14 Oct 2012

'It's rubbish talk!' - Hamann blasts England hero for slating 'great' LFC star...

Liverpool legend Dietmar Hamann has rubbished Alan Shearer's recent criticism of Reds midfielder Joe Allen, claiming that the Newcastle United legend knows nothing about passing the ball.

On Match of the Day recently, Shearer argued that Allen always goes for the easy pass, and rarely passes the ball forward.

Anyone who regularly watches Liverpool play knows that this is total nonsense, and in an interview yesterday, Hamann delivered a scathing verdict on Shearer's misguided assessment. He said:

"It’s rubbish to say Joe Allen only makes easy passes, and Shearer wouldn’t know about passing a ball because all he did was finish.

"He did a good job of putting it in the net but he never needed to pass a ball backwards or sideways.

"The fans are talking about Allen and rightly so because he’s been outstanding. Shearer’s remarks won’t make me change my mind"


Hamann is a big fan of the Welshman, and he believes that the 23-year old's form has 'softened the blow' of losing Lucas Leiva to injury. He added:

"What he has done for the football club so far has been great. He has had a big influence on the matches, and I’m not sure any other player would have had the impact he’s had.

“What I like about him is that he’s a real team player. He nicks balls, he wins it back and his passing is fantastic. He just plays his game and nothing fazes him.”


Allen's lack of attacking impact makes perfect sense. How can a defensive midfielder - which is ostensibly Allen's role right now - protect the back four effectively if he's making surging runs into the opposition box? Is this what Lucas does? NO, yet he is revered by Liverpool fans.

One issue that need to be addressed, however, is what happens when Lucas returns? I'm not sure Lucas and Allen can be an effective midfield partnership, and with the likes of Shelvey, Sahin, Gerrard and Henderson also vying for first team places in midfield, it will be interesting to see how Rodgers fits everyone in.

With everyone fit, my first choice team is as follows:

----------------------- Reina

Wisdom --------- Skrtel ---- Agger ---------- Johnson

------------- Allen --------- Sahin

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

Sterling ----------------------------- Suso

-------------------- Suarez

As good as he is, it's difficult to see where Lucas fits in. If Gerrard moves into a more attacking role, it would mean either Suso or Sterling dropping to the bench:

----------------------- Reina

Wisdom --------- Skrtel ---- Agger ---------- Johnson

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

-------------------- Sahin

Gerrard ----------------------------- Sterling

-------------------- Suarez

And what about Shelvey? He is playing fantastically well at the moment and deserves to be in the team, but at whose expense? To be honest, I wouldn't be against Shelvey replacing Gerrard in some games, but the idea of that seems to be anathema to the majority of Liverpool fans.

Jaimie Kanwar


33 comments:

  1. I guess we have had enough of Joe Allen already.

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  2. No 1 person bigger than LFC, so i for one would'nt mind Shelvey starting with Gerrard on the bench, he aint gettin any younger and like Carra, unfortunately becoming a liability in some games. YNWA

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  3. allen is a good player but nothing more. lets be real.. he does pass the ball well but thats all that he does. he doesnt open defence like iniesta or xavi. he doesnt score goals and make 40yard pass like lampard and gerrard. he doesnt make midfield runs like kaka or rosicky. people will defend him saying its because he plays just in front of the defence protecting it, but i wil say he definitely doesnt win balls like mascherano or lucas. others will say he just pass the ball, simple pass and keep the balance but there are many better out there doin it better than him and even making more assists. he will never be a xabi alonso either we all know that. a midfielder who doesnt score goals and doesnt make assists does not deserve to be in a such a great club.

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  4. wai pilon to ena raison

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  5. I'm a toon fan and think Shearer is an awful pundit but he was right about Allen. He's good enough for Swansea, not Liverpool. Liverpool are a massive club and I know the Carroll deal was a stinker but it's nearly as silly paying 15m pounds for Joe Allen.

    I seen Brendan 'OK' Rodgers call him the 'White Xavi' on that documentary. Someone needs to tell Rodgers that the white Xavi is a lad called Andres Iniesta, don't know if he rates him as he passes forwards and takes risks and responsibility, and doesn't just have a three way with the centre halves.

    And as for the fact Hamann's "not sure any other player would have had the impact he's had" shows how poorly he rates Liverpool to me. Sad to see such a great club declining that they couldn't attract a better player than Joe Allen.

