I wrote a few weeks back complaining that some players in our squad were hugely underperforming and needed to step up their game. I focused mainly on our forwards but almost ignored the fact that our defenders needed to step up too in order for our dreadful form to come to a stop. One player who’s impressed me recently with leadership skills I never knew he had is our Greek powerhouse, Sotirios Kyrgiakos.
The 6’4 defender has found himself back in the first team recently and hasn’t disappointed. Just like last season when our form was terrible and confidence was low throughout the team, Kyrgiakos has come into the team to add some much needed physical and aerial presence in defence. Rafa Benitez may have made some poor signings in his time here but I must say he did a great job in replacing Sami Hyypia with only £1.5 million to spend. Fans weren’t happy at the time of Kyrgiakos’ arrival from AEK Athens and he was unfairly labelled a flop before he had even kicked a ball for us.
His steady performances last season eventually earned him the respect of many red fans and Kyrgiakos is now very much a bit of a cult hero at Anfield. Looking at his recent performances for us, I have to say I quite like Kyrgiakos’ no nonsense, back to basics style of play. What he brings to our defence is what we’ve been missing since Sami Hyypia left for Bayer Leverkusen; aerial threat. It’s actually such a pleasure to see us posing a genuine threat at corners again after a good couple of years of looking like one of the least effective teams in the league at set-pieces.
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STELLA ARTOIS WORLD DRAUGHT MASTERS
Very good defender!!!!!
Agreed!
YNWA
Agreed x2!!
I completely agree with author. Torres may have grabbed yesterday’s headlines but Kyrgiakos has been consistent performer for last few matches. I agree that he is not a great defender but he always give 100%.
YOU ARE RIGHT
so if he starts to play…n assuming we get a decent right back in..where do carra n AGGER go??….it has to be Agger n Skrtel in defence..
MAN,YOU HAVE TO ACCEPT CARRA IS NO MORE GOOD.HE IS ONLY PHYSICAL.IN MODERN FOOTBALL YOU HAVE TO BE TECHNICAL AND VISION.HIS DUTY IS TO KICK THE BALL OUT OF HIS PENALTY AREA.
ANY RESPECTFUL MANAGER NOWADAYS WILL NEVER USE A PLAYER LIKE HIM IN HIS TEAM.
YOU CAN SEE WHEN HE PLAYED AGAINST TECHNICAL PLAYERS,HE IS OUTPLAYED BY THEM.
YOU ARE RIGHT .FOR ME CARRAGHER HAS PASSED HIS BEST.HE SHOULD BE ON THE BENCH NOT EVEN AS RIGHT BACK. THE MANAGER SHOULD GIVE THE OPPORTUNITY TO DARBY INSTEAD OF MARTIN WHO USED TO PLAY CENTRAL.AGAIN THE MANAGER IS STARTING TO OUTPLAY POSITION FOR THE LATTERTHE GREEK SHOULD PLAY WITH SKTEL.
He’s never going to be what you call a ‘cultured’ defender, but in terms of no-nonsense physical defending he’s great. He was one of the few players who left the pitch with any dignity against Everton, and was definately MotM yesterday. In the absence of a decent defensive midfielder, he will be very important – especially against more physical teams.
fair play to the big greek! no nansense defender who shows a lot of passion and desire!
for me, the manager should stop thinking about who should partner carra and instead consider who should REPLACE carra! personally i would go for soto’s brute force and agger’s class
joe…thats wt i said….has to b agger n skrtel..
u illustrated my point..:D
Much better performance from Maxi seems to have gone unnoticed.
Well said – totally agree
Totally agreed!! The big guy has stepped up to the plate & each time we got a corner yesterday it hailed the cry “GET IT TO THE GREEK”
I read all these comments and it amazes me that liverpool fans think that Martin Skrtel is good enough to play for this club. He is absolutely atrocious, he has no idea what offside is just look at the goal blackburn scored on sunday for a prime example of my point. He is poor at winning headers in the box, he is clumsy and gives fouls away i would rather have any center back in the league than him. So many goals have been concceded this year and last year by the lack of quality of him and that other atrocious defender Glen Johnson. Kyrgiakos has been absolutely class recently
Sure you’re not talking about Carragher there! He did score an own goal didn’t he.
I said right from the beginning of the season that Kyrgiakos and Agger should be our starting partnership, and with that being the case, Skrtel should be kicked out to make way for Kelly/Ayala/Wilson to get some playing time.
Though he isn’t at Hyppia’s level, Kyrgiakos is the only defender we have that can potentially physically dominate the big strikers in the Premiership without consistently fouling them.
Glad to see a few others finally waking up to agree with me again…
Kyrgiakos is strong, fearless and a leader (btw he was the captain of AEK in Athens). I can’t see him playing all the games (Agger is our most cultured central defender and my no. 1 choice if fit) and Skrtel on form is equally strong, faster and technically more gifted. However, Kyrgiakos has guts and brings extra energy to the team when things are down – not to mention the aerial ability noted by Gerrard and others.
Johnson and Kelly are miles ahead of Darby and should be the prime contenders for right back. Having said that, I think that Carra did a fantastic job against Blackburn.
Regarding Carra – aside for the own goal that is!!!
Skrtel is not stronger than Kyrgiakos. I doubt he’s stronger than Agger either tbh. He just fouls people a lot so is seen as more of a physical presence than he really is.
I’d much rather see Kelly given games to develop in his proper position than continue to see Skrtel given more time on the pitch