1 Aug 2012

"He's agreed terms with LFC" - £12.5m star set for Anfield move. Good news?

Swansea midfield maestro Joe Allen has reportedly agreed personal terms with Liverpool and could be set for a move to Anfield over the next week.

According to the South Wales Evening Post:

"The 22-year-old has settled on an Anfield deal which, a source explained, will “set him up for life”.

"Swansea allowed Allen’s representatives to talk terms with Liverpool, they are still haggling over the size of the transfer fee.

"Liverpool have tabled an offer of £12.5 million plus a player on loan — thought to be Jonjo Shelvey"


Responding to the renewed speculation yesterday, Swansea manager Michael Laudrup, insisted that nothing had changed. He said:

"He [Allen] is with the GB team at the Olympics so I have not had the opportunity to talk to him since I arrived. It’s normal there is interest because the new manager of Liverpool is the ex-manager of Joe Allen.

“We all know he is a very good player, but I can assure you there’s nothing concrete at this moment. Let’s see what happens — I can’t really tell you anything else right now"


Liverpool are well-stocked in the central midfield department right now, but none of the club's current players having Allen's passing ability. Indeed, with 91% accuracy last season, Allen was the 6th best passer in Europe, a mere 2% behind Barcelona's Xavi.

Liverpool's attacking options definitely need strengthening this summer, but a midfielder who can dictate Rodgers' football philosophy on the field is also a priority (IMO), and Allen is perfect for that important role.

Xabi Alonso was Rafa Benitez's Joe Allen, and look at the fantastic impact he had on the team. Allen can be a similar catalyst for Rodgers' new-look Liverpool team.

Jaimie Kanwar


79 comments:

  1. No I didn't, Felderkirk, so stop making things up. Also, I did not compare Allen to Alonso in terms of playing style - my point is about *function* in the team, i.e the role of midfield metronome.

    If you can't be bothered to interpret what I write fairly then please don't bother posting at all.

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  2. l'd like agree with most of the comments on shelvey because he looks like great prospect..allen is just sort of player who can "maintain" the possession not kind of player who can attack in final third where we are lacking since gerrard left that space so i'd think ramirez will be a great addition when compares to transfer fees bcoz if we get allen then we'll end up paying around 12-15m so what's the point mate??..once again shelvey looks more promising in final third,he'll get better in any day so my verdict if we wanna sign allen then it should be only around 6-8m otherwise get ramirez even dempsey who can be win matches of his own..YNWA die hard fan from SRI LANKA..    

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  3. You are kidding right.......even till this day we are missing alonso!! Shocking statement and i reckon you're on your own on that one mate.

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  4. If the news about Allen is true, no way his fellow Welsh pal Bellamy will leave!

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  5. Unlike you, I have tremendous respect for Swansea and BR the manager who of course gave them the football. You've forgotten how Swansea ran the rule over us when we played them.

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  6. Why do so many fans think Alonso was so great? He had a few average seasons and when he knew he was fighting for his future in the team he turned in a good season. He was very lightweight, scored very few goals and was weak in the tackle, his only plus point was his game intelligence and when he had enough time his passing ability. The same goes for Lucas, he has had a few very average seasons and the has one good one and suddenly he's the first name on the team sheet. The term great and irreplaceable are used far too often to describe players who have had one good season. The real great players do it game after game, season after season so let's just chill with all this Alonso was the greatest and he was such a loss nonsense.

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  7. allen would be a good signing dont forget rodgers said 3-4 signings before we sold kuyt and maxi so potentially there could be atleast 2 more signings a creative midfielder that can play on the wing and defender

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  8. who the hell is posting under my username?
     go away and get your own and stop pretending to be me.
    check the ip address jamie and you'll see it's someone else.

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  9. Don`t know much about the lad but if Craig Bellamy
    says the lad is good that will do me,letting Shelvey
    go is not a good idea,a couple of injuries in midfield
    and we are stuck with Spearing & Adam as first choice
    unless someone else comes in.Altho i am looking
    forward to Allen in a Liverpool shirt passing stats
    can be misleading ie if all your passes are 10 mts
    or less you will have a high passing accuracy.

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  10. Well said RSL76 the words of a true fan

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  11. i think he'll be a good addition to the side.
    most managers like to bring a player they know well an allen is far better than roy bringing in konchesky and poulsen.