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  6. KANWAAR WILL PLEASE JUST GO AWAY, YOU REALLY ARE AN ANNOYING TWAAAAT

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  7. that is a load of rubbish at the moment he is breaking up play including making important interceptions and then distrbuting the ball to the up field players his role at this moment is bridging the gap between defence and midfield which is a hugely underestimated one without him covering for lucas we will be struggling with the likes of spearing again so stop watching match of the day and watch full matches only then will you be able to appreciate what he does and when he goes back to his advanced roles he will start scoring making assists and being involved with most of liverpools attacking play

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  8. nice you just got yourself banned

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  9. Lucas Vs Allan is a nice dilemma to have, Allan has been excellent since his arrival, I was against him coming to LFC, but he has won me over since game one. Not knowing where to fit in players because they are talented is a welcome problem, if we can suffer the same problem up front after the January Sales, its happy days.

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  10. I disagree, I think Allen is a fantastic player, you could see at the Olympics against the brazilians Allen could hold his own with some of the best up and coming talent in the world. Yes Liverpool FC are a little behind where we need/would like to be but it's easy to forget we were so close to being a Rangers/Leeds UTD not so long ago! I believe Allen is the hungry aggressive type of player that is going to get us back challenging for honours, he is young and will only get better, with Suarez and others signing new deals plus being one of the most historic, famous Clubs in the world we can still attract good enough players. Sorry Jim, it might take a season or two, Liverpool FC will be a European force again soon.
    YNWA

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  11. It is all about balance. get a strong squad and rotation is key to keep players fresh and fighting for places. We have seen here before that pundits comments sometimes are just talk without sense.

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  12. Allen despite being a very good player was not needed in the squad. We had other priorities and other gaps to plug without paying £15 million for a DM. With Lucas, Henderson, Gerrard and later on Sahin able to cover, Rodgers should have spent the money on a proven goal scorer. Besides for all Allen's plaudits as a DM why have we been leaking goals every game he has played in so far this season, where is the protection he is meant to be giving the defence? The £15 million on Allen and the £10 million on Borini could have brought a quality proven goal scorer into the squad, what a difference that would have made so far this season.

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  13. Lachlan Armstrong7:23 am, October 15, 2012

    Lucas is essential to how we want to play. As good as Allen has been playing, he doesn't cover like Lucas does. As Johnson and Enrique play like quasi wingers they often get caught out of position as they are instructed to bomb forward and provide width and neither player is known for being outstanding defenders, they are known as attacking fullbacks ala Cafu. Lucas until he was injured last year did brilliantly well in covering for these fullbacks. Allen isnt as efficient in doing this and as you have seen so far this year the fullbacks have been getting caught out and we are leaking goals from these areas. Lucas' return will go a long way to fixing this. Allen, Sahin and Henderson will compete for the other central position, whilst Gerrard, Shelvey and Sahin will compete for the more advanced role.

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  14. seems a lot of us dont watch lfc often jaimie because it seems people are seeing what i have said for ages about allen stats prove nothing i would rather gerrard had a 50% pass rate and create 2or3 chances than allen have 100% pass rate and do absolutly nothing with the ball every game

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  15. Alen Sherear,he give wrong comment for wrong players.LFC players who only lazy hijack the ball after missing,making easy passing the ball and lazy to tackling is S.Downing, J.Henderson and Joe Cole.Joe Cole some times his silly tackle will give penalty or free kick front the LFC gol.This 3 players should not wearing LFC for next season.

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  16. Too early to expect Suso and Sterling to be starters most matches, I agree your 1st 11 will probably be the way forward, but Lucas imo is essential and Allen can play farther forward, we just haven't seen it yet while he covers for the loss of Lucas

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  17. absolute rubbish, Rosicky doesn't run a midfield. Allen has been playing the busquets role if you are comparing him to Iniesta or Xavi ever since Lucas has been injured. That means since Allen has been at the club he has been playing the holding position. How many does Busquets get? Or Carrick who you could say does the same job for Man United, or Mikel at Chelsea. You have no clue.

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  18. I think you'll find that one player can not make up for the mistakes of four defenders. It's not Allens fault players like Johnson or Enrique haven't been in the right position to prevent goals. Or look at the Skyrtel pass for Man City's second goal at Anfield. If we didn't have Allen we would be playing Jay Spearing there.

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  19. Even if the 50% fail rate at passing can lead to potential costly counter attacks by the opposition, like by Arsenal? Gerrard's way of orchestrating play make him quite fallible in a deep central midfield role in today's football, where the likes of Allen and Xabi play. One of the reasons why he got pushed to the right or behind the striker and showed the best form of his career in those roles, as he is better off there. Never cut the mustard for me in relation to a deep central midfield role, Gerrard. Just not patient or subtle enough. Allen's role is not to do what Gerrard does in a attacking midfield role, as he plays deeper. The likes of Xabi and Makalele barely got any assists or goals in their careers. It is not the be all and end all to a player in their position. In that role, keeping the ball is more paramount, instead of trying to force the issue like Gerrard does and having a good chance of potentially lethal turnover by the opp.

