Wishes he had gone to Barcelona in the summer?
Can’t handle the pressure of being Argentinian captain?
Worried that he won’t be going to the World Cup?
Whatever Javier Mascherano’s problem is – he needs to get his focus back and get back to playing some decent football for Liverpool. The manner in which he is started Liverpool’s season – it is almost understandable why West Ham only played him 5 times.
The man everyone loves to pick on, Lucas Leiva, has been the shining light of the holding midfielders this season as Masch seems to have his mind on other matters.
It is well documented that Javier is ‘struggling’ on around half the salary of the big earners at Anfield. The ironic thing is if he hadn’t flirted with Barcelona (who never had the funds to purchase him) he probably would have been another player handed a significant contract extension.
His agent brother probably did more harm to him than anybody with his constant media interviews suggesting it was a dream for Javier to go to Barcelona.
Benitez may well have had his hand forced to sell Alonso, but Mascherano? A player that Liverpool rescued from obscurity to become the captain of his country. I would also have demanded a bit more loyalty in that regard.
Now the contract extension for Javier (that he probably would have already received) is being dangled in front of him by Rafa *IF* he improves his performances. With Aquilani hopefully debuting for the reds in the next few weeks, and some solid performance from Leiva, Mascherano may not be the shoe-in he probably expected to be.
Maybe Javi thinks he’s the dogs swingers now that he’s the Captain of a struggling South American side – but even that doesn’t guarantee you football at the worlds greatest football club.
He would do well to re-focus on the club that pays his wages, the club that turned his career around, and if he doesn’t then maybe we’ll have to send Gerrard around.
My gut reaction to his flirtation with Barcelona this summer would have been to sell him. I don’t want anybody at the club who isn’t committed to play with passion. Unfortunately, as was shown in the Alonso situation, our current owners seem more interested in removing assets from the club and if we had sold him for £50M, no doubt Rafa would have received a fraction of that to try and replace him.
As it is, with our unsupportive board it was imperative we kept hold of him.
He needs to start to repay Benitez’ faith and the fans support.
Billy Green says:
Mon 21 Sep 09 at [01:38]
Well we’ve hardly won anything with him. How many trophies have we had since Masch’s arrival? And if my memory serves me right we beat Burnley 4-0 without him, we won 1-0 in Europe without him. So I think we’ve proven, on numerous occasions, that we can we win without him.
And we wouldn’t of beaten the Irons without him? Nobody can know that. There’s a fair chance we would of won because we’re better than the Hammers, While Masch had a good game, saying we wouldn’t of won without him is plainly idiotic.
I cannot believe how ungrateful you are of having him at our club. Any club in the world would welcome him with open arms. he puts 100% every game, great tackler, good passer. Why do you think the best team in the world wanted him!!!
Lucas is not half the player that Masch is, he wishes he has half the ability that Masch has. Lucas is always fouling and giving away unneccesary penelties because he does not have the ability to play a full game. I think RAFA needs to rethink his strategy in playing Lucas.
he is so crap that when the strongest team in Europe wanted to improve their midfield they tried to sign him. The kind of person who would have a go at masch is the person who reads and believes the papers rather than going the game.
*sorry about the typo’s
He is the best midfielder in his position in the world & will only get batter. He is also my favourite player in the world, bar none. I think Argentina is distracting him as his the problems his wife is having every time she comes into the country from abroad.
Javier Mascherano should be rewarded with a bumper contract; in fact I do not know why he isn’t already tied down to a 5 year deal.
We lost Xabi – well that was sad, but was made that little bit easier by the 30M we got for him. He had no pace, hardly scored any goals & his form dipped more than a fair ground ride. Selling him – very good business.
Selling Masca would be suicide. When he plays we look assured as a team. I actually think Lucas is stifling Javier. Why do we need two defensive midfielders? We don’t. When Javier plays we as a team look formidable. Fernando is great, Stevey G is the best – but Masca is where it all happens.
