Frank Lampard is consistenly statiscally the best midfielder (or at least top 3) midfielder in the EPL. Stastics includes, goals, assists, passes tackles etc.
You cannot overestimate the contribution of a 20-goal a season midfielder, who runs his guts out, distributes the ball well, and creates many other goals. This guy can do it all. Pretty much the only type of goal I don't recall him scoring is a 3-defender solo effort, and perhaps a bicycle kick. There is pretty much no weakness in Lampard's game, apart from him choking when he puts on the England shirt.
N9NE, as for Mascherano, there are only so many excuses you can make for him. You've admitted he contributes next to nothing offensively, in terms of goals and ball distribution, meaning that in order to be the best DM, or at least a 'big 4' DM, he would have to be virtually flawless defensively, yet he isn't. His foul rate is higher than most others, many of them being stupid fouls. He makes incredibly basic errors that Michael Owen wouldn't make if he was playing DM, like when he was no where near Tevez when he scored against Liverpool (back when he was at United, it was Berbatov's debut for United, Liverpool won 2-1 at Anfield). The defence wasn't at fault for the goal either, they had correctly retreated to their 6 yard line, because Berbatov was at the line, and the backline needed to cover the ball across the face of goal, and the striker run at the inside post. What proceeded to happen was that Carragher (of course) doesn't shut down Berbatov, who cuts it back to the edge of the area for Tevez to hit in a lovely curler. If your DM isn't tracking that run, then what on Earth is he there for?
If you watch the highlights of the famous 4 all draw at Anifield against Arsenal, Alonso has a hand in all of Liverpool's goals, and Mascherano is at fault for two of Arsenal's, Carragher being at fault for the other two if I remember correctly, who is even worse than Mascherano.
For the record, the reason why you don't see Alonso running back and sliding in on players is because he reads the game better in the initail situation.
If a DM is not going to score, and is not going to distribute the ball well, he needs to be flawless defensively. He needs to win the ball with 95% of his tackles, track 95% of his opponent's runs, and his short passing game has to be 95% accurate (Roy Keane once got 97% passing accuracy in a season). Mascherano does not achieve those statistics. Now if a non-offensive DM does not achieve those statistics, how is he a defensive specialist? How is it that any random player you throw in that position won't do better? Anyone can commit fouls/tugh tackles, and wall space, that doesn't make a good DM.
When I was talking about Etuhu, I was talking about recent Etuhu, who has pretty much climbed to Fulham's most in-form player at the moment (despite being Australian with no English heritage I'm a Fulham fan, and I was a fan before Schwarzer came, so it didn't have anything to do with him). Etuhu is not a frequent fouler, and whilst his distribution is not amazing, he is beginning to incorporate attacking runs into his game (something we saw him do for Nigeria at the WC), even to the point where he gets beyond the strikers to fashion chances (eg. against MUTD and his equaliser against Blackpool).
Yaya Toure and Busquettes (don't know how spell it) grossly surpass Mascherano as DMs. They win the ball enough, commit far less fouls, and are better on the ball. In Yaya's case, he even makes attacking runs every now and then.
I don't think Palacios and De Jong are in the league of Busquettes, Yaya, Alonso, Essien and current-form Etuhu. De Jong and Palacios are just ankle-winners like Mascherano, but Palacios has an underrated passing game, and the two of them simply have higher energy and strength levels than Mascherano. Jerome would not have scored that goal against either of these two.
Also, on a side-note, most players noted for their energy aren't really that good. With the exception of Tevez, the only time you talk about a player's energy is when there isn't anything better about them to talk about. There are players like Lampard and Milner, who match the energy levels of Kuyt, but they just have better traits we focus on.
Take a look at these 'energy' players. Apart from that, what special traits do the likes of Kuyt, Park Ji Sung, Fletcher and Cattermole have? None. Their energy is highlighted because it's the only thing they have.
It's like John O'Shea. The guy has no special ability in anything, he's just a nothing player, but people just blindly assume he's one of the most versatile players in the world, merely because he's been played in a lot of positions. Versatility means you're good at them, not just that you've played them. Generally, players who get moved around are either squad players or players not good enough to hold a particular position in the first team. O'Shea is not one of the most versatile players in the world. If you could duplicate one player to maker a whole team of them (eg. a team of 11 Frank Lampards) John O'Shea wouldn't even come into the reckoning, so how on Earth is he one of the most versatile players in the world?