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  12. If the boss wants him then we back him, It seems a done deal!!!!

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  13. JK: it really does my head in to think what BR could do
    with the money Dalglish got.

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  14. How about abit of postive support instead of moaning about EVERYTHING that happens!!!

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  15. Have we actually signed this Chap yet? theres nothing on BBC or Skysports? i like him and it's looking promising but aint going to get to excited as majority of players Liverpool are linked with turns out to be Bull!! i read Liverpool where going to bid for Adebayor on loan? whats next a loan deal for Messi? ha if Liverpool sign Joe Allen ramirez and dempsey i'll be a happy fan.

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  16. acturely you don`t know who is alonso when you said lucas replace him.

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  17. And yet, when Lucas was injured last season, he left a huge void and we missed him, our best player for the past 18 months up to that point. Lucas is essential not only to our squad, but to the tiki taka philosophy

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  18. Actually is actually how you spell the word, and you do not know Lucas if you say this. Lucas was originally bought as a long-term replacement for Gerrard, then Alonso left and he was converted from an attacking midfielder to a holding midfielder to replace Alonso, then Mascherano left and he was then converted to a defensive midfielder to replace Mascherano, and has since gone on to become the best defensive midfielder in the league and statistically up until his injury, one of the top two or three in Europe. This for all you Lucas bashers still out there, just shows the talent of this lad

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  19. Funny, I think support is exactly what he is showing as far as Shelvey goes, he is supporting our current player over a potential transfer target who at the moment, is not a Liverpool player, Shelvey is a Liverpool player and should therefore get the priority as far as support goes. I honestly think Shelvey is a different mould of midfielder than Allen, Allen likes to sit deep, whereas Shelvey is much more of a Gerrard type of midfielder, he likes his marauding runs, as seen against Roma, has a cracking shot, as seen against Chelsea last season, Shelvey is being groomed as the long term replacement of Gerrard.

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  20. The Spanish league is slower and more technically based, it would be interesting to see how Xavi or Iniesta go in the Premier League, being that it is faster paced, would they have the same high percentage of accurate passes?

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  21. Agreed, Joe. Don't think about it too much though as it will inevitably lead to madness.

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  22. I agree with you on the Alonso issue. He only performed in his last season imho. With lucas though, I disagree. Because he has shown an improvement over the years and just prior to his injury, we could see a guy close to top form. Hear is a guy that was ridiculed to bits, kept his head up (when others would have sulked and left) , got on with the biz and improved himself. To say that he is a one season wonder is a bit harsh because he is still with us. Unlike Alonso who left. So Alonso is judged on his years with us and Lucas on his last .

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  23. So, does that mean everyone's entitled to an opinion, but if they disagree with yours, they are wrong? If people don't like Allen, they are entitled to believe that, whether they have played football or not. No one is discounting the style of player Allen is, but many people feel he is not Liverpool quality. Another comparison is we need a winger, but just because we need a winger, doesn't mean we should go for Pennant (again) or some other winger who isn't necessarily up to our standard. I am Australian, living in Australia and am a university student, coupled with the fact that the matches are played during the middle of the night and not all the matches of a round are played on tv, 5 or 6 per round, it means I cannot possibly watch all the matches and highlights while good, just don't cut it for some purposes, because of this, I haven't seen Allen play as much as I would necessarily like to. That however, by no stretch of the imagination means that I have no idea about football or about Liverpool, in fact, unlike a fair percentage of the season holding ticket owners, I still believe in the traditional way of thinking as a Liverpool supporter, support all of our players 100% while they are still wearing the Liverpool shirt, that includes Adam, Downing and Carroll.

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  24. Sorry about that!  I've zapped the person who was posing as you. 

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  25. Suso and Sterling should both be loaned out to a "lesser" premier league side, Southampton or Reading maybe, even Swansea, so they get top flight experience, which will show us where they are in their development.

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  26. Why do we need big names anyway? We need to be signing players that best suit the tiki taka philosphy. A superstar team is always better than a team of superstars.

