Topic: The Joy Of Luis Alberto

[royhendo]

I want to post a customised book cover of a bearded man with his special lady friend. But no. This is about football.

I don't think he'll command a regular starting role in the side this season, because the manager has a realistic tilt at the top four places, we have a returning Suarez into our fold, and he's not in the strongest 11, not by a distance. But this boy has a football brain. That's how they used to say it, before they talked about "football intelligence". He has a football brain. Dalglish had one of them. Alonso and Molby, players who had a football brain. We hated him, but Scholes had one of them. They mightn't always operate at 100 miles an hour in a game, but they'll inject a little pace when they need to, and they'll try and move the ball to the places that hurt the other side the most, as quickly as possible, and they'll always be available to their team mates as an option, and their team mates will learn to trust them as that option, no matter how tightly marked they are.

A football brain.

I posted a few tweets on Sunday to try and illustrate that, and a little of his cerebral approach to the game.


Offensive Pressure

We've not seen much of the kid during real competitive games yet, but we have seen 10 minutes at a time when Man United were chasing the game, and we were sitting deep inviting them on to us. For me, Alberto coming on was like Rodgers taking a cotton wool ball, soaking it in vinegar, and applying it to the open wound in David Moyes's game plan.

Alberto closes down Ferdinand. He stands. He doesn't jump in.



The old thing when people jump in and the commentator says "Ah he didn't need to make a challenge there - it took the pressure off."

Ferdinand has no option but to play it to De Gea. Alberto gestures to Sturridge to stay wide and closes De Gea.



De Gea has no option but to try and return it to RF, but gets flustered and it goes out of play.



Alberto still coaching - stay wide. I've got this bit on my own. 

[royhendo]

Some Notts County footage now. It wasn't all great (pace is a question mark), but the same stuff was going on.

Coaching

Notts County break. Alberto has his back to play briefly. Why? He's orchestrating the pressure. Push up and block that option off.



Notts County build from the back. Gesturing to Sturridge to cover left.



Still urging the midfield to push up behind the first line of pressure.



Pressure on, still being a pain in the arse to his compadres.




Habits and Expectations

The thing is, he's used to things from team mates, or if he isn't, he expects them. Take this in the Notts County game. Ibe gets poleaxed in the box (clear penalty), and the ball breaks loose. Alberto knows the play's still active, in spite of the injustice, and he closes the defender down in the corner of his own box, showing him inside, into where he expects the reinforcements, the extra pressure. The defender takes the option... and there's no support. Alberto's reaction?

[royhendo]

The wee blind ball with the outside of his foot

Gerrard is a lovely exponent of this one too. Little blind dink across the front of a marker, ghost in behind for the return ball, and play is open for a more incisive ball. The first game he played against Preston in pre-season, it led to a goal.

Alberto receives a ball from the centre half (Wisdom) with his marker closing.



Alberto takes a touch into 'the blind side' and plays the wee blind ball across his man.



His man's eyes following the ball, Alberto steps back and inside behind his man, ready to receive it back from Sterling, move into the space and pass (first time, of course, through the eye of a needle) to Pacheco.



The first time ball that ensues. Pacheco turns inside, play develops, Aspas scores his debut goal.






Another more dynamic example is the 2nd goal against Notts County, where his dink to Allen, followed by Allen's simple ball to Gerrard, provides Gerrard with the picture to feed Sturridge.

Again, Alberto shows for Wisdom, and Wisdom feeds him it.



Again, a touch by his man.



And again, the blind ball through the little gap to Allen.



Gerrard in acres of space, play develops, 2-0. 

[royhendo]

The Old Head

Closing stages of the match against Man Utd again. We need cool heads and we need to stay compact. We need to torment them and do things like put it in the corners, as Gerrard was having to remind senior pro Martin Skrtel at the death. Well, purist wise, maybe we don't. But we're born again hard.

Luis Alberto and Raheem Sterling, both spring chickens, already have it in their blood. Enrique toes it clear as Man Utd pour forward in search of an equaliser. It falls to Alberto.



He rolls it into the path of the Sterling. Meep Meep. 



Sterling (we know he's special, or we should) holds up the ball as defenders close in, and Alberto ghosts in behind in support. Sterling checks, and finds his man, and again, he rolls it into the path of Sterling. Meep Meep.



Carrick goes through the back of Raheem, the clock ticks on. Tick tock tick tock.



