Alonso has an eye for an goal, and is decent in the attacking department, if he could tighten his defense it would be very good for us. Saying that i think his pairing with Luiz leaves us extremely open, perhaps we should give Christensen or Cahill a go.

48 minutes ago, TrueBlueBIH said:

 or Cahill 

No way. Probably Garry on the right and Rudi on the left, but the way you put the solution - guaranteed not working. 

On 19/08/2018 at 12:17, coco said:

He's lethal in attacking positions because he can wonder into the box and doesn't get picked up, and even when he does get picked up he's hard to stop as he's quiet a big player. His first touch is always brilliant, probably the best first touch in the team, and that left foot is the best left foot in the team.

If you want a LB who is good off the ball at defending, but has little else to offer, then you can expect to see a lot of defending. But if you have a LB with flare and a proactive attitude your'e going to see a lot of attacking.

This. Marcos has 14 league goals since August 2016, sometimes you just gotta unleash the beast

Very few full backs are great at both defending and attacking. Alonso's pace has always been an issue when getting back and even overlapping the LW/Hazard. The one thing Emerson offers is the overlapping and pace to defend vs faster wingers. Alonso is such a weird case though haha.

This bloke is a hero. 

If only he had pace. Would probably be one of the best LBs in the world if he was quick.

I will forever be worried about our left-side defence with him in the back four though. It was like an open highway at times against Arsenal. Luiz beside him is not exactly helping our case defensivly either.

Love this guy, but seriously needs to work on his defensive side. Wouldn't be too much of a bad thing to see Emerson start more games either

Going forward, Alonso brings so much but he needs some help defensively. I think Luiz starting ahead of Christensen is problem no 1. Another issue is when Kovačić starts in our midfield, we won't lose the ball as much as we did with Barkley in the middle. But his defensive work rate needs improving as well. If he makes improvements defensively, then he will be a great asset. We can obviously use him against the smaller squads, but against bigger sides that aren't going to sit back, he could be a liability.

13 hours ago, Giordano_Bruno said:

No way. Probably Garry on the right and Rudi on the left, but the way you put the solution - guaranteed not working. 

I said he could replace Luiz, could easily switch with Rudi depending on what Sarri finds best

Kovacic certainly offers more cover on that left side than Barkley. Could help quite a bit.

17 hours ago, chiefBlueCFC said:

Going forward, Alonso brings so much but he needs some help defensively. I think Luiz starting ahead of Christensen is problem no 1. Another issue is when Kovačić starts in our midfield, we won't lose the ball as much as we did with Barkley in the middle. But his defensive work rate needs improving as well. If he makes improvements defensively, then he will be a great asset. We can obviously use him against the smaller squads, but against bigger sides that aren't going to sit back, he could be a liability.

It is hard to see how he can improve his defensive side. He won't get more pace and he has long legs to deal with. Most of his defensive frailties come from positional problems and this is because he bombs up and down the field. I think he just needs someone to cover for him. 

Three games in and he’s won us two penalties, scored a goal, got an assist and caused an own goal for a winner.

Not too shabby is it?

Think he’s been superb so far this season.

I don't see how he has been that much of a liability anyway... He went up against Bellerin one of the fastest RB's in the world and still tackled him a lot of times. If you watch all the Arsenal chances, Alonso wasn't at fault for any of them, I think the criticism on him is exaggerated.

I thought he played really well today besides his crossing which was pretty bad. But he always gets himself in dangerous positions, just like Ivanovic used to, and it's real thorn in the side for the opposition, they can't mark that spare man, they don't have enough players to do it. We would never have won that game if it wasn't for him, and it can be said for many other games.

He's been superb since the season has started, I thought he wouldn't fit this Sarri system at all but he's proving to be a very versatile player just like Azpilicueta, they'll both get used to it soon enough, but I still want to see Palmieri play a lot of games. 

Class act, no two ways about it.

I'm more than happy to eat my words. He's been great under sarri so far. 

He's such a frustratingly good player lol. 

He's just fantastic when he attacks the opponent. 

He also improves his defensive work, still has a lot of work but he could be one of the best in the world.

2 hours ago, ForeverCarefree said:

Three games in and he’s won us two penalties, scored a goal, got an assist and caused an own goal for a winner.

Not too shabby is it?

Think he’s been superb so far this season.

This!!

On 20/08/2018 at 12:45, Xfaxtor said:

This. Marcos has 14 league goals since August 2016, sometimes you just gotta unleash the beast

Unleash. The. Beast

He's gone back to doing what he does best in 16-17 which was isolate himself on the wing and cause havoc with Eden backing him up.

He's better at attacking than defending so shifting the bias towards defending last season really killed his game.

Marcos is getting us the points. Crucial for us. 

Superstar this guy, though I still reckon he would be better utilised further forward. He has all the skills you would want in an attacking midfielder. Bale progressed from that position, yes Bale is faster but Alonso has a lot of the other skills that got Bale to where he is now. I wouldnt mind seeing how he would get on in the Willian/Pedro position.

One of the reasons why Alonso is so effective is because from his left back position, he can sneak into the box unmarked. Similarly, Lampard is the best finisher I’ve ever seen, but he was more effective deeper rather than as a 10, where he would often find himself with his back against the goal.