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Are we overstocked in defence already?

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LFC defenceARE the central defensive positions at Liverpool oversubscribed with existing players, even without the possibilities of signing Ilori, Papadopoulos, Alderweireld, Williams (and so on?)

There are already no less than 8 possibilities for the 2 central defensive positions at Liverpool, with at least 4 contenders being capable of cementing regular first team places. Top players they may be, but do we really need the likes of Ilori, Papadopoulos, Alderweireld or Williams.

I know there may be some “outs” before the new season, and Carra will be missed, but is this a case of “change for changes sake,” risking instability by making too many alterations in a short time? That is the last thing we need if we are to get close to that elusive fourth spot.

Firstly a mention about the goalkeeping department which contains both Reina and Mignolet. This competition is welcome and it will be intriguing to watch the battle for the first team. Brad Jones, who will be remembered for the 2012 FA Cup semi-final victory over Everton, never looked consistent enough for the main berth, and I think it would be beneficial if the Australian moved on. With the departure of Gulacsi this leaves us with young Darren Ward as third choice.

We also don’t lack defensive midfielders: there are several options before the possible addition of Victor Wanyama. So now to the address the depth of our central defensive reserves.

Daniel Agger is held in high regard. The Dane is now reaching his prime at 28 years old. After some injury-plagued seasons, he has now made over 200 appearances since 2006, and signed a new long-term deal last October. These facts, together with his distribution skills suiting Brendan Rogers’ style of play, would make it folly to consider offers for him.

Similar in some ways to Agger, being 28 and having notched up 200+ shows for us, Martin Skrtel is a proven performer at premier level. His style is more “no nonsense” than pretty and he suffered a self-confessed loss of form last term, but the Slovakian played every minute of every league game of the 2010/11 season, and finished the following term being voted the fans’ Player of the Year. His excellent attitude and professionalism means it would be silly to see, and again he signed a new contract last summer.
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Recently we acquired Kolo Toure. At 32 he has some time on his side with his excellent fitness levels, and is another proven individual. He could easily become a regular starter. Having just signed he is clearly a part of the Manager’s plans.

I feel Martin Kelly is being overlooked as a serious contender for a starting role in the centre. Still only 23, with 54 appearances since his debut in 2008, his form prior to rupturing his anterior cruciate ligament was extremely impressive. He was mainly used as a right-back due to lack of depth of players, but he is built, and has trained, for a career in the middle. We need to see him injury-free (including his back problems) but Roy Hodgson knew and thought highly enough of him to include in his Euro 2012 squad, although I realise readers may not rate all of Roy’s judgements! Kelly has signed a recent contract and he should definitely not be discarded.

Now we turn to a supporting level of players whose potential could make them serious contenders in the future, but back-up for now.

Sebastian Coates is only 22. He has not set the world alight since his arrival but the Uruguayan is 6 feet 6 inches tall and commanding in the air, something we could well use defending set pieces. He was voted Best Young Player at the 2011 Copa America, which was no mean achievement and players take time to settle, especially from a different culture. He would fetch a decent price, but better to give him a loan first, rather than losing him and regretting it.

Andre Wisdom has already shown he won’t let us down in first team action. Another more suited to playing centrally, he has made errors but appears to have a strong character and physique. One to emerge from the recent Under-21 Championships with credit, he looks mature beyond his 20 years. He has appeared 19 times, is seen as potential future captaincy material, and signed a new long contract in January.

The couple who complete my list are not ready for starting positions and in truth I see Conor Coady’s best position as midfield. However he is now 20 and physically a strong specimen. Potentially a future captain he may be ready for some cup games. The other, also 20, is Stephen Sama whose performances for our younger teams have been impressive and he should now start making an impression.

We need to be ready for August, so could disrupting this group with too many changes be counter-productive?
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It is impossible to explain my feelings about LFC; those who understand will know what I mean and those who don't get it never will. Born in 1966 I remember the `74 Cup Final, St Etienne, Moenchengladbach and so on although I was unable to get to matches at that age from my South Wales home where rugby was the religion. Possibly my favourite Red on the field was Terry McDermott- I have still seen nobody time their late runs into the box like him. Now ahead of the 2013/14 season I am more optimistic about the medium-term future than I have been for a while but also realistic in that the 70's and 80's can never be replicated as that kind of domination is not possible in the modern game. I have no ambition to be a professional writer beyond these types of article but am very much looking forward to my interaction with live4liverpool.

21 comments

  • Omensa says:

    Yes, we really need the first 3. #IlorisPapadopoulosAlderweierld ins if johnson exit. Then Alder steps in as rwb.coates,wisdom must be sold. Eventhough coates is fantastic but it seems rodgers dont admire him as a lad he wants but wisdom? He’s crap! Imaho. He’s wisdomless! Why? He doesn’t press, he leaves enough space for opposition he give more backpass than i thought is expected. He’s not good enough for this system. We need intelligent lad and quick thinking lads. Wisdom is a crap.

    • Bill says:

      Your an idiot nothing else need be said.

    • Gaz says:

      I thought the same about Carra. I’m so pleased to be wrong

      • Jack says:

        You are not wrong at all Gaz. Carra is truly crap. Thank goodness’ he has finally done the right thing by retiring. It was sheer torture watching, for a good part of 2 decades, a footballer who did nothing but hoofed the frigging ball to no-man’s land. All this because this so-called football player was so tactically-incompetent and technically-deficient. Carra had such a bad first touch and an even more shameful second. He cannot dribble, head, cross or shoot the ball with any level of decency. Now, he tells us he wants to be a TV pundit. Viewers the world over would be asking, “What’s he saying? Is he speaking English?” Perhaps, Carra ought to enrol himself in a school to learn how to enunciate correctly. And only then, should this so-called footballer cum TV pundit wannabe utter a word on TV.

