Is Carra Past It? What's the Ideal CB Partnership?

I personally don't consider it a coincidence that Carraghers downturn in form coincided with our demise as a squad. For me, during 05-08 he was up there with the top defenders in the World, along with Sami he formed arguably one of the best CB partnerships around. Agree with Scottbot that for a few seasons he truly was a top class centre half.

But inevitably age has caught up with him, hes not washed up and simply a carthorse hoofing machine as some on here would like to make out. But the time has come for him to take more of a backseat advisory role, as opposed to playing every game a season. Skrtel for me should be one of the first names on the team sheet, he has his dodgy moments as do most CB's, but in terms of stability and reliability hes the best we have IMO. Agger, while being one of the best ball playing CB's we've had since Hansen isn't as fantastic at defending as some would like to admit. Soto im afraid is a reliability and Kelly needs moulding in to the position.

Desperate for us to sign a top class CB, who I personally would have partnering Skrtel, rotating with Agger. Move the big Greek on (Sorry Soto), get Carra doing his badges while using him sparingly and mold Kelly in to CB with as many games as possible. Still think the future looks pretty bright defensively.

Never forget the image of him last season when he did his shoulder havin a go at Kyrgiakos

Hahahaha

Legend.

 Past it? Don't be daft. We're royally f***ed if he is, he's the best defender we've got by miles.

Past it? Don't be daft. We're royally f***ed if he is, he's the best defender we've got by miles.

Agree.

We missed him when he was out last season, he is who makes our defence solid with his organising, attitude and play (minus too much hoofing sometimes).

Him and Agger for me.

Not past it, but his career is winding down and it may be necessary to pick and chose when he plays.  The amount of shirt tugging he has recently had to resort to is a definite worry, as it was with Skrtel at the beginning of last season.

Carragher in the side every time for me. Think some of you are forgetting the shocking form of Insua and at times the dosyness of Johnson.

I rate johnson but his positioning sense isn't the greatest. Arbeloa for example or Finnan, you would always know exactly where those two are if your playing alongside them.

Carragher and Agger for me, only concern i have is they get bullied in the air or by the bigger stronger type of forward like drogba or davies.

Skrtel is too hot and cold, brilliant one week then three days later he makes titus bramble look world class.

Sotis isn't good enough for Liverpool, he was a panic signing, shouldnt have been bought in the first place.

When we sign a new centre half i imagine him to play alongside carragher due to aggers injury problems. He is head and shoulders above skrtel and sotis.

And where did we finish. I stand by my opinion that kelly is better than skrtel.

And you are entitled to your opinion ... even if it is patently wrong

He's not past it but he isn't good enough anymore to be considered our best defender and to be starting every single game. For me Agger is our best CB and we need to get someone in with quality that can play alongside him because Sotis is good but too inconsistent and getting on, Skrtel I dont rate at all because since his knee injury he only seems a shadow of his old self with mistakes left, right and centre.

People forget its now 6 years since Istanbul and he was at his very best then. His distribution is awful and he lost what little pace he had a couple of season ago.
Nobody lasts forever and we need a dominant CB ASAP.Agger has been injury prone, Sotis hasnt been at all bad and Skrtyl seems to have lost confidence which dosent leave us with an inspiring choice does it.
If Jamie is our best CB we have big problems ahead.

I"d expect carra to be here for another season at least , his legs are gone , but with the younger lads coming through his experience is essential for them to learn from, although i could see him being benched more often than not .

He was good for us last season under Kenny, we just have to accept that he doesn't pass the ball out of defence, never has done, never will. A compulsive diagnol hoofer.

So unless anything has drastically changed the past 3 months, then he's fine yet.

Certainly a very important member of the squad, and a big character to have around.

Don't get me wrong, he can still do a job for us and still have a future at the club.

I love his courage, his commitment and his never say die attitude, BUT he is not our best defender, and never has been.

I am not sure Agger is the answer, or skrtel, but in a few years Kelly might be - he's a F***ing beast of a lad, and has pace, power and a decent understanding of the game.

What I'm saying is that we need another Sami - sadly, bargains and players like him don't come around that often these days...

I believe Carra is not past it but I don't think he's before it either. His days are numbered as he gets older. I like what Diego suggested earlier in comparison to Sami but I don't think we have the quality in depth for that to happen.

As it stands it would have to be Agger with Carra. But Agger is suspect with his injury troubles and then Skrtel can lack the concentration required, for me.

I believe it's time for a quality addition like KiK says. Someone who came in like Sami did and stood head and shoulders above all the over defenders.

