In the summer of 2009 Liverpool football club thought they had successfully acquired a footballer that was going to light up the Premiership for years to come. How wrong could they be? Since Alberto Aquilani’s big money move from AS Roma to Liverpool the Italian has failed to reach any sort of form, and seemingly turned himself into arguably the Premier League's biggest flop of the noughties.
Consequently, the midfielder now finds himself back in Italy playing his football with Juventus, slowly but surely rebuilding a career that seemed to have been destroyed during his short spell in England. It would be impossible to tell you whether his shocking time at Liverpool was the fault of then manager Rafa Benitez, the player’s injury proneness or simply just poor timing.
However, numerous factors have now changed, for example management on all levels, and the player is now fit and finding form again back in his home country. Given the creative ability he has shown in the past, was Hodgson’s decision to let him leave on loan during the summer a premature and ill judged one?
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Arguably Aquilani gained unfair critics during his time at Liverpool. The player was continuously compared to Kop favourite Xabi Alonso, and was furthermore played in positions less familiar. You could say the odds were stacked up against the boy from start.
One such fan believes Aquilani has the ability to produce defence splitting passes assisting the team’s strikers furthermore saying “Roy Hodgson plotted his own downfall the minute he loaned him out. Look at the effect Paul Scholes has on the game; he controls it from the centre circle, spraying balls to all areas of the pitch, mainly in the oppositions half. The goals are at each end of the pitch and we have two central midfield players in Lucas and Poulsen who only know how to pass the ball sideways, doesnt take a genius to work out where the problem is there.”
Is this fan alone in his opinion? Or would Aquilani’s return be unjustified giving his previous spell at the club?
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