Imo Alonso is horrendously over rated and Barry is more suited to the PL.
Xabi Alonso is horrendously overrated
- Thread starter ICIP
- Start date
Imo Alonso is horrendously over rated and Barry is more suited to the PL.
He's the main midfielder for the team that beat Barca to the league last year. Barca. He starts for one of the great International teams in football history. He's brilliant.
It's one thing to support your team, quite another to spread delusional shite.
Christ.
Alonso is one of the best midfielders in the world.
What Rafa was thinking trying to buy Barry instead I will never understand.
I think Barry is a decent player but he is not even in the same world as Alonso
He's the main midfielder for the team that beat Barca to the league last year. Barca. He starts for one of the great International teams in football history. He's brilliant.
And Barry is the main midfielder for the team that beat United to the league last year.
Barry's defensive strengths negate Alonso's attacking ones imo.
You think Mancini would say no to a straight swop between Alonso and Barry?
Gareth Barry, main midfielder?!
This is right up there with some of the most bizarre opinions I've heard on the caf. Are you actually comparing Gareth Barry with Alonso? Would Gareth Barry get a game for what will go down as a legendary Spanish national side? Unreal.
Since when did the Spanish national side play in the PL? That's what I'm talking about here. Alonso is obviously more talented.
As a pure midfielder Barry is more important than Toure. If we're talking about a free attacking role then Toure is more important and our best player. Toure is too unfit to be our main midfielder.
So you'd turn down Iniesta, Xavi and Busquets and keep Gareth Barry? Your logic is beyond weird.
And how is Alonso a defensive liability? Have you even seen him play?
Ah, so the Spanish national side would struggle in the premier league. Got it. Stoke, cold winter night etc.
I'm sorry, ICIP, you usually talk a bit of sense, but Gareth Barry is not as good as Alonso. Alonso can defend very well. He can also contribute to attacking play. I'd argue he does both better than Barry. Only one of those attributes is up for debate.
Alonso has brilliant reading of the game and intercepts balls even before the danger comes in, so I don't see how he's a defensive liability. Apart from having more of a physical presence, Barry has nothing on Alonso.
The way you're going on about Alonso, someone who hadnt seen him play could be forgiven for thinking he's some wiry midfielder ala Modric. He can more than take care of himself. Its even weirder you're saying this after the fantastic season Alonso had in the prem for Pool right before he left for Madrid.
Barry is not even in the same league as Alonso, not that its a slight on him though, few in world football are.
Barry should not be mentioned in the same breath as Alonso. They lost him at the same time we lost Ronadlo.
I thought theirs was the much bigger loss.
I thought theirs was the much bigger loss.
Like I said, he's really over rated. Because he sits deep people act like he's a defensive midfielder, when in fact he doesn't press well and he doesn't win headers. He just sits off his man and tries to make interceptions. It works well at some levels, but not at others.
It's hard to understand when you see United sides put out every week with a good sense of hard work and defensive responsibility. You don't really have a player who doesn't so it becomes something you just expect. We have many and they're bloody annoying.
You've gotta love Redcafe... Alonso was average and not as good as Carrick when he was playing for Liverpool but now hes been at Madrid a while hes one of the best around. Just shows how both our clubs bathe in bias really.
As for Gerrard when they 'should' havr won the league... They were incredibly lucky that season playing 9 games v ten men which got them 8 wins and an away draw to Arsenal!!! Chelsea were 0-0 at
Anfield In the 60th minute until Lamaprd got sent off for being tackled by Alonso!!!!!!!!! Torres then scored and they won 2-0 or something. They beat us twice too.
As for Gerrard when they 'should' havr won the league... They were incredibly lucky that season playing 9 games v ten men which got them 8 wins and an away draw to Arsenal!!! Chelsea were 0-0 at
Anfield In the 60th minute until Lamaprd got sent off for being tackled by Alonso!!!!!!!!! Torres then scored and they won 2-0 or something. They beat us twice too.
I don't even know why Alonso isn't considered as physically imposing as Barry. Alonso has never been one to avoid challenges or avoid being stuck in, off all the spanish players he's most suited to the premier league. Alonso is one of those players that I was gutted we didn't get. Would really have suited our team. He's better than Barry in every way. Benitez's decision to try and replace Alonso with Barry is genuinely one of the most baffling decisions I've heard a manager contemplate at the top level.
It's the opposite, actually. Just because he doesn't run around putting in big tackles and winning moral points handed out by those with the English mentality of thumping ones chest and throwing their bodies about, it means he can't defend.
He wasnt always as good for Pool as he was the last couple of seasons. He really turned it around from then.
He doesnt need to run around like a Scott Parker because he reads the game so well. I'd also be interested to know what are the levels you think it doesnt work in.
Prem at Pool --> Check
La Liga at Real--> Check
Internationals--> Check
Bollocks. He was great in the PL lets not say he got good just when he went to Real. He was one of Raffas key men in a top 4 regular side and CL team who were regularly there in the latter stages. Was all United, Chelsea Liverpool back then in Europe. Not Real.
Should have completed the sentence to make myself clearer. The last couple of seasons at Pool is what i meant. He was good before then too but he really moved into another gear during his last couple of years in England and kicked on from there.
I'd say any time you're wanting to impose yourself on a game, keep the pressure high and the opposition pinned back. Which is the majority of the time in the PL.
Going away to top sides is a different matter, where absorbing and frustrating is more fruitful. That's why they did so well in the big games but struggled against some smaller sides.
Alonso was always better than Carrick and twice on a sunday. Not surprising that Carrick gets bigged up and Alonso rated less for being a Liverpool player, but outside of manc forums, it was never a debate.
Average? Don't be silly. It's no coincidence that he was sold and Liverpool dropped from 2nd to outside the top four. He was pivotal in that team.
Little between them actually, Alonso tends to get bigged up by people who get carried away by his Hollywood balls.
Well I get what he's saying, but anyone saying he was average before going to Madrid was very misinformed.
I wasn't saying Barry couldn't have done a good job, but to pursue him so publicly was a bit pointless. Why go through all the trouble of unsettling Alonso for somebody like Barry. Don't remember Alonso looking particularly out of place in England either. Barry might look more suited to the league now as he's been playing here for 10+ years compared to Alonso's 3-4. I agree he's overrated by a lot of people though
Rubbish Alonso was pretty inconsistent for Liverpool for a good two three seasons. Really turned that around in his final season.
Oh you must be the city fan?
Are you really saying Barry > Alonso?
Jesus fecking wept. That's up there with some of the most stupid things to ever be said on the Caf.
Liverpool almost won the league with Alonso controlling the team. They fell apart when he left.
Barry Alonso
Alonso's not just better than Barry, he's twice the player he is.
Imagine if a player had the best of Xabi Alonso, and Gareth Barry.
You'd get, Xabi Alonso.
You'd get, Xabi Alonso.
Man City fans nowadays are mostly Jonny Come Latelys who discovered football a couple of years ago.
Did a mod create a separate thread for this? Could have sworn I read the same stuff in some other thread today.
Which is also everytime he plays for Real and Spain.
Revisionism. He had a stellar last season, wasnt as good before that.