slappybrown wrote:I don't know what your actual opinion of Aquilani is beyond your making fun of him with intent to poke fun a Benitez, but he's a very good player. Unfortunate start at Anfield though, no doubt.
United played Roma 6 times over the past few years and I watched those matches very intently. I honestly don't recall seeing him play. Spaletti (sp?) liked to interchange his midfielders and forwards, so maybe that made it hard for 1 guy to stand out. I remember Totti of course, although he always seemed injured. DeRossi is a thug extraordinaire. The Montenegrin striker (Vukinic sp?) was also impressive IMO. I watched the 30+ minutes of extra time Roma played vs. Arsenal in the Euro Cup knockout round last year. I watch random Serie A games. I watched Euro 08 and WC 06. Odds are I probably have seen him play several times but he hasn't done anything that stood out while I was watching.
The comments Rafa made about a young player are absurd. AA is 25 years old coming from one of the top leagues in Europe and he played on a perennial Euro Cup qualifier. He isn't an academy graduate. Furthermore, who would be afraid to play anybody against Blackburn? Maybe they will kick opponents all over the park, but that is a great time to blood in new players because Blackburn generally sucks. If you lose possession to them it doesn't matter. The statement is ridiculous.
If AA is so great, why is Rafa boasting about some allegedly great goal in training? That sounds like something a manager would say about a young player on trial or perhaps an academy player that doesn't regularly train with the 1st team. If AA was great vs Inter, Juve, Milan, various Euro Cup opponents, various International opponents for the Azzurri, etc why would Rafa brag about some goal in training? Again it is absurd.
AA was going to be some kind of attacking missing link to not necessarily replace Alonso, but add some kind of allegedly needed attacking element. Now the expectation is he will struggle, especially with tackling and against "difficult"

teams like Blackburn, but he will be much better in a few seasons. That is balmy (how many times can I use absurd in 1 post).