Aquilani a crock?

It is half time now with LFC trailing Atletico Madrid by two goals to nothing (commentary in chinese though). As a pre-season game, it does look good with players getting the much needed match fitness and we could see flashes of what we are capable of. Carra took a knock early in the first half and was substituted. Let's hope it is nothing serious.

With him out, Atletico managed to score the two goals quite easily -- the first when Carra was at the sideline -- and with the other central defenders still out injured, it could be a disaster in the league in the event we get into this situation of not having a formidable substitute. Rafa might want to bring in at least one more defender to strengthen the depth of our team.

In the middle, the gap left by Alonso is still telling. Lucas (someone actually tried to engineer a move for him but I think it would be silly if he were to go back to his motherland at this stage of his career) is still Lucas albeit a wee bit better than last season. 

Much has been said about Aquilani being injured and could be out for up to 8 weeks. As for me, Rafa is no donkey hence nobody could take him on a ride. For a player that has not played many games for the past two seasons, Aquilani had the much needed surgery to rectify whatever it was that sidelined him for so long. And of course Rafa knows this because it would be just mindboggling to pay 20M for a player that might play only 15 games a season.

So, I would like to think that the surgery was a successful one and he needs around 2-4 weeks to be fully healed and maybe another 2-4 weeks to get back his full fitness, during which we might see him in action on and off. But the most important thing would be Rafa must have studied Aquilani's medical records and his potential in the league and decided on the positives rather than what we have been reading in the media.

One thing for sure though, we need him fast because at the moment the engine room of LFC is missing one important wheel. And when we are told that he is better than Alonso when attacking, more mobile going forward and could play between Mascha and Gerrard, it only points to a more attacking Liverpool next season. And all the teams that come to Anfield with the intention of parking the bus in front of their goal would need to think twice!

YNWA