The Man Utd players, heads somehow not in the game, berate the ref and argue the toss. But Gerrard and Alberto are awake, and Gerrard beats the cameraman in rolling it to Alberto, who keeps going with the torture. Tick tock.




The Centre Of Gravity

And the lightweight Alberto, who needs to beef up quick if he's going to cut it in English football, first rolls Cleverley (admittedly no behemoth)...





All that's missing is the red cape. Ole!

Nani closes in...



Old faithful - the outside of the boot...



This time things break down, two more defenders covering.

Wisdom seconds later demonstrates the same strength and control of his centre of gravity with Evra and Wellbeck pressuring him in the opposite corner. Wisdom's held out as a young man who already has the physical power to cut it. There's an argument to be made that balance is enough, if you know how to use it.

[royhendo]

And as if to underline his limitations on this front, seconds later from the resulting throw, he shows for it, and hey presto, Vidic is on top of him in the corner. Vidic, who is no Cleverley. Alberto digs in, braced for the contact, but maybe Vidic is representative of the little extra power he needs.



Vidic starts to get his body across him.



The ball runs dead.



Not far off, and still annoying for the visitors, but illustrative of where he might be when he gets that wee bit more physically mature.

[royhendo]

Then, right at the death, De Gea palms Sterling's shot over the bar, and Alberto draws out the resulting corner like a torturer.



And Cleverley, bless him, runs across to spot the ball.



For some reason, when it looked like they might close out the game together in that corner, Sturridge played it dead for the goal kick. I love the way he turns to Sturridge as if to say "The f@ck was that?".

[royhendo]

Weight of pass

Lastly, the best instrument of torture in his chamber of footballing horrors.

If you play centre half, you know the way a ball's lofted or weighted can break your heart. I mean, when you're tired, or you're anxious about the fella you're marking, if a ball's just delivered out of your reach, and it happens, say, three times in the first 20 minutes of a game, your whole approach to a game shifts.

Alberto has this - it's another aspect of the whole Chinese Water Torture thing.

Fetch the kleenex. This is the saucy bit.

Deep inside his own half, his side about to break, Alberto surveys the pitch.



He opens his body as if to play a simple ball wide right.



And then cuts it across his own axis and through the gap, with perfect weight for the on-running Delofeu.





Both those centre halves thought they might be able to intercept it. That ball from 40 odd yards away. It perfectly bisected them, and only Delofeu cottoned on to the fact its delivery might just fall beyond their despairing challenge.

Sauce.

When I saw that ball, as the old woman says in When Harry Met Sally on the first time she met her husband, "I knew. I knew the way you know about a good melon."

Who knows? Maybe experience here will hard wire some serious grit into the kid. But as things stand, this is a player to savour.

This thread is to savour these little moments. The moments where the footballing brain shines through. It's not to whinge, or to whine, or to analyse this and that. It's to post stuff that shows a footballing brain in action.

It'd be nice if we could reserve it for that.

[Mr Dilkington]

The Latino Jay Spearing.


Magnífico mensaje, Roy.

[Hinesy]

reserved.

[Garstonite]

That top one in the Utd game was played out right in front of me. I'm glad someone else commented on it, because I mentioned it in the pub after and nobody was listening to me.

[Aristotle]

Finally a replacement for the Maxi chant.

Luis. Luis Alberto he likes to point at things.

[TepidT2O]

This thread has far too few views.

Great insight Roy


Cheers.

[NaivetyinBlack]

Ha ! I wanted to illustrate the 'weight of pass' ability but did not have any pre season games. Great stuff.

Alberto has an exceptional football brain. That much, we can all see from his limited appearances. I hope he continues delighting us.

[robertobaggio37]

Brilliant Roy, cheers for that.


I think he will be very important player for us in near future. I already love him, great footballer.

[Filler.]

Good read. I like him too.

That top one in the Utd game was played out right in front of me. I'm glad someone else commented on it, because I mentioned it in the pub after and nobody was listening to me.

It was an important, joyful moment, coming right after Nani put in his shite cross from wide right. Was great to see. Little things can mean alot, and injects a strengthening of resolve when it was needed most.

[Zlen]

Nice read.
Have to say I didn't notice any of it during the match vs ManU.
Too busy biting nails anxiously.

[Kerant]

Superb stuff! Enjoyed reading that, thanks mate

[dogeibbor]

Great thread! Love how he expects his teammates to follow his command when pressuring. Maybe its something he picked up during his year at Barcelona..

[indlfc]

Great read that 

[RedBlakey]

Missed this one first time round.

