Martin Škrtel (Liverpool -> Fenerbahce)

Always rated him and he has been absolutely immense this season. A F***ing rock and goal machine.

Best defender in the league without doubt.

Fair enough guys talk your points on my criticism of Sketel.
I stick by it though, not going to make any apologies for being very apprehensive about the decision making prowess he has displayed throughout the season.
My point of view. Sorry if it doesn't sit well with you

I don't agree with your view.

Never the less, there are a couple of members (who you've unfortunately encountered) who think they're the Poirot's and tedious guardians of this forum. Word of warning, just agree with them. Otherwise you may find your ears burning and a bit of a witch hunt to boot, in a special thread.

I have always been a big fan more because he is a warrior than a great footballer. But once again we have a player who has improved his game massively under Brendan and his 7 goals have been such a bonus.
He can be a bit rash at times but even that has improved and he rarely goes to ground now.

Always thought he dragged us too deep and also was prone to too much grabbing in the box. Also never thought his amount of own goals were totally down to bad luck, often he's out of position beforehand and it's his recovery motion that's caused the deflection (i.e. behind ahead of the cross and therefore facing his own goal rather than being correctly positioned). Carra and Neville apparently did a piece about our CB's causing a lot of issues by being too deep recently and that's probably fair, I thought we dropped too deep against Norwich but I put that down more to nerves than a conscious choice from the backline.

I will say though I've been mightily impressed with some of his defending this season and despite having a patchy season last year he's had a player of the year year and another one right up there sandwiched either side of them. Easily our best defender of the year and deserves all the plaudits he is getting at the moment.

From this mornings Guardian rumour mill. Gave me a chuckle!
'Liverpool need some new central defenders, don't they. But first, they're going to get rid of the old ones. Daniel Agger is on his way to a reunion with old boss Rafa Benítez at Napoli, while Martin Skrtel is to be used as a girder in the upcoming expansion of the Main Stand at Anfield.

Can't believe no one has mentioned how at fault he was for Palace's third goal last night. What he was doing running out of the box and leaving that huge gap to run into is beyond me.

Has had a good season though so not going to say any more than that.

Can't believe no one has mentioned how at fault he was for Palace's third goal last night. What he was doing running out of the box and leaving that huge gap to run into is beyond me.

Has had a good season though so not going to say any more than that.

He lost his head, simple as that. Then again who didn't! But that was a very obvious example sadly.

He lost his head, simple as that. Then again who didn't! But that was a very obvious example sadly.

Just been looking again and there's a few ways in which the third goal could have been avoided but I still think that Skrtel made the biggest mistake in running out like a headless chicken when he had two players surrounding him. Looks like he thought he could win the header and then quickly realised that he'd been caught in no man's land.

I was going to upload a screenshot but I can't for some reason, but you can see in this video how they bypassed Gerrard and Lucas with one ball over the top into their unmarked number 10 who knocked it on to their unmarked striker.

EPL: Crystal Palace 3-3 Liverpool (all goals - highlights - HD)

Johnson can't really be blamed I don't think, he's keeping one eye on their number 7 who caused us a shed load of problems the whole second half. Plus I don't think he would have been expecting Skrtel to bomb out from the back line and leave us so exposed, otherwise he would have covered for him.

Johnson can't really be blamed I don't think, he's keeping one eye on their number 7 who caused us a shed load of problems the whole second half. Plus I don't think he would have been expecting Skrtel to bomb out from the back line and leave us so exposed, otherwise he would have covered for him.

Johnson must take some responsibility for that goal, the moment he sees Skrtel is 2 against 1 he should start to narrow. Have to agree with you though the lion's share of the blame has to sit on Skrts shoulders.

In truth though, as FMS said, the whole team lost the plot for 10 minutes there (in terms of defence) and think for sanity we should all try to black it from our memories.

Johnson must take some responsibility for that goal, the moment he sees Skrtel is 2 against 1 he should start to narrow. Have to agree with you though the lion's share of the blame has to sit on Skrts shoulders.

In truth though, as FMS said, the whole team lost the plot for 10 minutes there (in terms of defence) and think for sanity we should all try to black it from our memories.

He is already narrow though and Skrtel makes such a last minute decision to run out to the incoming ball that there was nothing Johnson could do about that unless he was stood holding his hand.

