Of course it's worth being flexible on occasion with players but for me I prefer a settled back line as much as possible. Agger and Skrtel have been together for years and been a good partnership. Not great but that could be exactly because they haven't had enough competition. You can't deny that at their best they are two of the best in the country and they now know each others games extremely well. As well as Lukaku is playing he's no Drogba (yet). Yes Skrtel had a few mares against Drogs but he used to eat Carra for breakfast too and you wouldn't have dropped him for the big games. Looking at Skrt's heading/tackling stats so far this year he could be perfect to start against a big man like Lukaku. It's certainly good to have those options as you said
Of course, you could also point to the Toure / Agger partnership from the start of the season too. This partnership had pace, strength, vocals and ball playing skills, the highlighted bit being the main difference.
I keep saying, I don't dislike Skrtel's footballing abilities, I dislike his over aggressive approach resulting in rugby tackles in the box and flying into tackles that he has no right in getting near. The main reason I wouldn't put him in the team is because I prefer Agger to him and neither of them are talkers so you need a vocal guy alongside one of them.
I do tend to agree with the settled back line, I can see benefits for both sides which is why football is great as so many different opinions! Agger & Skrtel had a good partnership a few years ago and were probably up there with Ferdinand/Vidic as best partnership in the league but last year they weren't great. Maybe you're right in that no competition made them complacent and they've both stepped up their form this year though. I'm cautious with saying Skrtel's heading/tackling stats could be good against Lukaku, like I said earlier, look at who Skrtel has played against. United, Southampton, Palace, Fulham. None of them really have a Lukaku type player so he's bound to win more headers against RVP, Berbatov & Gayle. Toure played against Villa and Benteke who is probably the most similar player to Lukaku in the league and had him in his back pocket as well as against Stoke who are renown for ther direct play (despite changing slightly this season)
Vocals are good but doing things without thinking is even better. Not claiming they are quite telepathic but they do know each others games well. Really Dagger is the vice captain which suggests he should be trusted as the organiser of the back 4...maybe the vocals have to come from him a bit more too. I'd have no complaints seeing Toure there either though (very intelligent player and a good ball player) but it's only fair that Skrtel now is taken a bit more seriously by some. Something else BR deserves credit for because he's done exactly the right thing with him this season. Made him wait for his chance but given him games because he's come in and played well.
That'll be one of those "special days" the nurses take you out, stand you on a beach next to a rod and go buy some fish for you to hold #happydays
Again I don't disagree. Signing Toure was a bolt from the blue really but I knew straight away it could be a bloody good signing. I do think he has qualities Skrtel doesn't but it's fair to say Skrtel has a few of his own. As for the heading stats well United might not have a tall centre forward but they have plenty of good players in the air, Saints did score from a header and it was Agger who lost his man, West Brom are often a threat from set pieces/corners and Fulham and Palace fair enough are ****e.
One thing Skrtel does do is attack the ball in the air - we rarely score from corners because usually a) the delivery is sh*t and b) everyone is static. Skrtel at least moves and really goes for it and he's a very good at heading - possibly his best strength.
Skrtel is a quality player, who can play well in the back for. My only concern is that when Gerrez starts to like him, he will become **** (again).
That, I like. Same as he attacks the ball when it a chase between him and the attacker. Only problem is, he doesn't know when he's beaten (could be seen as a good thing too mind)
