Not playing and then selling Mascherano could go down as one of the biggest mistakes in Premiership history and makes it easy to see why West Ham find themselves in a relation battle with decisions like that.
Mascherano was totally frozen out at West Ham first by Alan Pardew and then by Alan Curbishley, how have these two seemingly intelligent managers deemed him not good enough to play for West Ham and maybe this is one reason for their clubs demise. I could have understood him been frozen out if he was sloppy in training or just was not putting the effort in but after getting clearance to play for Liverpool football club, Benitez played him on his first opportunity four days later to make his debut against Sheffield United, so Benitez must have thought he was fit enough to play.
A lot more happened at West Ham than we know, Pardew had two players brought into the squad that he knew absolutely nothing about, the fact that the two players spoke no English did not help.
Mascherano was already a bystander when Curbishley arrived so the trend continued from there, but it is no excuse for a team in a relegation battle to exclude a player with Mascherano`s talents.
Since Mascherano has arrived at Liverpool we have seen what a truly world class player he actually is, and more mockingly for West Ham the type of player he is. Mascherano is one hundred percent fitted to the Premiership, his dogged tackling and never say never attitude is perfect for the English game and a team in a relegation battle like West Ham sure could use a player like him, so why is he not still championing West Hams cause.
One little insight this week was given by Rafa Benitez, when asked about why Mascherano had done so well at Liverpool Rafa replied that at Liverpool it is easier for Mascherano because of all the Spanish speaking staff, if this is true,how unprofessional of West Ham for letting one the best players to pass through their club for years and not have given him a fair chance because they could not go out of their way to solve the problem.
Since Mascherano has moved to Liverpool i have started to think something i never thought i would.....selling Sissoko.
Sissoko has been a great servant for the club but unfortunately his passing seems to getting worse and worse, there is not many better ball winners in the prem but with Momo, soon as he wins the ball he passes it straight back to the opposition, Mascherano is very different when he wins the ball, he has the Gerrard or Alonso ability to play that incisive pass to start an attack and he is aware of where his team mates are at all times. I thought that Sissoko been dropped for the last few games might have been a wake up call to him, but his passing was as bad as ever against Reading and with both Mascherano and Sissoko playing in the same game it was the perfect opportunity to compare both players, and it was not good for Sissoko. Mascherano`s tackling was better timed and his distribution of the ball was miles ahead.
Sissoko is still young and under Benitez`s guidance will improve but Barcelona want Sissoko, we want Eto´o, if the situation arose that Sissoko`s departure to the Nou Camp would put us in pole position to capture the signature of Eto`o then for the good of the team, Liverpool Fc would be willing to part ways with Sissoko.
All this comes about because Rafa seen in Mascerano what two West Ham managers did not see in the Argentinian and what a huge loss it is for West Ham and if they do go down this year people will point at this as an indication of how badly the club has been run.
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