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  27. New look Liverpool side looks pretty much the same as the old look Liverpool side

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  28. It really does my head in to think what Rafa could have done with the money Dalglish got, considering that three of Rafa's big money signings were Torres, Mascherano and Alonso. With a bit more financial backing, we would have ended up with Cristiano Ronaldo while he was still at Sporting Lisbon and Dani Alves while he was still at Sevilla. We missed out on both players by a mere 2-3 million pounds. Rafa certainly had an eye for talent, yes he bought some duds, name me a manager that hasn't, but after two managers between his stint and Rodgers, and this Liverpool squad is still dominated by Rafa signings, not only as the senior players, but the youngsters that are coming through the ranks, Shelvey, Suso, Sterling, Martin Kelly, Michael Ngoo, among others, who were all Rafa signings.

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  29. couldnt of put it better myself. lucas is among the 6 best defensive midfield in europe in my opinion. I remember against city he had the perfect game and I have never seen anyone have a perfect game for a long time in a liverpool shirt. Won 100 percent of his challenges and never gave the ball away. He was fantastic.

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  30. We need to keep shelvey, he is a god player and a beast in midfield, I'd prefer spearing to go or cole, Allen is class but if I were to prioritise a transfer, it would be Ramirez , then Dempsey, then Allen and if we can get 18 or more for Carroll then happy days, Adam to fulham as part of the Dempsey deal would help to

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  31. I think you'll find Shelvey was bought for closer to 2 mil than 5 mil, even accounting for compensation and the add-ons. Rafa picked a gem up there and he is Gerrard's long term replacement. You say Swansea finished lower than us. But by using your logic, we got our current manager from a team who finished below us. But by finishing below us, let's look at the final results. We finished the league with a record of 14 wins, 10 draws and 14 losses and a points total of 52, goals scored 47, goals conceded 40. Swansea however, 12 wins, 11 draws, 15 losses, points total of 47, goals scored 44, goals conceded 51. That tells us that we were only marginally better than they were. We scored 3 more goals them them, our defence was better than theirs, we won twice more than they did, we lost once less than they did, we drew once less than they did, we finished 5 points ahead of them. So although technically yes, they did finish below us, by the stats, they were pretty close to being the same as us.

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  32. I think you'll find that BR carried on the philosophy, the manager who actually gave them the football was in fact Roberto Martinez who BR replaced when Martinez went to Wigan. Which is probably one of the reasons we were linked with Martinez

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  33. I think you'll find that is the type of player Shelvey is.

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  34. Septimus_severus1:16 pm, August 01, 2012

    Losing Downing and Adam is like shaking off a ugly ex-girlfriend from facebook...easier said than done. Downing is keeping his head down and mouth shut and hopes no one will notice ...Adam well all we can do is pray someone takes him off our hands

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  35. Alonso was great in his first season, he had a form slump for two seasons and then had the best season of his career when he as exceptional. But he has always played in the same position. The same does not go for Lucas. Lucas came from Brazil where he won the league's best player award as an attacking midfielder, he was bought by Liverpool as an attacking midfielder, which is where he played in his first few games, he took a bit of time to settle as most players do, he also had the disadvantage of trying to force his way into a midfield that consisted of Gerrard, Alonso and Mascherano, a daunting task to say the least, then Alonso left and he was converted into a holding midfielder, then when Mascherano left a few months later, he was further converted into a defensive midfielder and in that position has been immense, has in fact been the best defensive midfielder in the league, up until his injury. When he was injured, it showed just how much we needed him. And when you consider he is still only 25 and is already considered a senior player and possibly a future captain. For Lucas, the term great is most definately deserved after his form in the 18 months prior to his injury. He most certainly deserves an instant starting berth. Do you consider Gerrard great? Because in the past few seasons, his form hasn't exactly been great, and yet he is widely considered one of if not the best midfielders of the current generation and one of our all time greatest players.

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  36. Saying that though, what if that 10 metre pass is a cutting through ball that sets up a goal as opposed to a 30 metre pass that goes from the left wing to switch play to the right fullback? See, that is also misleading. It's all about interpretaion. Stats are stats, and it doesn't say whether the passing stats are for the long passes or the short passes. Passing triangles, which is what the Liverpool of the 80s was all about, where made up of 10 metre or less passes.

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  37. completely different player. That has 2 b the most ridiculous comment iv ever read.

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  38. Mr Point Of View1:35 pm, August 01, 2012

    Izzit true that Tottenham also in talk with him??

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  39. What a waste of time and money. Of all the needs in the squad, another ball-playing central midfielder should be the very least of Liverpool's worries.

