How to sum up Skrtel? 10 great interceptions (header or tackle) and then one massive F**k up - it's a sure thing every single match. If he'd cut out such stupid mistakes and communicated better with the team, he'd be brilliant.
He has the ability, but he sure as F**k doesn't have the brain.
Also, the other thing that grinds my gears about him is his inability to be a ball playing centre back. I'm a big fan of passing the ball out of defence. Sure it results in F**k ups at time to time, but as the years go by and it becomes ingrained in the clubs tactics, we will improve, and we have improved massively in this department since Rodgers took over. We've created much more goals by playing from back rather than lumping it out.
So the one aspect that pisses me off is Skrtel - as he point blank refuses to pass forward, always going for the safe option of passing back to the keeper. I could forgive him if this was 2012, but two years down the line I would expect to see much more progress from him.
Winners take risks, and if our centre backs are just going to take no responsibility and pass back to the keeper rather than progressing into midfield, then Skrtel might as well call himself English. The lack of risk taking - it's an inherent problem in English football and Skrtel almost resembles the archetypal English defender in all aspects of his game. There's a massive physique and presence in the defence and for the casual observer he looks amazing when he leaps beyond all players and heads the ball into midfield, or a last ditch sliding tackle which is one for the cameras. Like many English defenders, he does this brilliantly. But once the team are exposed to opposition pressure, he often loses his head, making bizaare mistakes and communication between players is non-existent at a time when the team desperately needs it. The rational and intelligence for such a situation is absent and therefore, yet again, is much like the traditional English defender.
At a time when Liverpool needs leaders in the defence, he is probably the only one we've got as he is one of our most experienced - I can't expect Sakho to lead yet. Which is why getting Lovren seems a good idea. He delegates to defenders, shouts at them and overall communicates much with his players, but importantly plays the 'Liverpool' way by bringing the ball out of defence creating so much space rather than passing back to the keeper (just like what Alan Hansen did). He seems comfortable playing under pressure, and considering such rationality is essential for the defence to succeed in defence and attack, I think he would do well here. I realise the jump from Southampton to Liverpool is a big one, and that he has only had one season in the sun in England, so I can't be too sure, but it hopefully seems like a safe bet to go for Lovren. He's a risk taker, and I like that, because English style complacent defenders are not capable leaders of getting us to the top with the current system of play here.
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