A defensive headache?

WHEN Kolo Toure got stretchered off during the Capital One Cup tie between Liverpool FC and Notts County at Anfield, I don’t think I’m the only one who felt hugely frustrated – not to mention worried. Injuries happen, that’s just the way it is, but the annoying bit was the fact that we sort of brought it up on ourselves by allowing Notts County back into the game and needing extra time to finish them off. It all just felt extremely unnecessary.

Fast forward a few days and everything was suddenly hunky dory – and then some. Martin Skrtel put in a man of the match performance against Manchester United, Toure’s injury wasn’t nearly as bad we thought, and we had Mamadou Sakho watching in the stands. The centre-back position had gone from being somewhat worrisome to arguably the strongest part of the squad.

Since then there has been a few incidents on the injury front, giving Brendan Rodgers a couple of dilemmas ahead of the upcoming against Southampton this weekend; mainly in defensive positions, but also the fact that LFC’s main creative force Philippe Coutinho is out for around six weeks. That’s how quickly things can change for a manager.

Possibly the biggest headache for Rodgers is how to set up the defence, and particularly who to play at right-back. Glen Johnson is a massive player for Liverpool; not just because he’s a good defender, but simply because he’s a terrific footballer who helps us play the game like we want to. We won’t necessarily be any less solid without him in the team, but what we’ll miss is the outlet at right-back when building an attack; the wide link between defence and attack who is just as comfortable in the middle or final third of the pitch as in the defensive third.

Andre Wisdom and Martin Kelly are both very solid defenders and decent short term solutions, but neither those two or any other option at the club come close to Glen Johnson in terms of general footballing ability – and Mauricio Pocchetino will be fully aware of this when preparing for the game on Saturday. Coupled with the absence of Coutinho and Joe Allen, and the fact that Luis Suarez isn’t finished serving his ban until after the final whistle, this game suddenly looks potentially much more difficult than it did only a few weeks ago. All of a sudden the team looks like a team who may find it difficult to.

Central defence is a much more pleasant issue than the attacking issue, but here is also a decision to made. Based on the last two games I think many Liverpool fans agree that Martin Skrtel deserves another chance in there and should be one of the first names on the team sheet for this game. However, I believe he could become the victim of the fact that Johnson is out and that we simply need someone back there who is more comfortable with the ball at his feet – and because of that I can see Toure starting together with Sakho.

Liverpool should still be able to produce a solid performance and possibly keep another clean sheet against a Southampton team struggling for goals, but there are concerns about where our creativity is going to come from and a certain danger that Daniel Sturridge and Victor Moses will have to share too much of the creative responsibility. Players like Luis Alberto, Iago Aspas and Raheem Sterling – whoever of them gets involved – will need to step up to the plate and help assisting Sturridge and Moses in our search for three more points.

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