Agreed. I would like Rodgers to continue on at LFC but only if I could see improvements. But he neglects the defence and his eye for a defender is shocking - I will have to find the stats of how many goals his teams concede throughout his career and it's staggering. 3 years in this job and our defence is arguably worse (or at least it was worse until he was forced to pick Sakho and Can). Most of the best teams in footballing history, league winners etc etc are built on solid defences and central midfields. Even though we didn't win the league, Houllier and Rafa enjoyed successful periods here. I just wish Rodgers would accept help and bring in quality coaches.
nobody ever does..... there's no way he will take hands of training and developing..and i cannot see him adding to his team.... carrgher and gerrard were only guys with a chance there. I agree best teams build on solid defence. you don't even win cup without one. Thats why over two legs nobody really can see lfc getting past chelsea in the next games cos we will f it up somewhere and one goal would do the chelsea lads.
So Skrtel's so bad eh....well chaps I know you're all great lovers of stats so here goes Tackles per game: Skrtel 1.3 Sakho 1.5 Lovren 1.9 Interceptions: Skrtel 2 Sakho 1.7 Lovren 1.6 Aerial duels won: Skrtel 3.8 Sakho 2.5 Lovren 4 Clearances: Skrtel 10.4 Sakho 5.3 Lovren 8.6 Blocks: Skrtel 1.1 Sakho 0.3 Lovren 0.3 Dispossessed: Skrtel 0.3 Sakho 0.6 Lovren 0.2 Pass success: Skrtel 91.9 Sakho 89.3 Lovren 87.4 Food for thought if nothing else
skertl loves a slider to kick the ball out of play o nthe sideline... thinks it makes him look good. I'm not shocked i nthe slightests his aerial duels are more cos he is playing central and is also coming to meet them... stick lovern there his stat would be even higher. same for pass success... not in the least bit shocked the guy in the centre rolling it side to side looks great on 92% nearly... no creativity... same as joe allen sideways short passes built his stats too. Also not shocked sahko loses it 0.6 again he's the one actually taking a risk in striding no.. not passing it sideways. again same story for clearances... if you are playing wider you are either near post or actually out on wing for cross and skertls the thick head i nthe middle heading it... you either have far post clearance or a block to make... it would seem these stats say skertls is the busiest defender we have so the most important stat of all is goals conceded which is quite high especially o nthe road and that says he's crap.
Would be good to see the percentages to give them a bit more weight. But stats only go so far - for example, Skrtel's passing accuracy is high because all he does is pass to his partner or back, whereas Sakho plays riskier passes. Anyone can see that Sakho is clearly the better defender in every aspect.
He's targeted a lot more. It was the same with Lovren. I can't remember which game it was but Lovren was starting on the left hand side and was getting beaten so easily. Got taken off, Sakho comes on and nothing came down his side.
I knew those stats would have you two scrambling for your "excuses" books Lads you can fit your own theories round them and I fully accept that they don't tell the full story but the simple fact is that you lads have a dislike of Skrtel that is often unjustified and a love of Sakho which is yet to be fully earned (to the point at which I'm now 100% convinced Jimmy is his agent) Lads we all know Skrtel is chief scapegoat whoevers at fault for any goal but give the guy a break....we've had far, far worse and given Rodgers record if we **** Skrtel off you both know we'll bring in someone far worse
Not really seeing all the supposed comments where Skrtel is absolved of defensive mistakes and yet only Jimmy seems able to see them. The vast majority of people on this board criticise Skrtel actually - the difference being they can at least acknowledge when he also plays well. No one is claiming he's a fantastic defender - much like Lucas isn't a world beating midfielder either - but he is a solid enough, no nonsense defender when he's got a leader next to him. Sakho is a natural leader. Skrtel is not. I don't see why that should be a negative on him. Him and Agger had a great partnership and it wasn't because Agger was some God-like defender who swept up all before him. They just complimented eachother. He hasn't turned into a **** waste of space, he just needs to find that defensive balance which he sort of has now with 3 at the back. The no nonsense but limited all action defender in the middle and the two more risky, but with potentially higher payoff CBs either side of him. I remember the Skrtel abuse last season and I remember posting his passing stats at that time. Whilst I cannot remember them now off the top