Kuyt, Voronin and Babel cost us Wednesday’s Carling Cup game against Arsenal. Plain and simple.
Why? Not one of them was good quality enough when it mattered. What I have been saying about Kuyt is, that without Gerrard and Torres he is exposed for what he really is: a workhorse with a poor first touch, and a player who needs five chances before he scores. Voronin was so poor I would never let him near a Red shirt again; and Babel well he has gone so far down hill, he needs to move on.
The rest played ok, but lets be honest here — we do not have the squad to win all competitions. We need to save are best players for the Premier League and Champions League matches. So the Mickey Mouse Cup is the last thing we need to worry about. Fulham then Lyon are far more important for you lot who say it’s a trophy to win. I say if that is all Rafa did win, you critics of Rafa would have said it was only the Mickey Mouse Cup.
In your eyes he would not win. With a bit of luck we could have won, but hey, that’s my opinion. I still think the top four should not be in this competition; the Champions League and Premier League come first. Hell, even the Fa Cup is better quality competition that the Carling Cup. What I’m trying to say is that we cannot afford to pick up injuries in silly cup competitions like the one on Wednesday. We don’t have the squad to back us up, as last night proved.
We’ve all waited long enough to see £20 million summer signing Alberto Aquilani on the pitch, but finally — finally! — it looks we’ll finally get the chance to see him in action with the senior squad.
Rafa spoke earlier today and confirmed that Aquiliani will make the bench and could be used in a sub role during the match.
“He will be with us. He is improving his fitness, so he’s in the squad.
“He cannot start at this moment but he will be there and maybe we can give him some minutes. If it’s possible we will try to use him.”
He also feels the Italian midfielder could bring a different dimension to the middle of the pitch. I know a quality player of his calibre would be a welcomed sight!
“We can see in every training session that he has quality, game intelligence and good movements,” said the Spaniard. “He is a different kind of player for us.
“We talk about using Gerrard deeper sometimes, but maybe in Aquilani we have a player who can play there and pass the ball really well in the final third.”
Let’s all hope he gets the chance to play 15-20 minutes tomorrow. I for one can’t wait to see him walk out on the Emirates pitch for the first time this year.
Arsenal is never an easy game, so lets hope the lads who play give it their all. Oh, and all of you calling for Pachecho to play…he can’t. He was called up by Spain to play in the next U19 match.
But we have enough good youngsters to give Arsenal trouble (Ecclestone is one such player who we should all be looking for). I know it’s not the most important game, but i want a win. Let’s hope we can nick them at the Emirates and move on to the next round of the Mickey Mouse Cup. After the high on Sunday, we can only hope the positive vibe continues on Wednesday.
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