Really enjoyed reading that and thought it was a very well put across piece of analysis.

Royhendo is this your pitch to replace Hansen on Match of the Day ?

[hesbighesred]

It's a lovely piece of work Royhendo. I particularly liked Sterling's 'meep meep'. I'll keep an eye out for scrapbook moments.

[CraigDS]

Excellent read, I do think we have something special on our hands if he continues to progress.

[royhendo]

It's a lovely piece of work Royhendo. I particularly liked Sterling's 'meep meep'. I'll keep an eye out for scrapbook moments.

Hello! Nice to see you on Sir

[CHOPPER]

Time will only tell Royston.


There was a certain young player many a moon ago who many thought had the skill, the touch and the brain to make it, sadly, he didn't. Today, the poor sod plies his trade at Anfield as a coach.


It will be an interesting 18 months for Mr Alberto.

[OLDIE]

Excellent read, one question is young Mr Alberto your long lost love child ?   

[PROPER crazyemlyn72]

ahh jaysus roy, you have a great command of the english language. as i scrolled down through every post the chuckles became louder. what a beautiful way to start a saturday morning.

oh yeah, my footballing input. "luis looks really good".

[IanZG]

While he hasn't set the world alight with his first few games, I'm very pleased with what he has shown. He looks as composed on the ball as any of our players (hard to believe he's so young), his cameo against the scum was very good in my opinion, glad people are pointing out his good performances. He should be a big upgrade on Jonjo this season

[Koplass]

I agree with this Roy. I really liked the look of him in pre-season, sometimes you can tell almost instantaneously that a player has a bit of class about him. I think Alberto does, and at quite a young age too.

[Prof]

Excellent work Roy.

He's definitely in the mould of player we will see more of under Rodgers.  He has those perceptual and decision making skills I mentioned in The System is the King thread.  The sort needed to bring out more from the players around him.  Don't be surprised to see him join a list of palyers RAWK loves but the wider world doesn't get. 

[G1-tiga]

Thanks Roy, great read that.

Was really excited about this signing when we made it this analysis shows me that there really is a reason to be excited about Luis Alberto.

[SerbianScouser]

This is why spanish are so dominant and so ahead of the rest of the footballing world. Football education they provide to these players is outstanding. Would he be so clever in these situations and have this kind of understanding if he was brought up in England or many other countries? I doubt it.
I think its obvious that his game intelligence is what drew the attention of our recruitment team and hopefully it will be the standard set for the future targets. Players with high football IQ can give us the edge over our competitors.
Who knows if Alberto will fulfill his potential but looking at a bigger picture it makes me happy knowing that BR and his team are insisting on this kind of qualities. Happy days.

[Red_Mist]

Finally a replacement for the Maxi chant.

Luis. Luis Alberto he likes to point at things.

Enjoyed his performance against Notts County. Then was surprised to hear/read grumblings about the same performance. Glad to see some of the things I felt I was seeing confirmed.

Oh and thanks for putting meep meep in my head Roy, that's going to stick every time I see RS charging down the wing. Just hope I don't say it aloud 

[Euskadi]

Absolute joy to read thank you very much for that as it must have taken bloody ages.

[royhendo]

Meep meep credits have to go to Ian McIntosh, who coined the verb "to meep meep".

[saoirse08]

Wow! That was enlightening. Excellent work. Cheers.

[Asam]

Great OP, I noticed his intelligence immediately as his best attribute, I remember Xabi orchestrating things in a similar way when he first joined and thinking to myself he's got the right stuff, will be interesting to see which position he settles in

[LFCDynamic]

By the looks of things, it seems that we're developing a real spine for our squad. If alberto does, fulfill his potential, I think it would be a real sign towards continuity that all top teams look to establish. Exciting stuff. Thanks for the read.

[dnkw]

Thanks Roy.

One thing that struck me in one of the preseason games was his capacity to receive the ball on the half turn so he's already facing play and ready to move forward. Exciting!

[Red_Mist]

Meep meep credits have to go to Ian McIntosh, who coined the verb "to meep meep".

As in "that Wile E old full back was thoroughly meep meeped there..." 

[Yorkykopite]

Bloody 'ell Roy. I spent too much time on here, not to put too fine a point on it,  pointing out Jay Spearing's pointing. Now you're saying there's actually a point to the pointing after all.

Of course this lad's exciting. Better name than Jay's, true. But bigger brain and better skills too I think. So three points to you.