Skrtel was just behind Lovren in unforced errors leading to goals / attempts last season... So yes Lovren made mistakes but Skrtel made just as many... As well as scoring more own goals, as well as making errors that can't be counted by stats like backing off so far into his area and giving forwards so much space to pass or shoot.
Lovern is weakest on set piece. He regularly coughs up goals in box box by being glued to the ground as lads rise above him to head home. For me in general play skertl is worse than lovern as his first option is to retreat all the time. Lovern is a go forward kind of defender
Skrtel is only good in a deep back line, with a quality CB next to him to babysit him, and 2 strong CM's in front of him. Without this environment, he's useless. Easily bullied by physical strikers, backs so much off pacy strikers. He won't make big howlers like Sakho or Lovren, but his errors are always to do with positioning and concentration, which is far worse. He's also 30 and he makes the same basic errors and he drags the entire defensive line back - he cannot be coached. Good news that Ilori is coming back - hopefully we can finally see if the kid can make it. He's been highly rated and played well on most of his loan spells bar Villa.
Does need a sweeper and did best in 2013/14 when SAS scored 4 to cover his **** a d he could just go win headers and look a genius. Any pace and he pulls the whole back line back. Yes that is true. I sincerely doubt llori will make any impact he only played a few games in each loan due to injury each had decent starts then injuries. Villa should have been easy to walk into the side even at rb where Hutton is dogshite or rcb as Richards as been muck too. Garde is French so should have seen him last year. .. No trying of 3 at back at villa either...
Timmy signed Richards and made him captain. He was never going to use Ilori. Fitness aside, he's impressed at every loan. He's played against the likes of Messi, Neymar, Ibra and played brilliantly against them. He also dominated Harry Kane at the u21 and was the defender of the tournament. Defenders don't tend to peak until 25 onwards. Kompany and Thiago Silva were written off at 22, Pique was seen as a flop when he left MUFC. Will definitely not be writing off Ilori just yet - but he does need to sort those fitness issues out.
The injuries are huge though. .. he did great at u21s but that is u21s and again got injured. There's no denying the few games he got v big sides showed he could cope in those sides butvhe thrn got injured each time and didn't get back. His injury and u21 tournament meant he missed this preseason and prob lead to his disastrous loan. God only knows what state his fitness is in now.
I think it's a groin injury. Not sure if it's a reoccurrence but big, fast players tend to suffer these sorts of injuries.
Faith or charity? Boys gone and done ok but has gotten consistent injuries. Seems to me Klopp has not recalled him and villa want their money back. Tim Sherwood paid £1 million to bring the Portuguese defender to Villa Park on loan, but an unimpressed Remi Garde is to dismiss the expensive flop Aston Villa are ready to scrap Tiago Ilori’s loan deal and send him back to Liverpool without the defender making an appearance. Ilori is set to have his season’s loan ended prematurely by the Premier League’s bottom club after the Portugal under-21 international failed to impress Remi Garde. Villa paid a £1million fee to sign Ilori on deadline day, with the option of making it a permanent deal for around £6million in the summer, but he has featured in just one matchday squad this season. Liverpool have the option to recall him in January and Villa aim to reach a compromise and free up a loan space for new signings in the transfer window. please log in to view this image
Surprised he's played over 300 senior games and had nearly 80 caps for his country then You're right about him being less use as a high line defender but I suppose it would be wasting my breath to ask which was the last team to win the league with a high line defence? City? No. Chelsea? No. United? No. Arsenal? Nope. No one wins titles in this country playing high line football Skrtel's a decent Prem standard defender nothing more, nothing less. The bullshit spouted by some on here about him is frankly disrespectful to a guy who always gives 100% and does so week in week out (unlike some) season after season.
Chelsea played the type of line I talk about I'm not talking a line that is an offside thing. Courtois got done by Adam cos he is out on the edge of his d sweeping... no need do that if you play deep. The line position is only related to distance to midfield and midfield to attack in different phases of game. Our strikers have seen very isolated under Rodgers due to deep back line and midfield. Klopp wants them all up pressing
It's not about playing a high line. He needs to be defending on his 18 yard line - that's too deep. It's about him being the one who is dragging the line deep because he's selfish and doesn't care about the rest of the line. There's so many instances where he is so deep and the rest of the line is high and as a result, we can't play the opposition offside. He has played a lot of matches for Liverpool - what has he achieved exactly? He's a specialist in mid table finishes? One common excuse for him was that he has Johnson next to him - we have clyne now and he's still crap. The problem he now has is that no one can blame right back and they can't blame his partner because Sakho and Lovren have stepped up. He has no excuses now and everyone can see that he is the weak link.
I didn't say that....he is decent and still the only one who actually IS proven to be top 4 quality (Sakho might be too if he can stop getting injured every other week). Opinions are one thing but the fact is that Skrtel IS the only defender we have left who's played (week in week out) in top 4 teams. Come back to me when Sakho, Lovren, Clyne or Moreno manage it As for Ilori...he can't even get into the worst Villa team in living memory. Hardly top 4 quality is it? Not even proven Prem quality. Any argument otherwise is just laughable until he actually manages to play a bloody game or two.
