And that is why i think the way you are measure how successful you are based upon a rich list is flawed. I've then suggested that expenditure on wages and transfers is probably a better indicator of how successful you have been as a club
He has performed well in this role - I'm not disputing that. But as I've said - he has less responsibility and less ground to cover. It's easiest position to play in a back 3. At the end of the day, he's just a more refined version of Lovren. Protect him well and he can play well. But give him an ounce of responsibility or expose him slightly, and he buckles. Unless we're sticking with the back 3 (and with having Sakho next to him) or put him in a back 4 with 2 DM's in front of him, then he's a poor defender. It's no coincidence that his best periods are when Liverpool have struggled. Billy made the point of Rafa and Kenny proving what a good defender he was - and I pointed out that we finished 7/8th in those seasons. And whilst he is playing well in the back 3 and that he may not be weakest area to improve up on, he still needs upgrading.
My point was about him reading the game, he did exactly the same last season in a back four despite the two FBs continuously abandoning their defensive duties (on Brod's order of course). Skrtel was led up the garden path last year and he did very well in difficult circumstances, and no I don't mean he scored goals! Skrtel's not a great CB but I don't like criticism where its unjustified.
We'll have to agree to disagree mate, but he was rash in his challenges, poor positioning, awful marking. The issue is that he doesn't high profile mistakes e.g. Toure and Sakho may misplace a pass and everyone notices. Not many fans will notice a player who is out of position, not following a runner etc etc. These small defensive errors is what killed us last season and for the first half this season.
We'll never agree on the 2013-14 Skrtel. How can you be in the right position or man mark your opponents when constantly outnumbered whilst being countered at pace...? Agree on the high profile mistakes thing. Most on here seemed to want to string Toure up by his nut sack at one stage after scoring a OG. Players makes mistakes, its how they deal with it that matters.
Good - let's move on from this and be grateful that we aren't leaking goals anymore. But now let's agree that I was right when I said that a solid defence is far more important than attack.
Never! Give me this a choice of the current team and last year's, there is only one winner and that team contains (the proper) SAS! PS...and no, not shearer and Sutton
This^ I'd go barmy if we played every game the way we played last night's, win or not. A defence that doesn't look like conceding and an attack that doesn't look like scoring, unless there's a slice of luck one way or another. Extremely dangerous policy as the luck can go against you as easily as for. I understand that we have to grind out a win occasionally, but not to make a philosophy of it. I enjoyed last season more than I have done for years- warts and all.
Not surprised you agree with me here, we're usually on the same page with this stuff Saint. Its the same old 'win at all costs vs entertaining football' argument again.
Haha my comment was more tongue in cheek - clearly we have to find a balance between the two. Positive thing is that we're winning a lot of games even though we're playing poorly. Come next season and if we keep the majority of players, I think we can go far.
Skrtel is a good defender in a team where he's the spare man. Nothing wrong with that, his best attributes suit this 3rd CB perfectly.. he can pass it either side to players better on the ball than him in Sakho & Can or forward to Allen. He can just concentrate on attacking balls in he air or ground without having to worry about marking too much as one of the other CB's tend to pick up the centre forwards. He still has habits that piss me off like backing off until he hits the 18 yard box, by then allowing the opposition to have a near on free shot at goal but not every defender is perfect. At the moment, he's undroppable and the most reliable defender we have. As long as we continue to play a back 3 then he is number 1 CB but if we go back to a back 4 then it'll be interesting to see if he can continue his good form or if errors start creeping back into the game.
Fair comment - I wouldn't be dropping him either because he has been good in that position. But Sakho has been our best defender this year and arguably the best in the league.
Im a huge fan of Sakho and think he'll be a quality CB for us for the next 10 years as long as we can keep hold and no one bigger comes back in for him. However he he has had a few dodgy moments this year and although his passing is top notch (love how positive he is when passing forward and how quickly he plays the ball into the midfield) he does still give the ball away at times or dally on it when he can't see that pass early. Example against Swansea he had the ball looked for a pass and none was on (could blame the midfield for no option) so he then held onto it and ended up giving away a throw in in a dangerous position.
True - but that was 10 mins into his first appearance back from injury. A sign of a good player is showing confidence even when you do make mistakes and have the crowd targeting you. And he's trusted to play the ball - the keeper and Skrtel always pass to him because they know he's good on the ball. And when you;re on the ball that often, you will make mistakes. It's easier to make no mistakes when a) you dont have many touches on the ball and b) you only have to pass it short backwards or sideways.
In the absence of Skrtel and Sakho our defence was average. Dejan Lovren was average and nearly gave away a penalty. Simon Mignolet was outstanding against Newcastle.Simon Mignolet.
They didn't attack until like 85th minute then made us look shaky Overall however lovern did well in what he had to do attacking the ball I feel a manager like pulls would love to rob lovern off Us. And send him out to be aggressive and attack the ball and front up to players I'm willing to bet that if we offload there will be some regretting it on this site The fact is Rodgers can figure out what to do with him but defence is not his issue, lack of goals is
Rodgers has overcompensated by trying to become more defensive leaving our attack a lot weaker. And we've only conceded 4 goals less than last season. Not sure Rodgers will ever find the balance between the two.