He has already been quoted as saying he see’s Rafael Benitez as a father figure, so loyalty isn’t the question. Stop piss balling around & give him that contract. Let him get back to 100% concentration & in doing so help deliver us trophies.
How is Mascherano’s wife problem distracting him? She is not barred from coming and going out of UK. If she chooses not to reside in Uk that is her choice though not helpful to her husband’s well-being. The worst that may happen is that she needs a visa (which I am sure she has; helped off course by Mascherano’s profile). The only way I can see her having a problem at the immigration is if the guys at the gate are all Man-U supporters.
Anyway, I think Mascherano was only tring that excuse on as part of his get out of Anfield strategy. Hope he rediscovers his form soon and continues to play well for us for a long time to come.
The monster is getting into it. Didnt we see the long passes he is now making, ala Alonso style. He can make the passes long and short tell!. Have faithin the little monster. YNWA !
sell him he is crap
he is important to our drive to win the title race. his form according to opta stats is amazing. on that give him a long term extension
Yeah we should have let him go in the summer!!!! And we would really have been f#####d in midfield. Poor article.
Barcelona would be welcome to Mascherano based on recent form in my opinion. Agger/Lucas/Gerrard/Aquilani might make for a far more productive defensive midfield pairings than anything Mascerano offers at the moment. All have better passing skills and probably better game intelligence.
When the debate over whether Alonso should go I always thought we would have been better to have lost Mascherano instead. I was right.
i am sorry but every successful club needs a excellent holding midfielder and javier is just that his interceptions stops most teams fluent football.
West Ham v Liverpool. Stats marcherano 95 passes 83 completed, 3 key passes. If we’re going to win anything it will be with marcherano in the first 11. He,s the new Hamman. Say what you want about the transfer spec it never happened. He pulled on a red shirt yesterday and without him we wouldn’t have 3 points. Fact!
We wouldn’t have won the game without Mascherano? (or marcherano as you call him).
Hmm…
that is right yes, he was decisive in running the midfield by breaking down attacks and keeping liverpool in possession for large portions of the game. The large spells of possession resulted in to constant stream of chances that managed ultimately to provide the goals to beat, on the day, a very strong hammers.
Had Torres not scored two excellent goals he might of been man of the match.
I’m not sure what you mean by ‘hmm’. Perhaps its hard for you to bring anything meaningfull to the discussion because you’re not sure of what you want to say.
Like I said he is an absolute class act and we won’t win anything without him.
Well we’ve hardly won anything with him. How many trophies have we had since Masch’s arrival? And if my memory serves me right we beat Burnley 4-0 without him, we won 1-0 in Europe without him. So I think we’ve proven, on numerous occasions, that we can we win without him.
And we wouldn’t of beaten the Irons without him? Nobody can know that. There’s a fair chance we would of won because we’re better than the Hammers, While Masch had a good game, saying we wouldn’t of won without him is plainly idiotic.
the game was won in midfield by winning possession here we were able to supply the attack with many chances which resulted in the winning goals. Of our midfield players Masch worked the hardest and kept us in possession and enabled our goals with 3 key passes.
Not sure if you watched the game but there are facts as rafa says.
Rafa also said
“he is a key player for us and he will be a key player for us during the season.”
I’m sure rafa knows better than both of us, what do you think he meant by that.
When I looked last week he was leading Opta Stats … so what’s the problem?
Now that that’s sorted… What the is wrong with Carra at the moment???
It’s early in the season and he’s just returned from Argentina si i’ll give him the benefit of the doubt for a few games.Perhaps he’s just of form but his general attitude seems fine to me.
We the l.f.c fans took him in after west ham treatment off him was poor.
rafa had faith in him the artical is correct.
i think he better start all over again in his mind because it all started at liverpool
get that right and everytthing else will fall in place stop having the pub player mentalaty
mascha we love you m8.
And yes i dont like lucas but he is doing well kudos to him well done so far.
i dont think mascher has played badly this season.
Spot on!
spot on…bulls eye…great article