The point made by DL about Mourinho is a very valid one. Before discussing Lovren let's look at Chelsea. When putting together his team sheet Mourinho has about 8 players who are etched on there - Courtois, Terry, Cahill, Azpilicueta, Ivanovic, Fabregas, Hazard, Costa. The remaining 3 spots are taken by players who he tends to rotate - Willian, Oscar, Schurrle, Drogba for example. What is the most consistent thing about that side?? The defence. Week in, week out Chelsea know they have got a rock solid back line and they have supplemented this with quality players across the pitch. Players who are confident in what they do. Players who are consistent in what they do. Players who have a strong mentality, an inner belief in their ability and a positive approach to what they do. Chelsea are the benchmark team this season. They have built on pre-existing relationships from previous seasons adding talent that will bring the best out of that. They have bought with an awareness, for example, that their central defensive partnership whilst it may still be the best in the PL, is getting older. So they have bought players who won't be bullied, Fabregas, Costa, Drogba, strong, muscular players who can impose their skill and strength further up the pitch taking the pressure of the defence when necessary. This also balances out the small, slight but very skillfull midfielders they already own. Willian, Oscar, for example. Now let's look at us, Liverpool FC. The contrast could not be more dramatic. We personify imbalance. Rodgers has no consistency on his team sheet. We don't have one regular starting defensive player who the whole team can have faith and total confidence in. We should be thinking about this as an issue before targeting and witch-hunting individual players like Lovren. He has not had a good season. But none of us know what's going on behind the scenes. We've been trying to buy a solid, reliable defence for several seasons now and keep picking up players who on paper, or on the merits of their last season, should boss it... but they don't, they flop, they bomb, they look shellshocked and nothing like the player we though we were signing. Why does this keep happening?? Partly because there is no pre-existing, regular and strong defensive set up for them to slot into and work their way into in their life as a Liverpool player, because we are still trying to buy and find that. And partly because the pressure for them to start performing from the off at their absolute maximum is so intense because of our lack of the benchmark that is so apparent at Chelsea.
A very well written piece. Our 2008-09 tea under Rafa is also a great example. Reina, Arbeloa, Carragher, Agger, Aurelio, Mascerano, Alonso, Gerrard, Torres. A solid spine, with a very clear and solid defense. Rotating on the edges, Kuyt, Riera, Babel, El Zhar (), Voronin (), Keane (). This solid spine also means that when some players at the club were unsuccessful they were not exposed and there for did not create a weak spot in the team. Three players in my rotated list were dreadful for us, but the strong spine still carried through with confidence and those struggling players probably felt more relaxed about things, giving them a better chance of improving their form (ok those three never improved but my point still counts (Lucas).
Agger is the forgotten man isn't he. Nobody ever mentions him since he left. I wonder if he could have done a job for us had we kept him and let another defender go instead. You touch on one of our current main problems. Rodgers is trying to rotate when, as you correctly identify, there is no stable team to rotate these players in and out of. That's how you get the best out of that kind of management. Then we have the 'quality of players being rotated issue', some of them are looking sub-par, like Lovren. But we should be concentrating on our lack of nailed on starters before completely chucking Lovren and others into the no-hopers dungeon. There are some criminal performances being turned in in every game we play but there are wider issues feeding into that than the fact that 'player X' is just purely, simply 'an utter bag of ****e'. Transfer strategy would be another thing to look at, why we have bought some of the players we have baffles me. Ok maybe the prime targets of the last couple of seasons didn't want to come, didn't play ball, or we were outbid by other clubs, but there were better options on the cards than the options, the third bests we ended up with. If there is money available in the January window, Rodgers and the committee, (after deciding who they are going to (try to) sell), seriously need to bring in players of quality, as Chelsea did. Even just two, I think, would solve a lot of problems. They need to stop playing silly political games, or one-upmanship, whatever's going on behind the scenes, and work together for the benefit of the club.
He could play in a six man defence at Chelsea and lunge at goalbound shots with his arms. Even Torben Pieknek would have looked good in this Chelsea defence.
And whats happened to Sakho? Falls out with Rodges and then has an immediate injury and not seen again. Is he still injured or has Rodgers dumped him from the team?
He's still lost in the Anfield area after the walk out. There have been sightings in Norris Green, Walton and Bootle so all is not lost.
Nope Some players take a while to settle. What possible benefit would selling him now do apart from an immediate loss of millions in a space of a few months and an admittance that we cant sign a player for toffee. We're stuck with him for a year where he has got to start performing.
Lovren has shown me nothing in the games for Liverpool. There are plenty of better defenders than him. Fonte of Southampton is better than him.
Must admit after todays game I don't know what to do with him We're stuck with him for the time being due to the extortionate price we paid.
I've never thought that Lovren was any better than Agger. He's supposed to be a leader in defence but Skrtel and Toure are more reliable. At the moment i struggle to see why we shouldnt cut our losses.
The problem with Lovren is that he's a fraud. His reputation of being a strong, vocal leader stems from a good few months last season where Schneiderlin and Wanyama protected him. He's been average all throughout his career. And then you have people like Carra bigging him up in interviews, and everyone believes him and buys into the hype around him. Lovren's best position is LCB - he has played across the line but he's mainly played LCB. Rodgers is an idiot for trying to replace Sakho, a French international, one of the best international defences. Rodgers should have replaced Skrtel.
Agger out of form still led and organised the defence - he made others play better. Practically carried Skrtel.
Tbh I thought it was the correct decision getting rid of Agger. He was never fit and when did get a run of games he wasn't playing particularly well. I like him because he's a red, but I thought it was a fair decision IF we replaced with better which we have failed to do.
Wasn't the scouts. It was Rodgers's number 1 target. Lovren was offered last season before he moved to Soton and the committee said no. Then we wanted to pay £20m for him a year later, coincidentally when Rodgers negotiated more autonomy in the recruitment process.
You have to say he looked very good last year did Lovren. He bossed a lot of games, including away at United for Southampton. In hindsight it hasn't worked, but it looked like it could.
Get rid or get rid of Skrtel. Both are too similar, both are of the same standard and not what we need. I'd say we'd need to keep one at the moment cause I don't think we can afford to get rid of both due to the lack of CB's with first team experience. I'd get rid of Skrtel first mainly due to age and don't think he'll improve above what he is now, keep Lovren until we get a good bid or have better players to replace him or the youngster are ready to step up, until that point he should be backup.
I don't think so because we need players at the back who can play a bit too, and a keeper with good feet. We don't have one footballer in our back 4, keeper and Lucas Put all 6 of them in a pit, only one comes out and gets a second chance but they must kill all of the others first. Least it will lighten the wage bill
