A Great Case for Liverpool’s Defence

It looks like Jamie Carragher will gradually move into the background as Sami Hyypia did in his last few seasons at Anfield. While the stalwart is being eased into a back up role it would be surprising to see him bowing out anytime before the end of next season at the earliest. And when that day comes we would expect that Coates will have soaked up much from the fountain of defensive knowledge as will have young Danny Wilson.

In the meantime the centre of Liverpool’s defence with Skrtel and Agger is proving successful. Last weekend against Chelsea Skrtel made numerous headed clearances and was not afraid of taking Carragher’s no nonsense approach of lumping the ball into the stands when needs must. We’re even seeing the big Slovak dribbling the ball outwards more, winning a useful free last weekend at Stamford Bridge. In general however most fans are happy to leave the attacking inclinations to the Great Dane, with Agger an assured dribbler and genuine attacking threat (Without looking like he’s being controlled by a ten year old with a playstation controller.) Agger isn’t one for negating his defensive responsibilities however, on Sunday winning 100% of his tackles, 100% of his aerial battles and 100% of his ground battles against Man City.

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Glen Johnson is another who has been getting the defending/ attacking ratio right of late. Whereas in the past the right back has been guilty of being irresponsible in his positioning, since his return from injury Johnson has been excellent- which he would have to be to secure the right back spot, with many thinking he would have had an uphill fight to usurp the always solid Kelly and the promising, but inexperienced Flanagan.

After muddling through with what seemed like a plethora of misfit left backs the historically difficult position was finally properly filled with the signing of the highly rated Enrique who has not disappointed, playing the ball out of defence with professional aplomb and bombing down the wing equally so. Surely left back of the season at this point, and a position that has since become one of the team’s strongest backed up by the creative yet injury prone Aurelio and the youngster Robinson who was equal to Walcott’s pace in an admirable toss into the deep end of the Emirates stadium last season.

Guarding the back four has been Lucas, one of the top tacklers in Europe in the past year and fast becoming Liverpool’s most important player- a deserved man of the match today against City. In saying that Pepe Reina could almost be compared to the top holding midfielders on the continent after his performance on Sundday- at times Lucas would sweep in front of the back four and Reina would sweep behind them, holding up the play to give the defence a chance to track back. Audacious play indeed.

RIP Gary Speed

Follow me on twitter @NeilClerkin

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