    My optimism about a rapid rise back up the table is fading pretty quickly... :(

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  40. And Alonso did....I think he scored no more than 3 goals a season alongside something like two assists....!!! Huge figures for such an attack minded player.

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  41. Perfect analysis. I think I may have found the only other person that had faith in Lucas all the time , even through his lean period. My fanatical belief is highlighted to the tee by your analysis,  even the effect of alonso, whom I thought made far too many crab like passes. I remember watching a pre-season match in ajax and we had a counter attack with Alonso the most advanced liv player in a one on one with a defender, he pulled the ball to the left corner box and then passed back to the half line.

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  42. Dont mean to be rude, but those 2 lads dont need to go anywhere they must stay with our B team and when we get injuries they can step up to the first team....

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  43. I think manager doesn't have courage to buy big names especially after that what happen to Kenny ,the thing is that he must sign big name striker 
    quality improved player and another quality winger if he wants to fight for top four and for the title. Players like J.Allen will be a same flop as Ch.Adam because they don't know what means to play for top club. You all remember everyone were talking about how a good player Adam is when he was playing at Blackpool and you all know what happen to him to LFC. So please go for improved players .

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  44. if liverpool get allen,gaston ramirez and dempsey than liverpool will have a chance to win the league 

                                             Reina
      
    Johnson                      Agger               Skrtel                         enrique
                                       (C)



                                                Lucas
             
                             Allen                            Ramirez




    Suarez                                                                           Dempsey
                                                   Borini

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  45. Alonso's void has been filled ages ago. Liverpool FC has moved on.

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  46. Helloisitmeyourlookingfor3:10 pm, August 01, 2012

    in response to the top comments...lucas hasnt replaced alonso, he has replaced mascherano.  no one will replace xabi, and joe allen is a different type of player.  he'll never be as good as xabi, but with his signing he could remove the need for a replacement xabi.  allen will come short to get the ball moving from our half, but wont be hitting 70yard world class passes.  he could be what we need though, as pre season has shown no matter how over-flowing our midfield is, no one wants to drop deep to start the moves going.  without that the whole philosophy of play doesnt work.

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  47. Of course they are entitled to an opinion but if it's not an informed opinion - by watching him play - then it is null and void. Needless response without a valid point on the matter…

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  48. Good job they haven't spoilt him with too much money so far. Liverpool won things under Rafa when he spent less. Too much money does not mean success, and can go to a manager's head.

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  49. With you there Jay. All we are getting is side/back mainly passing. Why bother with a scorer hey? This proposed team is not goping to be within the 4th/6th position by the end of the season - more like 8th/10th but with pretty passing!

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  50.  Xabi Alonso market value is more than 30.000.000 €



    Market value - development: Xabi Alonso

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  51. We have never replaced Alonso and i doubt anyone can replace him .

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  52. i have in the past stated that Xavi Alonso has never been truly replaced since he left . Maybe with Joe Allen onboard he gets finally replaced.

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  53. Rafa never work with Alonso prior to his arrival in Liverpool,
    Why you keep saying Alonso is Rafa's Joe Allen???

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  54. Or can we say Torres is Rafa's Borini???

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  55. No he hasn't..Lucas filled the gap left by Mach..Wehave never replaced Alonso.

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  56. I find this very funny and would only put this guy in the team if any if Lucas is not in.Even that I am convinced that Henderson would do a better job than him in our team or even shelvy.

    Ill tell you some fact
    He tackes half as much as Lucas 23 to 15
    Lucas is 8 times better with arial challenges  26 to 170
    He passes backwards almost 3 times more than lucas does 24 to 9 %
    Passes forward half the time that Lucas does.  26 to 56%

    Lucas actually creates 50 percent more chances than him!!!!!

    The only thing this guy does  better than lucas is score more goals and considering how many he scores each season in a more advance role then do we actually need him?

    Would a new manager use or of load him.

    I am not saying he is crap but we have  players who could do that job and more.

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  57. google joe allen against rival to obtain stats . ull be surprised. 15 mil waste of money if u ask me .

