Rebuilding our defense….candidates!

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The tabloids and the media in general are claiming a strong interest from the Reds for Newcastle United defender Jose Enrique, who has apparently also attracted the attentions of Man Utd and Aston Villa. The Reds are in need of a solid and reliable offensive left-back, there is no doubt about that, but many also question the quality of Kyrgiaskos and Skrtel, so I am throwing these three candidates into the fray, in the hope that we can have some constructive comments of whether these are worthy of wearing the Liverpool shirt.

José Enrique Sánchez Díaz. Better known as simply as Jose Enrique, the 25 year old Valencia native has been plying his trade at Newcastle United since August 2007, and is currently being considered by Liverpool to slot in the left-back position where the Reds need more quality, freeing Glen Johnson to either switch back to his favoured right-back position, or better still, to be move up to the right wing to give Liverpool more depth, and to supply quality crosses for Andy Carroll and Co to whip into the net. Newcastle have shown an interest in our Jovanovic, so a possible swap deal could be in the making, especially since recent dealings between the two Clubs have been smooth and swift.

Gary James Cahill joined Bolton Wanderers in January 2008. The 25 year old England international is highly regarded in the Premier League and is destined to move to a bigger club come next summer. Liverpool has shown interest and Steven Gerrard has always spoken highly of him. With Arsenal also showing interest in the player, there could well be a bidding war here, so the Reds will need to watch their moves. The player is a quality centre back and is also dangerous in set pieces. If he joins the Reds we will not need to move house, but then he might even opt for London life. Strongly in the running to replace either the ageing Rio Ferdinand or John Terry for England! Would help us keep a healthy tab on the home grown quota issue. Bolton Wanderers may have to let a couple of the prized assets leave in order to balance the books which seem to be quite dangerously in the red (pardon the pun!)

Scott Dann is a Liverpudlian through and through. Born in Liverpool and a self confessed supporter of the Reds, he has formed a solid partnership with Roger Johnson at Birmingham City, while being extremely dangerous on offensive set pieces. Just 24 years old last Valentine’s Day, Dann would relish a move to Merseyside. Even though he is currently sidelined with a hamstring injury, the young Scouser could be brought in for a reasonable cost and has all the right attributes to become a Kop favorite. He did make two appearances for England’s Under-21 squad by the way.

Have your say!

32 Comments

  1. I would include Fabio Coentrao for LB position. Still 22, good going forward and bags of talent.

    I think we still miss Hyypia in defence. He used to nullify all aereal threats something with which we struggle nowadays.

  2. i would go for neven subotic of dortmund..great player and maybe scott dann will be good for our defense..get rid of skrtel..buy some talented defender

  3. Guys dont forget that the attack is our problem not the defence.look at our last 6 games where we have conceded 1 goal.except for the wolves game away the other 5 games we’ve struggled to score.we won fulham with a funny own goal from Paintsil,Stoke City was a game that the fans won for the team as we were all singing for Luis Suarez (harder than we did for the blonde b**th torres),Chelsea is a derby game and you can expect everything there but we defended TOP GREATLY there and the last 2 games i’ve struggled to take positives for attacking.ok Suarez played well against Wigan but some players arent liverpool quality.i am talking about Ngog,Maxi,Jovanovic,Kuyt slow players with little to prove.we need new,young,hungry and talented players up front.we’ve done great job bringing Suarez and Carroll here but more players are needed for next season like Ashley Young,Lavezzi,.etc.what i mean is pay for attack and midfield not for defence.we’ve had 6 clean sheets the last 7 games which is a statistic even Barcelona like!!but Barcelona have scored 20 goals the last 8 games not the 10 we’ve scored..YNWA

  4. Not too many good young left backs around at the mo so it’s between : Enrique, Contreau, santon and taiwo for me with taiwo being available on s free I think unless he’s signed with someone since I last heard.

    I’d go for Sakho of PSG as our new centre half. Very young and already a class act and perfect for the prem. Kjaer wouldn’t be bad either and plays with agger for the Danes.

  5. yes i would like gary cahil or ryan shawcross to join liverpool, perhaps both if skrtel and kyrgiakos leaves. also feel fabio coentrao would be an excellent left back for the club. we also had a bid turnes down for micah richards on the last day of the transfer window so liverpool may opt to go back there

  6. We could get Taye Taiwo (age 25) free on a Bosman for left back. If we buy, I would go for Coentrao(22) at LB as he is probably the best around, but he will cost a good £20M.
    We could also do an exchange + cash deal with Skrtel for Kjaer(21). We will still need another CB though I dont know who, so maybe just buy Kyaer (£10M).

  7. Coentrao would be great, but I think he’d cost too much. Enrique would make sense- 12 months left on his contract would put the ball in our court, he wants to move to a bigger club and the fact he is experienced in England and Spanish should help his intergration into our squad (and would no doubt please the likes of Reina).

