Skrtel has, once again, risen to the top of Liverpool’s shaky defence
5. Martin Skrtel – It says a lot about Skrtel’s attitude that he just refuses to go away. Season after season, players are brought in – apparently to replace him – and time and again he either raises his game or steps up to take his chances when they come his way.
Regardless of what you think about Skrtel, he is currently the best centre back Liverpool have. And whether you think that is a sad indictment on the Liverpool squad, or you actually appreciate what he has to offer, that is a discussion to be had another day.
At the start of the season, we put out a list of our favoured centre back pairings and Lovren and Skrtel was at the top. On that account nothing has changed and if Liverpool are to have a good season they will need Skrtel to form a formidable partnership with the new man. He can certainly improve (but can’t they all?) but unless we see some serious improvements in Sakho, Lovren and Toure, Skrtel is currently the best we have.
Saying all that though, he has many areas on which he needs to improve, most notably being his leadership and organizational abilities. Watching Skrtel marshal Slovakia against Spain and dominate Diego Costa was a sight to behold and Reds needs to see much more of this side of Skrtel in the months ahead.
Area to improve: Leadership.
Rating – C
All our players soon find form an we at our best
Manquillo has been miles beta dan skrtl.
We just need to impro
ve as a team.