  • Adam says:

    We only need one more cb as Coates will probably leave, Kelly and Agger are injury prone and Skrtel would pick up a few cards so just one more should do it. Someone like Sakho or Williams. Plus we dont need a cdm, coady would never get his chance so we only need a play maker like Alonso or Mkhitaryan. Ok im done now. YNWA

  • Matt says:

    “Are we overstocked in defence already?”

    In a word; no!

    “ARE the central defensive positions at Liverpool oversubscribed with existing players”

    Again, no! Are you insane? – If we sell Skrtel and Coates, then the only first-team CB we will have will be Agger. Toure won’t be able to play every game, Kelly played 4 league games last season as a RB and Wisdom played 12, mostly as a fullback as well.

    So you think we are oversubscribed with ONE whole CB???????????????????????????????

    “We also don’t lack defensive midfielders”

    We have one defensive midfielder. That would be Lucas. He was a bit hit and miss last season and will hopefully be back to his best.

    However, even if he did get back to his best, that doesn’t mean we don’t lack defensive midfielders!

    “I feel Martin Kelly is being overlooked as a serious contender for a starting role in the centre.” “his form prior to rupturing his anterior cruciate ligament was extremely impressive.”

    Correct me if I’m wrong, but I remember his form being very poor at that time? He also hasn’t had much experience as a CB in the first team. Yet, despite all this, you think it would be alright to throw him in a a full-time, first-team regular at CB?

    • Ozred says:

      Rubbish. As it is we have skrtel – player of the year 1 year ago, aggressive – star cb. Toure an upgrade on cara. Kelly and coats two emerging cbs Kelly in particular one that I think will become one of the best in the league.

      Personally I think Rodgers key mistake of the year was getting bitch slapped into playing cara over skrtel. We were poorer for it and this was more about a new manager trying to keep the playing group onside than picking the best side. Caras retirement is like a new signing in itself…

    • Leights says:

      The article suggests keeping all eight defenders.

  • daniel says:

    My 2013/2014 defence line up.. 1st team= Johnson…Papa…Agger…Enrique 2nd team= Kelly….Skrtel….Toure….Robinson

  • stevie says:

    It depends who is leaving but if nobody goes anywhere else why is there a problem? I don’t think there are too many problems elsewhere in the team. Just need more consistency

    • Matt says:

      Skrtel was awful last season, Agger wasn’t exactly great either, Coates is not trusted, Carra has already gone, Toure is 32 and can’t play every game, Kelly wasn’t playing very well before his injury; played only 4 games last season; and that was at rb, Wisdom played only 12 games last season as a FB – I think you’ll find all that is the problem.

      • stevie says:

        Kelly and wisdom will improve and get better……..unless of course you have absolutely no patience, want instant results and want to spend a fortune on foreign players!

        • Matt says:

          It’s not so much the instant results I’m bothered about – it’s more of a case that if we end up with Kelly and Wisdom as first-team centre-backs right now (when they are clearly not ready), then we could quite easily end up getting dragged into a relegation scrap this season.

          Or, even if it’s not that bad (although it probably will be because we will concede many goals), we will probably finish mid-table and lose even more appeal than we have now, lose some quality players and not have the ability to replace them for like, and end up never really fighting for 4th place again.

          Who said I wanted us to spend a fortune? We will make quite a bit of money from player sales this window (already made £15m), so yes, I want to see that invested back in the squad instead of us not bothering and getting severely punished for it.

          It’s alright giving the young lads a chance, but not at the risk of hemorrhaging goals and points next season or at the risk of our club.

          • stevie says:

            If players are bought in ahead of kelly and wisdom they will never get the chance to play so they will never be ready. It’s a bit chicken and egg isn’t it? Call me old fashioned but I like a core of english players in my team….6 or 7 like we had at the end of the season just gone. I can’t see us challenging for 4th until ffp is strictly adhered to and meaningful punishments given to those who don’t comply

  • Craig says:

    Flanagan wisdom samba out on loan get the price up then sell, no 1 off them good enough, buy better then these papa alderweierld llori, and then we have Kelly Robinson ?

  • jimbob says:

    i dont read your articals because u have no idea, but i love reading people writing you off consistently with passion, keep up the good work!

  • Erin says:

    Keep skertel , and we are fine. We have bigger fish to fry. Luis is leaving, like it or not! We must simply concentrate on replacing his contribution and stop trying to re-shuffle the whole team. Mignolet is here now, welcome. We must replace downing, and luis. Downing is easily replaced as he hardly contributes anything. Might as well get an overweight fan to play instead of him. At least it will give us a laugh.
    Luis, can’t be replaced like for like. We have to be clever. A striker, good winger who can give us width to stretch defences and a holding midfielder, should be his replacement in my opinion.
    No, I don’t think we should replace too many first team players. At present, sort out the mess with Suarez and just find effective replacements. With some steel in mf, plus finding the players who can cover his contribution , we will get 10-15 more points .
    YNWA

  • sulexxy says:

    Our defense is fine if we can the players we are having now.

  • James Fishlock says:

    I think Skrtel has played his way out of BR’s plans. He isnt comfortable on the ball and being asked to play out from the back has knocked his confidence and his defending suffered as a result. Coates is just not quick enough to play a high line, I like his as a defender but he won’t fit in to the way BR wants us to play. Toure has a proven winning track record. So i’m happy with his signing. Kelly and Wisdom both look good, I’d like to see Kelly playing some more at RB this year, Wisdom could really do with a loan out even for 6 months to get some 1st team football. We need a 1st choice starting CB asap IMO. As for LB, I wrote an article on here last week about Downing being played there. Have a look.

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