So much shite on the last page or two. Thankfully it's only the one idiot.
Couldn't give a fuck if he dived. He was trying to do the best for his team, even if it meant cheating to do so. You don't think Nando will go down easy against Atleti like he has done every other time it's suited him since he joined Liverpool? Course he will. The whole diving debate is tedious, especially when people go houlier than thou, given we've got a few prize cheats of our own when it comes to making the most out of minimal contact. No sense holding it against them though, because in all bar the most bizarre cases, you have to be a ruthless twat who is willing to cheat and steal his way to the top. There's no time for nice guys on the pitch.
As far as Garcia goes, he was totally off the cuff. I don't care that he lost the ball trying the unusual. I don't want to see a team of Makelele's who pass the ball 5 yards either side and do fuck all else. Fact is that the people who had a go at Garcia tend to be the same who are happy enough to call Rafa negative, paradoxically ignoring their criticism that playing Garcia was a risk (a gamble that continued to pay off right up until his injury).
Fact is that he was not only a big game player, but continually showed up in the games people would typecast as those which a flair player like himself should struggle in.
"Yeah, it's fine and well scoring against Juventus, but how will he fare on a wet and windy night in Sunderland, midweek in October?" .. well he scored. Oh, and just to prove that it wasn't a fluke he went and kept us in the game on a bleak winter's day at the Reebok.
Accusations of being lightweight look stupid when you see a couple of his performances against the Shite. They look stupid when you consider how he scored at the Reebok (twice, unofficially), away at Sunderland and Norwich. The label he's been given of showing up only in Europe is a myth. His goal record was just as good in domestic football. Never below a goal every 3.5 games, which is a better average than Gerrard has/had (Yes, Gerrard started more games, but then he also takes set pieces which Garcia never did bar the occasional corner). His goal records from starts is even better. His record in the league was just as good as it was in Europe, which makes the "he was good in Europe but not cut out for the league" nonsense even more infuriating. Joe Cole, widely considered as one of the better players in the league in the same position, has never scored more in a Premier League season than Garcia.
Garcia was a player who idiots were too keen to pigeonhole. He did well in big European games so he was clearly a 'european' player, not cut out for the league. The record and performances show otherwise. He was a "lightweight", despite being the man who ended Roy Keane's Manchester United career and played on in a Merseyside derby with an injury.
Garcia was a proper maverick when our team was void of individuality and was becoming increasingly machine-like. There were times, especially during that 2nd season, where his individuality and infectious attitude were one of the few things that got the pulse racing, even though we were winning with relative ease from mid-October onwards. He was, for my money, the first player since Fowler that was genuinely off the cuff in his approach to games. Those headers against Anderlecht and Fulham.. no one else we've had could have scored them. Not specifically because of the technique involved, but because no one else would have thought to try it in the first place. Same goes for his goal against Spurs towards the back end of his first season. The finish was great, but the technique involved was nothing that Gerrard or Alonso couldn't have pulled off with relative ease. It was the speed of turn and the single mindedness of the approach that seperated it from anything they could have done, and that's the part of him that reminded me of Fowler. The guy could finish superbly well, and had the best off the ball movement of just about anyone I can recall. I remember people blasting the guy for missing some sitters (Birmingham and Sao Paulo are the examples that spring to mind), but none of them seemed to be grasping that only he had the movement to get into those positions to begin with. The lad was bright, he was bubbly and he was a one off. I'll not lament the occasional miss-placed pass (there was only ever one - during his first season - that was costly as far as I'm aware). His positive contribution far out-weighed any dive he took, any sloppy pass he gave away or any opportunity he squandered.
He was a properly good footballer was little Luis, and despite the dismissive notions of "we've moved on", there would still be a place for the Luis Garcia of his time at Liverpool at the club now. The fact is that we've already had two goalless draws this season. Yeah, we're only goal differences off the top of the league, but the other 'big 4' haven't had any. Garcia scored goals, important goals at important moments. Yeah, his well of inspiration would all too often run dry after a 5 minute period in a match, and ultimately that's what stopped him from being amongst the very best around. However, more often than not, having Garcia on the pitch for those handful of minutes was worth it, and produced a result. You'll forgive me then, if you don't think we're too big to have a player who could have ghosted into the box and got a header or a scrappy tap-in against Stoke, or who could have picked up the ball 25 yards out, turned sharply and rifled one in, in the final 25 minutes away to Villa. He was more than capable. He was unbelievably illusive, and frankly, although the squad is far better now, he has not been adequetely replaced, and I say that as a huge fan of Benayoun. Benayoun would have complemented Garcia better than he could ever replace him, and asking him to do the latter is totally unfair on Yossi. Garcia was a one off.
Fuck the haters.