    Simon Kjaer could be great at CB- young, capable on the ball and already has a rapport with Agger. The prices being quoted are pretty reasonable too. It seems a no brainer but I worry whether he and Agger would be a dominating enough partnership in the air.

    I think I’d be happy to see this team next year:

    Reina

    Kelly – Kjaer – Agger – Enrique

    Johnson – Gerrard – Meireles/Lucas – Marveaux

    Suarez

    Carroll

    Swap Meireles and Lucas depending on opposition. Sell a few people like Cole, Poulsen, Jova, Konchesky and Aurelio or Insua and we’d have enough money for those 3 (let’s say they’d cost £25mil) plus a few more if the board are generous.

    Think:

    In:
    Enrique £12mil
    Kjaer £13mil
    Marveaux FREE
    Total = £25mil

    Out:
    El Zhar FREE
    Degen FREE
    Poulsen £3mil
    Jova £3mil
    Aqua £11mil (though it’d be a shame, but it seems inevitable)
    Cole £5mil
    Konchesky £2mil
    Aurelio £1mil
    Skrtel £5mil
    Total = £30mil

    We’d break even and then the board would only have to give us a small net spend to add one or two extras.

    Reina/Gulacsi/Jones

    Kelly/?-Kjaer/Carra/Ayala-Agger/Wilson/The Greek-Enrique/Insua

    Johnson/Maxi – Gerrard/Meireles/Shelvey – Lucas/Spearing – Marveaux/?

    Suarez/Pacheco

    Carroll/Dirk/N’Gog

    Say the board gave us an extra £15mil on top of that money we’ve raised, we could easily get a decent left-mid (or right and have Maxi as back up left-mid) and a good back up right back for Kelly.

    This is pure Footy Manager stuff, but is it that unreasonable? I think the figures, though obviously speculative, aren’t too outrageous. We could always get some decent bosmans too. On top of Marveaux there are people like Pirlo and Ziegler from Italy and experienced Prem players who’d fill out the squad well like Elmander or Seb Larsson.

  8. I don’t know if we can get Subotic or Coentrao, but they are both great and would be excellent for LFC. Also, I would like to see Bastos (Lyon), offensive left back, amazing player…

  9. 1st need Left Back
    -Fabio Coentrao or Jose Enrique both fit the mold
    2nd Quality Young Center Half
    -Simon Kjaer:Rave reviews for a 21 yr old who starts alongside Agger for the Danes also being sought by Arsenal but would seem inclined to prefer Liverpool as he has referred to Agger as his ‘idol’
    -Per Mertesacker 6’6 German international aerial ability is the perfect foil for Agger our ball-playing center half. Pegged to replace Kjaer if he leaves
    -Gary Cahill Proable future English Center Half Good towards fulfilling homegrown quota, but that also means an increase price

    Personally would like to see Coentrao vs Enrique becaus ehe is 3 years younger and is teammate of Meireles for Portugal. however Enrique does have PL experience and since the departure of Torres could begin to refill our famed Spanish contingent

    Prefer Kjaer for his youth and ball playing ability or Mertesacker for his aerial ability and both have vast international experience. However Cahill is a great player as well and I trust Kenny to make the right decisions

  10. I love the talk and speculation , especially from Jaques , but I would like to add another dimension…defence seems sorted and what we seem to be lacking is wingers…..
    who could we bring in to run the flanks? Any good wingers available and who would you want to get???

    been hearing alot of pub talk after games and it seems Wingers are where most people think we are lacking….

  11. I would say we need a left-back for sure, i don’t think our defenders are too bad really. Young Wilson is a ball playing centre-back,long-term, Kelly too will go into the middle later in his career. I believe we need a left-winger defo and i would play Glen Johnson right-wing in front of Kelly. I believe we need a striker to replace Ngog who will never make it at Liverpool, so we need LB, LW and striker!!!!!

  12. @ Will. We will tackle the wingers issue another time. Thanks to all for the contributions, keep them coming in. I see that the same people are mentioned for the roles we need to increase quality in. On a short note to everyone reading: I JUST HEARD THE JUVE SPORTING DIRECTOR MAROTTA SAY THAT THEY NEED TO MEET LIVERPOOL TO SORT OUT THE AQUILANI ISSUE AS THEY WANT HIM AT JUVE FOR MANY YEARS TO COME.

  13. @ rob. Brede Hangeland is a strong player, but he will be 30 come next June. Perhaps we should invest in younger players.
    @ steve. Yes we know we still have to work on the attacking front. With Carroll and Suarez in to replace Torres, I don’t think we made a bad start. Watch this space.
    @ Jacques. I agree with your list of players leaving this summer. Hope we manage to make a bit more money out of those sales if they materialize.
    @ Will. The wingers question depends on what the Liverpool tacticians have in mind. If they play with a 3-5-1-2 formation as we have done so successfully, the two attacking fullbacks, such as Johnson/Kelly and Enrique/Coentrao would be in effect, our wingers and it will be up to them to give width to the team and deliver deadly crosses.