Part of me wants to say that either Gerrard or Lucas should have been back marking their man in the hole...

He is already narrow though and Skrtel makes such a last minute decision to run out to the incoming ball that there was nothing Johnson could do about that unless he was stood holding his hand.

Part of me wants to say that either Gerrard or Lucas should have been back marking their man in the hole...

Fair enough fella, there was another angle that Carra talked through last night and I tend to agree with him but you could easily be right.

It was a good pass to cut out our midfielders to be fair, Lucas should have probably been picking up the number 7 and Gerrard 1 of those 2 but them getting taken out of the play with the pass wasn't the biggest issue and that was clearly Skrtel having a brain fart much like Alcaraz against City for me. You can't step out unless you're sure you're going to win it and looking back on it Martin will unlikely be able to explain his decision making there but it happens and we move on. He's saved us plenty of times this season, haven't seen that many glaring errors by him so not going to get hung up on this one.

Fair enough fella, there was another angle that Carra talked through last night and I tend to agree with him but you could easily be right.

It was a good pass to cut out our midfielders to be fair, Lucas should have probably been picking up the number 7 and Gerrard 1 of those 2 but them getting taken out of the play with the pass wasn't the biggest issue and that was clearly Skrtel having a brain fart much like Alcaraz against City for me. You can't step out unless you're sure you're going to win it and looking back on it Martin will unlikely be able to explain his decision making there but it happens and we move on. He's saved us plenty of times this season, haven't seen that many glaring errors by him so not going to get hung up on this one.

Yea fair play if Carra looked at it and thought that Glen should have picked up the runner then I'll go with that also.

Looking at it again maybe Glen should have made more of an effort to get across once he saw Skrtel running out.

Yea Skrtel has been boss this season I agree.

Not totally sure about Skrtel.  In a good defence he'd surely be seen as a week link. Around 4 og this season and caught out on the wrong side of the player to often. He was at fault for the clumsy og today and last week against palace he got sandwiched between 2 players rather than getting behind them which was the reason palace equalized.

Never been his biggest fan he is just too skittish. That own goal sums up the weaknesses in his game, under no pressure he has such poor technique that he manages to shin the ball!
In a rather poor defence he has been marginally the best of a bad bunch really.

He's had a good season overall. Some awesome performances. Man Utd at home, Arsenal at home even Chelsea a couple of weeks ago he was brilliant.

And yet I can't help worry about him. His volatility is an asset as well as a hindrance.

Sorry guys but Im going to make this statement

If Skrtel is a regular in our team over the season we will not win the league and might struggle for top 4

If Skrtel is a regular in our team over the season we will not win the league and might struggle for top 4

Agree, we know Skrtl gives it his bets but I'd prefer Sakho coming in and Lovren/Sakho partnership being the bed rock of our defence. BR needs to be bold about this and do it early, our defence had too many changes last season and I don't want to see that. Make a big decision, change it and stick to it early. Not having too much of a go at Skrtl, he gives it all for us, but he's just not that consistent top defender we need.

Sorry guys but Im going to make this statement

If Skrtel is a regular in our team over the season we will not win the league and might struggle for top 4

Have to agree. While no one can dispute his toughness in the tackle and effectiveness in the air I've thought for a while he is too slow and relies too much on the shirt-grab when one-on-one with a forward.

Very harsh to judge our title hopes on the performance of one central defender.

Discredit to Martin in more ways than one.

he was one of our senior men in a season we were runner up.. it's not like he's taken a step back.. he was chopping and changing partners all year and will probably do the same this season. poor guy can't catch a break with the fans!!

Id love to be wrong lads. Time will tell

Very harsh to judge our title hopes on the performance of one central defender.

I agree. He is a liability at times but at the same time he can have some really good games and be a rock at the back. I don't think it's fair to say that if he is a regular or part of a first choice pairing then we wont be competing because he was last season and we were competing.

His main problem is that for every couple of things he does well, he then follows it up with something crap. Confidence seems to be a major thing with him IMO; if he is having a good game then chances are a mistake wont follow but as soon as he makes a mistake it's like he is on edge for the rest of the game and sometimes he completely falls apart.

Any news on his injury?