Time Is Ripe for Coates to Get His Chance

AFTER the sides’ 2-0 defeat to Newcastle on Sunday and our recent poor form, there are a number of players that are being made scapegoat and having the blame rested squarely on their shoulders.

Following the game on Sunday it would be unfair to blame anybody in particular, as the entire 11 were abysmal for pretty much the entire game.

In the aftermath – and perhaps now, more so than before – many are calling for the league season to be written off and for the lacklustre new signings to be benched for the remaining games and for our youngsters to be blooded, to give them the experience they require and to show us all what they are capable of. I mean, let’s be honest, if the season is already over we’ve nothing to lose so I’d find it hard to disagree.

After his brief cameo a couple of weeks ago most fans are clamouring for Raheem Sterling to be given an opportunity in the side, preferably in place of the mediocre Stewart Downing. Along with Sterling I’d love to see Suso, Coady, Shelvey and one or two others given their chance but none more so than Sebastien Coates.

Most would not consider him ‘one of the kids’ but he is. The lad is barely much older than the likes of Shelvey, Suso, et al but is often considered an established member of the first team simply because we paid so much for him and because he is already a fully-blooded member of his International side. With 7 caps for Uruguay and over 100 career games so far he is an experienced veteran compared to some of these young players.

At the age of 21 though this is a crucial time in Coates’s development and sitting on the bench when the players out on the field aren’t fairing too well at all can’t be helping his confidence. I’m sure he was brought in with the realisation that he wouldn’t be playing every week but he actually cost more than both Agger and Skrtel and came with a big reputation already and from the few games he’s had so far we’ve seen definite flashes of class and he’s provided us with a brief glimpse of a strong, composed and technically good centre back. In this day and age these are three components that are pre-requisites for all top class defenders. Sure, he’s had his nervy moments but central defenders are not known for hitting their strides until they are well in to their late 20’s (Sami Hyypia being a rare exception).
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Over the past month or so, the Uruguayan has started one game, whilst coming off the bench very late on against Stoke in the cup. Carragher has started more or less all the others and of those games we’ve lost all but the derby. Now, I know there will be those that just assume that I’m saying he is entirely and solely to blame for our recent slump – I’m not. What I am saying though is that Carragher’s whole style is very ‘English’. He is in the same mould as John Terry or Ryan Shawcross. All very solid defenders in their own right and in the case of Carragher and Terry, you’d even go as far as to call them ‘greats’ but they are not defenders for all occasions. As Chelsea are finding with Terry at the present, there is a time and a place for this type of defending and that time and place begins to decrease rapidly when that player’s legs start to go. Carragher’s whole game is based around a high-energy, last-ditch physical game but he just doesn’t fit in to our current back line.

Watching Agger and Skrtel this season – ably supported by Johnson/Kelly and Enrique – has often been a joy to behold. They’re both fairly quick, with a good deal of ability on the ball and in the tackle and both are tall enough (and good enough in the air) to nullify most aerial threats. The pair work well in tandem and a lot of this is due to Agger’s footballing ability – he prefers to keep the ball on the ground and pass his way out of trouble. In all senses, he is a very ‘attacking’ centre back, in that he likes to instigate getting the ball moving forward again, much like the best ‘holding’ midfielders do. For all intents, Carragher’s first thought is ‘I need to get this damned ball away from my goal’, which is the right attitude but he is a very one-dimensional player, so getting the ball away from his own area tends to be the one and only thought in his head, which is why the ball often ends up in the stands.

Compare his style to what we’ve seen from Coates thus far and there couldn’t be more of a contrast. Coates is more in the Agger/Skrtel mould and when he is playing, Skrtel gets to play on his preferred side of the pitch, which means he is more comfortable right from the start. In each of the games Coates has started this season, we’ve won. Even when he’s come off the bench to shore up the defence late on we’d not lost a game, until QPR a couple of weeks ago. This isn’t really an indication that he is single-handedly preventing us from losing games but it does signify that his influence on the game is a more calming, steadying one than Jamie’s shouty, pointy, argumentative style of defending which has rubbed a number of team-mates the wrong way over the years, with incidents involving Alvaro Arbeloa and Javier Mascherano being the most obvious.

I feel that, with our season currently in free-fall in the league, it will be the best time to blood Coates for the long-term. Out with the old guard, in with the new; let him form a partnership with Skrtel while Agger is out and build their understanding for the future. If nothing else, seeing him on the pitch on Saturday would remind everybody that we did actually sign some decent players over the summer months and would no doubt go some way to giving us the aerial presence we so sorely lacked against the Geordies.

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