the Serie A any day. At least then I'll see good footie, not cheating shite.
alright there alf ramsay jnr. if you know anything about football you would know that serie a is infact the hardest league on the planet. If you want pure pace and all out attacking with no real tactical direction, then england is for you. But if you want to see precision passing, timed counter attacks and great build up play then serie A is the league to watch. As for your dirtiest league around shite, mate do you recall the EPL transfer bungs that were supposed to be investigated? Well no one came clean and the FA sweeped it under the mat. So before you generalise Junior, go do your homework. And i dont mean look up squad lists on FIFA07.
Jeez, must have struck a nerve there, but hard to respect a league after all that happened in Italy, and many believe AC should not have been in the CL at all and i happen to agree with that.
and i find it hard to respect a league which bases its success on how many shirts it sells in asia, rather than local players its produced who can go on to achieve success at an international level, hence why there are four stars on italy's crest.
Yeah, paying off refs requires lots of precision. Having your police beat the oppositions fans is a well timed "counter attack". Transfer bungs vs referee payoffs. Hrrrm, lets see which affects the results more..... Now you want to act like the Italian national team is all that great? They are just as dirty as their league is. All your praise for the "thinking mans game" of Italy, when the best tactical teams at the WC were Argentina and Germany, is just hilarious.
Number 1: After the death of a sicilian policeman in italy, i think the police have had enough of stupid wankers causing trouble at games and the english are known for doing extremely stupid sh*t to p*ss off local supporters of teams like Roma. Number 2: The refs in question were dealt with as was everyone involed. Yet there have been no punishments handed out in england over the bungs, and its probably because the poms dont want to look bad in the international market as that is where the success comes from. Number 3: Italy went into the world cup undefeated in 28 games, They played better than most teams and deserved to win the World Cup. I await your reply.
If Australia couldnt dominate completely against a team they out numbered, then clearly they didnt deserve to win. Italy played smarter and had more attacking opportunites than the soccerroos.
I like the way this thread has gone. Instead of the usual La Liga vs Premiership debates we've got a Premiership vs Serie A debate. You see we don't get those anymore because Serie A is quite clearly a much poorer league. Murder, murder, murder, cheat, cheat, cheat and you have about 10 teams that are just crying out to be relegated.
Pardon me, but i seem to recall English fans being the worst of the lot, so thats the murdering part taken care of. And as for the cheating, what about those transfer bungs that have gone un noticed? Oh forgive me the english league is perfect. Bwahahaha
Name me a recent football related death to do with England. Those transfer bungs that are now in the latest stage of investigation and have yet to be proved so shouldn't have actually been punished yet? It's not about the English league being perfect, as no league is perfect, it's about your lot being a load of murdering cheats who can't stop stabbing our fans when they go to Italy. In comparison our league is amazing.