I don't know enough about Lovren to give an informed opinion but from what I read when we were linked with him he was playing superb for Southampton, in fact when he went out for 8 weeks early 2014, they had a dip in form which returned when he returned. We simply haven't seen enough of him to know if he can or will become the leader he was bought for.
I'm pretty sure it wasn't Jos Hooiveld you were linked with, he ended up going on loan to Norwich over the Summer. I think you're confusing him with Jose Fonte who's very much still here and, as I said, is now team captain (since Lallana left). JWP is ours, hands off! That's more because his replacements were either the calamity prone Jos Hooiveld or the inexperienced (in the premiership) Maya Yoshida, the former is now on loan, as stated above, Yoshi has improved a lot, but still seems to be destined to end up as 4th choice. Our bigger dips in defensive form last season came when Boruc was out for a while (obviously) and when Victor Wanyama got injured, it took him a long time to properly recover but he gave our back line a lot of cover when he was in form.
Riiiiigjt to the obvious lovern injured Southampton tank lovern returns they stop conceding is tosh and not because he told Southampton to shove it a year into a contract People would be taken seriously if they'd just lay thier cards on the table honestly
What has Jos Hooiveld or Jose Fonte got to do with it? Saints fans were rightly annoyed and upset when we first linked to Lovren and didn't want him to go... you're trying to rewrite history saying you all thought he was crap.
Can I have that in English please? Here are my cards: Lovren is a very good, but not irreplaceable defender - he was previously the most technically gifted at Southampton, but doesn't possess the leadership qualities that he was supposedly bought for. We've used the money to buy two equally (or perhaps more) technically gifted players, and it's noteworthy that they've both been asked to partner Jose Fonte, who doesn't appear as technically as good, but is obviously a leader on and off the field.
You quoted my comment about Jos Hooiveld in your previous reply where I called Jos championship standard. He's not and was not crap - he was very good, however he said himself in that article I linked to that he's never been a leader before, but was apparently bought to bring leadership qualities to your back line - he was the wrong player for that role. That's all I've said.
Lovren and Sakho £38m the pair...... And your defence is still as porous as a string vest Genius at work
After a grand total of two games together If they're that bad, Everton shouldn't have a problem winning their next league game then PS...£28m to stand still
Cheap at half the price tobes.... You can't buy talent like those pair Lovern would head butt a wall if you said the was a ball the other side.... He'd not get through said wall but he'd head butt it the mad Serb Sahko is just a nut bag frenchie nothing else.... He is what he is....
£28m for a 1 in 2 PL striker who's still only 21 you mean? Sakho is bobbins mate, I actually quite like Lovren to be fair, but they don't look a pair to me and that's the key to a solid central defence - the pairing. I'd be fairly confident that we'll score past them as well, but we'll leak even more at the other bleeding end
I never questioned Lukaku's ability I think Sakho is better than people give him credit for but not as good as I first thought. As for the partnership, I refer to my last comment; a grant total of two games together!
Yeah I know it's only a couple of games and they might adapt to each other's game and gel, but at first glance they look too alike in their style, only ones a bit ****e
TBF, so did Mertesacker and Koscieny when they first got paired up at Arsenal, they were pretty good last year and haven't too shabby this year either. Also got to remember that in those two game together, they've had two new players either side of them (Mankiller & Moreno), a legless Gerrard protecting them and confidence sapping Migs behind them.
^^This - either Lovren needs to step up & actually take the leadership role he was supposedly bought for or let Sakho do it instead. From my reading, it seems your scouts thought Lovren was the leader in our back line because he was better than Fonte. What I've been trying to get across it that that's not the case - Fonte is the one with the leadership attributes even though he's not as technically gifted as at least two of our other CBs. You need a player like that to keep the back line together & it seems to be the missing ingredient in your back four certainly.
At the risk of getting into an argument I've had many times on here already (well, its not a risk because I'm just going to ignore the idiots ), Sakho is not a leader. He does not possess defensive leadership skills. Maybe its the language barrier but with him having been here for a year already, you'd have thought we'd have seen some of it sneaking through by now but no. Yes, he was the PSG captain at a very young age so obviously he must have something but its certainly not a vocal organisation attribute that will pull our defence together!
I don't know enough about Sakho to say, I can tell you that Lovren wasn't\isn't a leader - his ex-partner has just been made captain here at Saints, but you can hear it in his own words: http://www.thenational.ae/sport/cha...art-says-with-time-and-the-games-it-will-come This quote was most telling: "It is not so easy to lead all the time. I was used to other players leading" (although he does go on to say he's got confidence in himself etc. but what else would he say?) Rodgers bought him expressly to lead: http://www.theguardian.com/football/2014/jul/28/brendan-rodgers-liverpool-dejan-lovren-leadership "I’ve said since we lost Jamie Carragher that we needed that leadership. He’s a player that gives us that." It seems Rodgers didn't do his research and so you guys got a player learning to be a leader in your back line when your manager thought he'd bought one ready made. Is a 25yr old learning the skill he was bought for really worth £20mn? I don't think so, but I'm grateful for the money and other opinions are available.
Not to anyone in the EPL, as at best it would be a sideways move. If he is to do justice to his talent,his agent should be targetting Real as they need a replacement for Alonso or Barca as some of their midfield contingent are getting decidedly long in the tooth.
Perhaps this is the year when the established order is blown apart. It has happened in Men's Tennis so why can't this be replicated in the EPL. If Spurs and Everton go far in the Europa League they may well continue to have slip-ups on Sundays, and I have a feeling you guys will go a long way in the Champions League and look like chumps in the matches immediately afterwards. The opportunity is there for one of the less fancied teams to break that mould.