  14. Love hearing all the suggestions on here as to who we should get in, i agree with alot of them, all real qualitu players. But no1 has mentioned a centre midfielder. We r really short there. Lucas been excellent this season, Raul is outstanding & getting better, also Captain fantastic, but thats it!! We need 2 real top quality players in those positions, poulsen can leave because he is shocking!!!!!

  15. I belive we need 5 quality players: LB, CB, LW, CM, & Fwd.
    Taiwo for free for LB role,
    Simon Kjaer for CB role,
    Marveux for free for LW role,
    Javi Martinez for under 15mil or Adam for about 10mil as CM,
    and Elmander as spare forward.

    Sell these 13 players: Jones,Soto,Skyrtl,Konchesky,Insua, Maxi,Ngog,Jovanovic,Kuyt,Poulson,El Zhar,Degen,Aurelio.

    That will open squad spots for Mavinga,Pacheco,Sterling,Ince, & Coady.

    Also, it should be the club’s policy of promoting a couple of players from the reseves to first team every year to encourage others to come to our acdemy and give hope & opertunity to the young players at the club.

  16. A yank is a yank he’ll never break his bank…for us.The net spending in January was only £2m.I’m afraid,JW Henry will do the same thing in Summer.He’ll refurbish the team,surely but with no major spending, it’s not the NESV way.

    As for our backline,the remedy is to bench Skrtel(awful in the air) an use Kyrgiakos under the three centre backs system.This system is more reliabale with kyrgia and Carra good in the air and Agger good on the ball.Besides with less ground to cover the three defenders can protect each other and give support to our wingbacks(actually playing as extra midfielfers),indeed someone like Johnson has shown better performances since he’s been relieved from his defensive duties thanks to Agger’s sharpness and good reading of the game.

    Today both Johnson and Kelly can roam upfront giving us more width and balance down the process.Even Meireles is no longer bothering himself with defensive issues,he’s been freed since this system is going on…

    As for my favorite line-up next season I’ll go for this one,

    ———————-Reina————————

    —-Carra/Mertesacker—Kyrgia/Kjaer—-Agger/Enrique

    Kelly———————————————-Johnson

    ——–Gerrard/Lucas—M’vila/Aurelio—Meireles/Elia

    —————–Suarez————————–
    ——————————-Carroll———–

  17. @ momoofalgiers. Let’s face it. If the players mooted to leave will in effect leave, they will generate quite a substantial amount of money to play with. I may be proved wrong, but I am not ready to discredit NESV just yet.
    This January transfer window broke even, but unlike Man Utd who sold CR for Stg 90 million and spent almost nothing, NESV re-invested the money they got for Babel and Torres within days. Can we at least give them the benefit of the doubt? I am not interested in splashing the cash, I am interested in intelligent buying of players with quality and that want to wear the Liverpool red.

  18. depends on what formation we settle on, but id like to see some old skool wingers in our squad, who have flair, speed, dribbling ability and agility to attack the flanks and supply carroll and suarez. Elia is super quick. Shaqiri, hazard- prob more of a central player. Young- etc etc. Other than that, we should sell skrtel for sure- although he has looked better in a 3. Sakho, kjaer subotic, shawcross fit fsg policy. Coentrao would be awesome. Taiwo has got to be looked at surely as his contract is up this summer. Enrique would be worth a look too. Santon. We also desperately need a ball playing midfielder to link defence to attack- javi martinez, banega, charlie adam. Lucas is doing very well these days with the ugly stuff in midfield, but maybe another player like m’vila or moussa sissoko would add more steel to the midfield.

  19. Fabio Coentrão as a LB, and Per Mertesacker/Thiago Silva as a CB.

    For our other problem – Left Wing, I’d go with Eden Hazard.

  20. Strength in depth is the name of the game. whilst the players mentioned (especially Dann) would be great additions we have to hold on to our current defenders – the younger ones that is – and I would include Skrtel in that category, he is a long way from thr finished article but has potential and is as good as you get if warming the bench, its difficult to keep the very top players at the club if they ar not regular first choice, I agree with Steve though, its players further forward that are our main requirement, I would like to see Aquilani back plus another top class striker plus Marvouxe.

  21. to tell you the truth i dont how good jose enrique is. but i like the idea about coentrao, however he would be expensive + many competitors. kjaer would be good to, exchange him with skrtel and some cash.

    and the idea about a winger, we have to find a good crosser, i dont think GJ is that good

    YNWA

  22. @ Delixu. Agree with your suggestions. It would be very hard for AC Milan to deprive themselves of Thiago Silva more so because this season Allegri was forced to play him in defensive midfield due to injuries and he was just as good as he is in central defence.