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  58. Good point Gaz but in my opinion we had a fluke of a bad season. How many times did the dominate games? How many shots did they have on goal as compared to ours? How many times was the opponents keeper man of the match and how many times did they hit the post. Yes the league  never lies but let us be honest just after xmas we were 4 points of 4th spot after half of the season. The players let themselves down. Just my opinion. We have the squad already in my veiw it just needs tweeking.

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  59. oh yes i knew we bought shelvy for 1.7 mil but was not sure of add ons and still not sure.

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  60. You think I am direspecting swansea? lol I remember when a brighton and bolton of the old beat us in cup matches. Does that mean they are a better team than us. Yes table never lies but we have  had some bad look last season. It only takes 10 percent less for us to shoot up the league. Surely we dont need 50mil for that.

    I repeat  if a squad can be 4 points of 4th place after playing  half their games then they are good enough to compete for champions league

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  61. We can never replace alonso, nor either mascherano for that matter. We should be looking to bring in people like Gaston Ramirez, him and Lucas would be fantastic together in the middle of the park! We have been linked with Gaston for 1-3 months now so why not splash the cash on him and get him to Liverpool! Joe Allen - yes he is good and had a good season, there again so did our very own Charlie Adam and look at him now, splash the cash on big stars that would want to help us regain our form! 3 years ago we were linked with Villa, Mata, Silva, now we are linked with joe Allen, Darren bent? What the hell is going on?
    YNWA!!

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  62. oh yeah, weve done amazing things.dream on

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  63. I'm curious. If Lucas is so brilliant why does nobody ever try to buy him? Not Real Madrid, Barcelona, Man City, Paris St Germaine...none of the moneybags clubs show the slightest interest. Maybe it's because he can't actually do anything. Just a thought.

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  64. Talented measured in terms of...what? Goals? Nope. Defence splitting passes. None of those either. Heading ability? Hardly. Dribbling? I think not. If he was any good one of the top teams would have bought him ages ago. His best career move was to get injured and avoid the flack.

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  65. No, LFC has moved back. Again. Or do you call last season progress?

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  66. Do you remember DiDi Hamman who literally won us the European Cup in 2005? He was so good at cleaning up the mess infront of the defence.. He hardly scored goals, no defence splitting passes...and from where did liverpool buy him? Newcastle for 8mil... And how come Madrid or Man U didn't buy him?? Some players do the 'dirty' job quietly and hardly get noticed. It does not necessarily mean that they are useless... look at what happened last season after he got injured. That should answer your thoughts!!

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  67. Lucas will be our next Club Captain after Gerrard.

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  68. We'll look back on capturing Allen as a decicive turning poInt and a monumental transfer coup. Much is made of his pass completion percentage which is relevant but for me not the most impressive aspect. For me the key is actually the TEMPO of his game. His possession is seldom static (like Henderson). almost always running the ball and pulling midfielders and defenders out of their zones. He was the key for Rogers in terms of setting the attacking tempo for Swansea. I believe Rodgers knew he would have to choose between Allen and Gylfi and did not hesitate a moment to let the latter go if it meant a guarantee of sufficient resources to bring in his lynchpin. This will be our most important signing of this season and into the future...

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  69. True. the blokes hardly a world beater! 2 or 3 decent games in 4 years.

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  70. Fat chance...but here's hoping..

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  71. Lucas is playing more in the Mascherano role (but with more to his game), and needs a passer alongside him in the Alonso role, ie Allen.

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  72. ------------------ Reina
    ------------- Skrtel 
    ------------------------ Agger

    Johnson --------------------- Enrique

    ---------- Lucas 
    --------------------------- Allen

    ----------------- Gerrard

    -----Suarez -------------- Ramirez

    ------------------ Borini


    Or something to that effect would make for a pretty good starting XI imo. We should seriously start investing in backup for some of these positions though, as soon as possible.

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  73. A season-long loan in the Premier League, especially at a team like Swansea who will inevitably have a similar playing style to us (or us to them, I should say), could see Shelvey develop into a class player, who may end up one of our main attacking midfielders in years to come. Good move!

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  74. How do u know that clubs havent enquired about him, or are you running the club in secret. Your comments suggest you wouldn't know a good player if he sat on you. 

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  75. Alonso is the one & only best midfielder, Lucas is the replacement of mascherano, Lucas has well improve defensively.  we need a good midfield like Alonso.  By the what about the replacement of Fabio Aurelio.  we got only the poor Jose Enrique.

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