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  20. Despite the somewhat similar attacking nature of the full backs of last season and this season, it is two different teams systems between the one used by KK II and Rodgers now (which is why I think your reasoning is somewhat flawed). Which has a distinctly different impact on the central midfield as Rodgers deploys a high and quick pressing game, whereas KK II's off-the-ball defending was more deeper and allowed the team to settle defensively, which allows the team to get more numbers behind the ball quicker . Whereas Rodgers' high pressing system means that once the opposition gets the past the initial high pressing, it can leave at times the holding central midfielder more vulnerable as the initial pressing players are out of the game at that point. I agree Allen isn't similar to Lucas but Lucas alone will not solve the problems of this season, it will be him AND Allen that will solve it as they are more clever in terms of defensive awareness and are more conservative than Sahin, Shelvey or Gerrard. So I mean Allen is having to do too much of the protecting, because of the team's learning period of adapting to this pressing system as well as he is partnered with more attack-minded central midfielders, instead of Lucas. More easy to counter attack this system than the last season's after opposition get past the high press. It will take time for the team to adapt to the nature of the defending that is required for such a system. Lucas alone will not change that, it needs Allen and the team in general to adapt to this new system

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  21. Nor should he make runs like Kaka or Rosicky, considering neither of them have played such a deep lying central midfield role in their careers. One is a second-striker or a attacking midfielder in front of a three/two-man central midfielder. And the other, at best, gets used as secondary central midfielder in relation to defensive work (i.e., he plays alongside a holding midfielder).

    Xabi played and plays the same role, he barely gets any assists, as well as those illustrated by Senor Burke.

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  22. at least it leads to something allen is like a crab on his good days and to compare him to the 2 players you did wake up in your dreams

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  23. Yep, it leads to something, sometimes a costly counter attack.



    Yep, I compared Gerrard the deep central midfielder version and I simply don't rate that version of Gerrard. Stevie G is the better OVERALL player but as a deep central midfielder, I'd rather have someone like Allen who can keep the ball, instead of going for the hollywood option a lot. Stevie will always be a quality attacking midfielder behind the front man or on the right, anything else he is average at best.



    Allen is no more of a crab than Lucas, Makalele, Busquets, Xabi, Senna, etc, who are about keeping the ball, instead of trying to force the issue, and most, if not all, have proved to be important for their respective teams.

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  24. Allen and Lucas are complementary players. If they are both fit, I cannot see either of them dropped to the bench, they will be the core of the Liverpool midfield for years to come.

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  25. You are comparing oranges with lemons - they might come from the same family but they are not the same. We have been missing a player like Allen ever since Alonso left Liverpool - and none of the players above have the same qualities as Allen.

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  26. Henderson, Gerrard and Sahin are not holding players.

    As to the leaking goals, far too simple to blame it on the defensive midfielder. The whole team is supposed to defend, especially in this system.

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  27. and i would rather have lucas so wheres that going to leave xabi iam sorry mean allen then jamie posted the other day that in 3 years allen has ten assists/goals 2 of those years were in championship hardly prolific for 15million

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  28. Assists and goals aren't the be all and end all for the likes of Makalele, Lucas, Allen, Busquets, Senna, Xabi, Carrick, etc, as clearly illustrated by their lack of assists/goals but yet have huge importance to their teams.



    Don't know what your trying to achieve with the silly '...leave xabii iam sorry mean allen....' but just to make it clear I did not say Allen is as good as Xabi, although I did imply that they fulfil mostly the same role, which is distinctly different.


    So you'd rather have Lucas, who barely has any assists and goals, which seems to be your requirement for a central midfielder. Nice.


    I'd rather have both Lucas and Allen in the same side, which gives more protection as well as more license to the others around them, that is 'wheres that going to' go, imo

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  29. Whether Allen is the player we need and whether certain fans think he has been outstanding this season for how he keeps the possession playing sideways passes I'm just thinking are these the same fans who ripped apart Jordan Henderson apart last season for doing the same thing.

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  30. Hendo was doing the same thing.......on the right wing.


    Not quite the same role...


    When Allen starts doing those things on the right wing or in the hole, than he'll get criticised by me in the same manner I criticised Hendo's performances on the right wing or in the hole last season.

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  31. Allen, 21 yrs and first season at Liverpool. How could he possibly be doing a bad job, with his interception and passing??? he's done miles better then our recruits last year... added together! Lay off him. If anything, its obvious we can see he will urn out to be "a monster of a player" once he has developed! At best, he will turn out tp be like Hamman. Intercept, Standing tackles, and the simple passes to keep things stable but very very effective.

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  32. Allen is easily our best player so far.

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  33. Johnson should not be in the team until such time he learns how to defend effectively. He has poor ball control, no pace, made countless mistakes, dribbles unnecessarily and abandoned his position forcing the centre backs to cover for him. His performance contributes majorly to Liverpool's poor start to the season.

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