Yep, no one wanted Coutinho and Sturridge for a combined fee of £20m as well. We should have avoided those 2.
Skrtel and Lovren are very similar IMO. They both like to step forward and attack the ball, often resulting in the committing to the challenge and leaving their partner exposed if they fail. Neither are vocal organisers, both are reaction defenders and both are better in the air then on the ground (worryingly considering set-pieces). We still need that vocal leader at the back and Sakho isn't going to change that. the only one we have is Toure but he's simply not good enough IMO.
I would honestly rather give Toure a run in the team over Skrtel. Really can't see how he could be worse, and at least he'll keep Lovren in check a bit more.
I disagree - Skrtel is definitely a reactionary player. His natural instinct is to play a deep line. Lovren is the polar opposite - he goes for absolutely every ball and his judgement is so poor. I think Lovren is vocal but the problem is, his partner is an older more experienced player - Skrtel simply isn't interested in anything Lovren has to say. I've heard from a few people how Lovren wants to play a higher line and he's shouting at everyone but Skrtel just sticks to his position. Skrtel is a lazy, selfish defender. He doesn't care about his partner. Compare that to Agger and Sakho - both of whom are aggressive defenders but will adapt their games to cover their partners. The best example of this is the Spurs game. Sakho took a little while to figure out Lovren but he adapted his game and covered him well. These are the less noticeable aspects to defenders because they aren't visible as for e.g. a crunching last ditch tackle. You're right in that Sakho won't provide that leadership (not yet anyway) but he won;t be making many fundamental errors as his colleagues are. Yes, he 'looks awkard' but apparently Lovren is a ball playing defender but he ends up hoofing the ball. Toure was only sh*t when he was played on the left hand side of the defence and his partner was ... guess who ... Skrtel. I'd 100% start Toure over Skrtel - Toure actually is a leader and you can visibly see him organising the line and talking to his colleagues. Toure and Sakho is the parntership I want to see next.
Toure and Sakho, now that would be a comedy show. For me i would prefer Lovren and Sakho. But it doesn't help that Migs is a wuss that can't order about our defense, Reina did that better.
Lovren needs to be taken out of the firing line. At the moment its all too much for him and he's making silly mistakes. If the choice is between Toure and Sakho then my vote goes to Sakho - with an ultimate end product of Sakho and Lovren
Well this is another problem we have. Rodgers has failed to resolve these issues in the 2 years he has been here. He's tried to address them but it's gotten worse. He is ultimately responsible for it, and when he continues to play Johnson, Skrtel and Gerrard, I think criticism is justified.
I don't buy the take lovern out argument. last night he stood up and it was skertl who f'd up. i feel its about trust and the two cbs and keeepr don't trust each other so lads are going for stuff thats not their ball and fing up. seeing agger was canned for set piece errors last year its time skertl was dropped and i'd go lovern sahko for 5 games... but the keeper is still an issue.
I agree so you cannot press high either... you must all sit deep and then break as a team... then sprint back to take up positions. then you need to accept having 40% possession... and frankly this was rafa's plan most of the time as he had torres to rely on scoring 9/10 times. if we had one fit guy who'd score then you could sit deep and play that way. coutinh oand stelring on the break sounds good too.
Rodgers on Balotelli: "It'll happen when the team's not playing well - you have to accept that. The boy is trying very very hard. Longer term we'll see how that works out for him. As long as he's doing his best that's all I can ask. Whether that best is good enough remains to be seen." Hardly a ringing endorsement. Sounds like Rodgers leaning towards the criticising players in public route, which suggests his patience is wearing thin.
Just reading Rodgers's press conference - he's practically throwing Mario under a bus. The poor lad has received f*ck all support since he's been here.
Nice double post. Where's this presss conference? Loads of talk and I agree that we have holes to plug but I really don't think the squad is that bad, Rodgers is the problem at the moment as he is too rigid in his thinking. We have a huge hole up front when Studge is out but other than that we just need a centerback imo one that works with Lovren and I don't think we have that. My idea is below. ---------------Mingolet------------- Manquillo-Wisdom-Lovren-Moreno --------Lucas------------Can------- Sterling-------Hendo--------Lallana ----------------Borini---------------- I think that makes us difficult to beat which is what we need, Borini will put in the effort and defend from the front but yes we do need a striker, I've included Wisdom as he's always shown to be intelligent and strong and he also has good pace. We also have options along the front when fit Studge of course and Suso, Coutinho can play in any of the 3 attacking positions.
