Skrtel is proven top 4 quality? Based on what? When we used to qualify for CL when Agger, Carra and Hyypia were our starting CB's? Mascherano couldn't get into West Ham's team - I suppose he was ****. Pique couldn't get into Man Uniteds team, yep he was crap as well. Fergie didn't even give Pogba a go - we should avoid him as well. Truth is - bar Villa, he's been starting games whenever fit. At 21, Ilori has dealt with the likes of Messi and Ibra. At 30, Skrtel has nightmares over Dwight Gale. I'm not saying Ilori is the answer - he could flop, but you're quick to judge him on the fact he never played for Villa. His performances at other clubs and u21 suggest to me he's very talented. Let's wait and see if he can make it under Klopp - as I said, defenders take a while to develop.
Skrtel is a liability, still irks me we didn't snap city's hand off for that 20m bid a few seasons ago, as long as he starts games we will leak silly goals imo
The problem is ilori has hardly ever been fit. If his name as sturridge it'd make sense. For every pique there is a Coates too. It's up to him what he does but he's got to get fit and then work hard
I think we need to realise we ain't top 4 and have not been so for many years. Skertl performs at a certain level so if we accept that level we stay at 7th. Simple in my view. Same for a lot of our players. Just average.
