10 Players Who Didn't Fulfil Their Potential At Liverpool

2. Alberto Aquilani

When Xabi Alonso left Liverpool in 2009, a gaping hole was left in their midfield. Benitez had to spend wisely and replace the brilliant Spaniard with a player of similar ability, but instead he signed Aquilani. The then 25-year-old arrived for £17.1m from Roma, but the fact he was carrying an ankle injury on arrival did not bode well. He didn't make his Reds bow until the end of the October, in a League Cup clash with Arsenal, as Liverpool's hard work from the season before was unravelling without a top class playmaker in the side. His first start for the club came in a critical defeat against Fiorentina in the Champions League, which saw them eliminated, and Aquilani did not impose himself on the game whatsoever. In total he made 26 appearance during the 2009/10 campaign, and you'd be hard pushed to remember one moment of significance he produced in that time. The physical and mental side of his game were a real weakness, and he looked incapable of bossing a midfield battle like Alonso did week in, week out. Upon Roy Hodgson's arrival in 2010 he was loaned out to Juventus for a year, then AC Milan for another 12 months. He returned to pre-season training under Rodgers in 2012, but he had played his last game for Liverpool. He joined Fiorentina for a fraction of what he had joined Liverpool for originally, perfectly highlighting just what a huge failure he had been.