There's a lot of focus on Carra's distribution on the last page and no doubt he is VERY guilty of the diagonal hoof but I would argue that has crept into his game a lot more during the past two seasons when surprise surprise we haven't had much of a midfield ahead of him. The blame doesn't all luie with Carra for this because if no one shows for the ball, gives a good angle or demands the ball then there is nowhere else for the ball to go. Carra's distribution was not a problem in 2008-09 that's for sure, not when we had the best midfield in the world as the song went.

There's a lot of focus on Carra's distribution on the last page and no doubt he is VERY guilty of the diagonal hoof but I would argue that has crept into his game a lot more during the past two seasons when surprise surprise we haven't had much of a midfield ahead of him. The blame doesn't all luie with Carra for this because if no one shows for the ball, gives a good angle or demands the ball then there is nowhere else for the ball to go. Carra's distribution was not a problem in 2008-09 that's for sure, not when we had the best midfield in the world as the song went.

Waiting for certain posters to come on & dismiss the no movement in front of him argument.  They dismissed it out of hand in another players thread, so fair is fair in this thread.

Waiting for certain posters to come on & dismiss the no movement in front of him argument.  They dismissed it out of hand in another players thread, so fair is fair in this thread.

What are your thoughts on it fella? I'm not saying Carra's distribution is especially good, in facts he drives me bloody nuts, lost count the number of times I've been screaming 'Feeeeeeeet' when he's on the ball! But, I don't recall his distribution being much of an issue for a few of the seasons before hand when we were certainly a more fluent side with options on the ball and players with the confidence to come and get it + of course we had a certain Xabi Alonso sitting in the pocket taking it off our CBs at every opportunity.

PS. I'm the forum Geoff Strong! Who the fook is that!?!

PS. I'm the forum Geoff Strong! Who the fook is that!?!

Google is your friend.

Sometimes 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geoff_Strong

What are your thoughts on it fella? I'm not saying Carra's distribution is especially good, in facts he drives me bloody nuts, lost count the number of times I've been screaming 'Feeeeeeeet' when he's on the ball! But, I don't recall his distribution being much of an issue for a few of the seasons before hand when we were certainly a more fluent side with options on the ball and players with the confidence to come and get it + of course we had a certain Xabi Alonso sitting in the pocket taking it off our CBs at every opportunity.

PS. I'm the forum Geoff Strong! Who the fook is that!?!

I'd been saying, pre-KK, that our movement off the ball had been poor, throughout the team, for the previous 18-24 months. JC has been guilty of hoofing unnecessarily when options have been there.  We'd been guilty of failing to adapt.  Alonso is one of the few players whose passing could create space, without him, our players, for whatever reasons, struggled to adapt to the fact that we didn't have Xabi and they'd have to create their own space.  Generally though, we had two exceptions to this, Johnson & Lucas, who themselves have deficiencies.

Google is your friend.

Sometimes  

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geoff_Strong

Ya learn something new everyday!

I'd been saying, pre-KK, that our movement off the ball had been poor, throughout the team, for the previous 18-24 months. JC has been guilty of hoofing unnecessarily when options have been there.  We'd been guilty of failing to adapt.  Alonso is one of the few players whose passing could create space, without him, our players, for whatever reasons, struggled to adapt to the fact that we didn't have Xabi and they'd have to create their own space.  Generally though, we had two exceptions to this, Johnson & Lucas, who themselves have deficiencies.

The hoof that he does reminds of Sami - except Sami used to pick his man out. Usually Riise storming up the left.

 Scotts on the money. Too often with our midfield nobody shows. The centre halves have to go long, and people have a go at them for hoofing it. Either that, or one of our midfielders gets it, rolls it back five yards to them and they have to go long. In that scenario, people still have a go at them for hoofing it, but they praise up the fella who knocked it five yards because he did so successfully. 

Scotts on the money. Too often with our midfield nobody shows. The centre halves have to go long, and people have a go at them for hoofing it. Either that, or one of our midfielders gets it, rolls it back five yards to them and they have to go long. In that scenario, people still have a go at them for hoofing it, but they praise up the fella who knocked it five yards because he did so successfully. 

Or, more likely, Carra is trying to give it to Gerrard.

Cop yerself on lad.

Scotts on the money. Too often with our midfield nobody shows. The centre halves have to go long, and people have a go at them for hoofing it. Either that, or one of our midfielders gets it, rolls it back five yards to them and they have to go long. In that scenario, people still have a go at them for hoofing it, but they praise up the fella who knocked it five yards because he did so successfully.  

You're right there , but you know... we had Lucas who came deep to collect the ball, but when he did... our attack was rather static and we didn't really have much link up play going from the back and moving to the attack, hence the long balls from our centre backs.

I feel with a combination of Adam and Lucas with Aquilani behind the striker to linking defence to midfield to attack, we'll be passing the ball a lot and the defense won't be hoofing it much this season..... just like it was when we had Alonso and Gerrard.