There's a great saying that sums up Javier Mascherano: "It's not the size of the dog in the fight, but the size of the fight in the dog that counts". This sentence really sums the Argentine warrior up because at 5ft and 8.5 inches tall, he isn't your archetypal defensive midfield powerhouse a la...
Last week marked the 16th anniversary of Steven Gerrard’s debut in a Liverpool shirt. At the tender age of 18 Gerrard made his bow as a last minute substitute against Blackburn Rovers. Since that day he has played over 687 games for his boyhood club, scoring 176 goals.
In 2013 he struck his 100th Premier...
The third, and final, instalment of our nostalgic look at the midfield trio of the 2008/2009 season will concentrate on their performance in the attacking third of the pitch.
We'd expect Xabi Alonso to be ahead in the race for most creative central midfielder out of the three. Xabi's passing, whether it be a simple pass or a long ball, was always of the highest quality. We'll look at how much of his passing helped in creating chances for Liverpool FC in the season 2008/2009 and how his midfield partners did in comparison.
In this instalment we're going to discuss tackling, possession duels, interceptions, blocks and fouls conceded or won. As you know this is going to fit right into Javier Mascherano's. You'd not expect this one to be close at all and expect Mascherano to be far and away the better tackler out of the three.
"We've got the best midfield in the world!" is what reverberated in Anfield and mainly on the Kop in the heights of Rafael Benitez's reign at Anfield. The song mentioned Xabi Alonso, Momo Sissoko, Gerrard and Mascheranoooooooooo! We loved that song, we loved that midfield quartet. Since then we've undergone a total transformation in midfield, no longer does it have the passing range of Alonso or the terrier like tackling of Mascherano or Sissoko.