of my head, they suggested he passed forward FAR more often than anyone gave credit for - and I don't mean 5yards forward to Gerrard either. Lucas equally has a myth about him that he can only pass backwards or sidewards. Clearly people don't watch him play too much. He is ALWAYS looking up for a forward pass and then goes sidewards/backwards if there's no option. As it happens, there's rarely an option because we don't have mobile strikers except some 19year old kid who's doing his best, meaning all the midfield and opposition defense and clustered so he recycles possession. I love the DM role, it's my favourite one to play, so I watch it a lot. Lucas isn't in the top division of DM players, but he's good at what he does and in our position, is the best we're going to get. Weakest link in our team is Goalkeeper because he inspires zero confidence and makes the defense jittery. Second point is a striker who has the brains to play on his own when Sturridge is injured or to play with him on the offchance he's fit. We need that movement and space up top to open the game up. Third point to fix is that 20mill CB. Drop him and buy a proper partner to Sakho (I believe Lovren was bought to play with him, personally, and has just failed). Keep Skrtel as a backup because he's good enough to do so. Then you can look at the midfield imo, although aside from Can and the odd performance from Henderson, it's not inspiring and there's still not enough creativity in it. Can, Henderson or Allen.... We need a ball playing midfielder first, then an upgrade on Lucas after that. TL;DR. Lucas and Skrtel both good enough for now. Bigger problems to address. Can't fix too much too soon
I get what you're saying but say we do replace the keeper - he may save more shots, fair enough but that won't stop the fact that teams will still cut through us and take the shots in the first place. It's a chicken and egg situation - change the keeper to help inspire confidence, but as I say, it won't stop Skrtel from making basic errors and teams will continue to take shots. Change the DM and bring in a better player for Skrtel will protect Migs, but then Migs's weaknesses will only be masked. Ultimately, we're pretty much agreeing on the same things - just a difference on the priorities.
Skrtel panics more than the others...? Sakho tries to play the ball out rather than just clearing his lines.
just about our whole squad gets that treatment from one poster or another. There are only a small handful that escape really.
sahko's a leader... why the f didn't he tell the line to get the **** up the pitch v villa then? skertl... I don't like when he does stupid things. he general never trusts anyone and leaves his own man to go help on the right side and leaves him free in the box... he's nuts IMO. all i want is a keeper who forces a nice high line from the back and sweeps up. if mingolet could even learn that which doesn't require any actual ball skills.... well he'd be a far better player. Pity our coaching is archaic it seems. All I want from skertl is to take responsibility for his own man and hold others to account for thier men too. He's dropping in behind the line of 3 as a sweeper on purpose and its working fine but when the ball is wide he is far too qucik to leg it out of the box chasing than actually marking. If he simply got tight to his man we'd all be happier.
I can and have praised his means of playing last year which involved being the one to come and attack the ball. it worked better for him than sweeping up. He's done the same on occasions this year
Sakho does have leadership qualities but don't think he's ready to be THE leader. He's certainly a leader by example. Skrtel is just an average defender who is capable of a few good performances. Playing in a back 3 definitely suits him as he doesn't need to be the aggressor - which is good because his timing and judgement are sh*t. A commanding keeper would help, but a replacement for Skrtel as the experienced/leader type would also benefit the defence.
I think of leaders by example as guys who do their jobs... I kind of expect that from most players which is why coutinho giving up so much if someone else doesn't do it annoying. I would replace skertl of course, but i find he is ok attacking the ball but his judgement of who to mark can be shocking.
....yet you just criticised him for coming out and attacking the ball?? Now he's criticised for acting as the sweeper when he's playing in a role where he's obviously been instructed to play exactly that way...and after another clean sheet. If you want a player to just stand there while attacks develop around him fair enough but let's be honest here....you're criticising him for reacting to situations yet you criticise him most weeks for not reacting make your bloody mind up lad.