You cannot overestimate the contribution of a 20-goal a season midfielder, who runs his guts out, distributes the ball well, and creates many other goals. This guy can do it all. Pretty much the only type of goal I don't recall him scoring is a 3-defender solo effort, and perhaps a bicycle kick. There is pretty much no weakness in Lampard's game, apart from him choking when he puts on the England shirt.
N9NE, as for Mascherano, there are only so many excuses you can make for him. You've admitted he contributes next to nothing offensively, in terms of goals and ball distribution, meaning that in order to be the best DM, or at least a 'big 4' DM, he would have to be virtually flawless defensively, yet he isn't. His foul rate is higher than most others, many of them being stupid fouls. He makes incredibly basic errors that Michael Owen wouldn't make if he was playing DM, like when he was no where near Tevez when he scored against Liverpool (back when he was at United, it was Berbatov's debut for United, Liverpool won 2-1 at Anfield). The defence wasn't at fault for the goal either, they had correctly retreated to their 6 yard line, because Berbatov was at the line, and the backline needed to cover the ball across the face of goal, and the striker run at the inside post. What proceeded to happen was that Carragher (of course) doesn't shut down Berbatov, who cuts it back to the edge of the area for Tevez to hit in a lovely curler. If your DM isn't tracking that run, then what on Earth is he there for?
If you watch the highlights of the famous 4 all draw at Anifield against Arsenal, Alonso has a hand in all of Liverpool's goals, and Mascherano is at fault for two of Arsenal's, Carragher being at fault for the other two if I remember correctly, who is even worse than Mascherano.
For the record, the reason why you don't see Alonso running back and sliding in on players is because he reads the game better in the initail situation.
If a DM is not going to score, and is not going to distribute the ball well, he needs to be flawless defensively. He needs to win the ball with 95% of his tackles, track 95% of his opponent's runs, and his short passing game has to be 95% accurate (Roy Keane once got 97% passing accuracy in a season). Mascherano does not achieve those statistics. Now if a non-offensive DM does not achieve those statistics, how is he a defensive specialist? How is it that any random player you throw in that position won't do better? Anyone can commit fouls/tugh tackles, and wall space, that doesn't make a good DM.
When I was talking about Etuhu, I was talking about recent Etuhu, who has pretty much climbed to Fulham's most in-form player at the moment (despite being Australian with no English heritage I'm a Fulham fan, and I was a fan before Schwarzer came, so it didn't have anything to do with him). Etuhu is not a frequent fouler, and whilst his distribution is not amazing, he is beginning to incorporate attacking runs into his game (something we saw him do for Nigeria at the WC), even to the point where he gets beyond the strikers to fashion chances (eg. against MUTD and his equaliser against Blackpool).
Yaya Toure and Busquettes (don't know how spell it) grossly surpass Mascherano as DMs. They win the ball enough, commit far less fouls, and are better on the ball. In Yaya's case, he even makes attacking runs every now and then.
I don't think Palacios and De Jong are in the league of Busquettes, Yaya, Alonso, Essien and current-form Etuhu. De Jong and Palacios are just ankle-winners like Mascherano, but Palacios has an underrated passing game, and the two of them simply have higher energy and strength levels than Mascherano. Jerome would not have scored that goal against either of these two.
Also, on a side-note, most players noted for their energy aren't really that good. With the exception of Tevez, the only time you talk about a player's energy is when there isn't anything better about them to talk about. There are players like Lampard and Milner, who match the energy levels of Kuyt, but they just have better traits we focus on.
Take a look at these 'energy' players. Apart from that, what special traits do the likes of Kuyt, Park Ji Sung, Fletcher and Cattermole have? None. Their energy is highlighted because it's the only thing they have.
It's like John O'Shea. The guy has no special ability in anything, he's just a nothing player, but people just blindly assume he's one of the most versatile players in the world, merely because he's been played in a lot of positions. Versatility means you're good at them, not just that you've played them. Generally, players who get moved around are either squad players or players not good enough to hold a particular position in the first team. O'Shea is not one of the most versatile players in the world. If you could duplicate one player to maker a whole team of them (eg. a team of 11 Frank Lampards) John O'Shea wouldn't even come into the reckoning, so how on Earth is he one of the most versatile players in the world?