  23. Tonio Bone,
    I would really like to share your confidence in FSG/NESV but the experience we all had with Gillett+Hicks has shown us that the yanks are seeing us as only a franchise and not as the biggest brand in England,may be as an old club with past glory at best,but nothing more.

    However,on the contrary of G+H who were seeking a high profile in Europe with our Brand, FSG/NESV are just doing business using both classic tools(business ratios) and innovative ones (sabermetrics) which is based mainly on stats already applied in Base ball field but not yet in ‘soccer’ business.

    And here lies the difference with my point of view,the latter are making assessment of everything as would do any businessman in order to identify the strengths vs weaknesses and the opportunities vs threats,in two words they’re building their ‘swot’ analysis to refurbish a company (the club) with their own style whereas I do strongly believe that we are way bigger than a business tied to the annual balance sheet, we are the best part of the modern day football History in England.

    In his recent interview with ESPN, JW Henry conceded that LFC were in the same situation the Boston Red Sox were in prior to the takeover,issues of bad management,old structures, ageing frames and no real perspective for the future were the few he cited. Going further in his description of Liverpool FC,he said ahead of his move he got the belief the challenge would be the same as with Boston Red Sox few years ago. But how many do already know that Boston Red Sox are in fact just a franchise overseas that can be sold out overnight..?

    My point is deep down your heart,do you sincerely think that these Yanks on the contrary of G+H are ready to share the burden of History with us? Are they 100% true Reds while we all know they do have business interests elsewhere?

  24. Are you American? If not, defence is spelt with a “c” and not a “s”. Just wanted to point that out.

  25. Hope we get at least one traditional wing type who is two footed. As Suarez likes to wander and attack from both sides(check his movement), i hope we can get someone who can attack from all angles and move into open spaces Luis creates from the attention he will surely receive. Raul or Gerrard timed runs from the middle to supply the lay off angles. Lucas or hopefully M’Vila (would be the dream) behind them.

    For that reason I hope we go after Eden Hazard as he is a attacking mid who can flow through all three fronts and has the pace to beat a marker. Arda Turan? Ashley Young? Carroll as the fulcrum for which Suarez and a winger swing reverse like a pendulum.

    I like Johnson at left wingback enough to save the cash on NOT going for Contrao, bidding for Taiwo for rotational purposes, and getting Adam or perhaps Scott Parker if West Ham drops? Enrique is nice but the 12 mil valuation supposedly given is kinda high as he will have 1 year left on the contract. Aurelio in the middle of the pitch as the midfield backup isnt reassuring.

  26. We definitely need reinforcements in defence:
    LB – in: Contreao/Enrique AND Taiwo
    – out: Aurelio & Insua
    CB – in: Mertesacker AND Cahill
    – out: Kryiakos AND Skrtel
    Midfielder – in: J Eriksen (he outplayed Wilshere)
    – out: C Poulsen
    (note: I’ll keep Lucas as a substitute – useful for cover)
    Winger – in: A Young ( a must!!!) AND Eden Hazard
    – out: J Cole AND Maxi
    Striker – in: M Gomes or Pedro
    – out: NGog (he’s been ard for 3 yrs and hasn’t improve much); I’ll keep the likes of Pacheco, Raheem Sterling (what a gem!) and Suso as future strikers. Kuyt will be good from the bench, and unless there’s an offer > 10 mil, we shld keep him.

    The XI:
    Reina; Johnson. Contreao, Agger, Mertesacker; Gerrard, Meireles, A Young, Eden Hazard; L Suarez, A Caroll.
    Subs: Gulasci; Carragher, Kelly; Lucas, Eriksen (he’ll replace Gerrard in future); Kuyt; Gomes/Pedro.

    This squad will end our 20-year drought and recapture the European Cup (Champions League).

  27. @ Jonjo. I am not american and the correct version for me would be ‘defence’. My apologies for irritating your senses.

  28. @KENNY’S RED ARMY:

    Do you really think:
    a) Pedro would be available?
    b) He’d would be affordable?
    c) He’d want to leave Barcelona?
    d) He’d want to leave Barca for a team that probably wont have Champions League?
    e) He’d want to leave Barca and sit on our bench?

    Plus we’d have to spend about £20mil each on Eriksen and Gomes to sit on our bench. Not realistic to be honest mate.

  29. @ Everyone! It’s useless mentioning players that would be impossible to get. The players I have been mentioning in my articles are all destined to leave so with the new refreshed approach we are in a position to bid for anyone that wants to leave their club. Pedro, just to mention one, is not in this category.

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