Perplexed

Posted by

By Patch Hudson 

This summer has been ace from my perspective. Rather than gambling on foreign players who were at, or approaching the age of 30 with no experience in the quick, physical Premier League, we are going for players who are young, hungry, and British, with experience in the Premier League. Most importantly, these players want to be at Liverpool.

Having addressed our midfield quite sufficiently, now being in a dilemma of who to sell or loan, we already have another dilemma on our hands.

In the early period of the summer it was reported that we were interested in Phil Jones, Gary Cahill, and Scott Dann. While the midfield recruits headlined our transfer news, alongside the longing need of a top-quality left back, the topic of buying a top-quality centre-back slowly faded into the shadows.
Until now.

In the recent match against Hull, not only was the score line embarrassing, but some of the defending was just dreadful (mostly speaking of the second and third goals, the first was pretty poor as well). There was nobody taking charge, organising the defence, or even pressing themselves! This prompted me to ponder our centre-back situation:

Carra – Legend. Always has been and always will be. Even at 33 he has proven he is still one of the top defenders in the league.

Agger – Oozes class and is easily one of, if not, the best defenders in the league when fit, which is his downfall. Statistics show he’s only played 41% of Liverpool’s games since at the club. Very injury prone.

Soto – The big Greek. Soto has proven to be a valuable asset on corners to us in the past few seasons. Hardly top class, but has proven to be a good back-up, but has too often been first choice. Simply not LFC class.

Skrtel – The man who could kill with a stare. Played all 90 mins of every match during the season. Very good CB but if we want to win the title, or be back in the Champions League, we must have a better centre-back.

Wilson – Too young, to put it simply. I rate the kid highly, but hasn’t played enough to garner any hype or put pressure on the starting CB’s. Also played out of position far too many times. I would love to see him loaned out to another Premier League club to get experience.

Upon assessing these options, I felt we need a Centre-Back badly. One that is international class, while being young, and British in order to fulfil FSG policy. It was clear that Phil Jones was our priority, but he’s buggered off to the scum. Which leaves Scott Dann and Gary Cahill, both highly rated.

Gary Cahill is the only one of the two to have any international experience, and he’s just a year older than Dann. He is also one of the most highly-rated defenders in the country, and would be the first choice centre back for England alongside John Terry, once (the twat) Rio Ferdinand has finally been shifted. John Terry himself has told Chelsea to buy Cahill. For LFC, this represents an opportunity: a chance to capture a prized asset, in a position in dire need of reconstruction. However, his price tag seems to be the major issue.
Bolton are demanding £17m pounds for the player, which, for some reason is a stumbling block. Seeing as how crazy the market is today with young, English players, £17m seems reasonable. Also, after being presented with this opportunity, we’ve been given an absolute gift from god in this scenario. Bolton have shown interest in David N’gog (please don’t ask why). This means that with the ball in our court, we could possibly negotiate a deal for Cahill, with cash + N’gog offer. With us valuing N’gog at £6m, and Bolton valuing him at £3m. Even getting £5 mil for him would be a bloody miracle! This would also mean Cahill would just cost £12 million, a mere £1m-£2m more expensive than Dann.

 

It is a common-sense move that would adhere to the old adage “defence wins championships”.

Please follow me on twitter @itsphud I’m desperately lacking in LFC followers :(

11 Comments

  1. Same here. I’m surprised we haven’t got any defenders yet. One would think they’d be the first recruits because of the time needed for them to gel with their teammates. Left-back has been a constant issue, but central defence is where we’re really left short if even one or two injuries occur. I shudder to think of Soto and Skrtel marshalling the back line. They’ve been decent occasionally, but downright weak otherwise.

    Then again, I don’t quite agree that defence necessarily wins championships. Over the years there have been teams that just make up for it with more attack. If you let in 2, make sure you score 3. It could happen.

  2. A good read but I disagree. Martin Kelly was originally a CB so he can play there. Andre wisdom is also a CB, as well as several others coming through the academy. Skrtel is our least injured player, why do we need a world class CB if we have a very good player that is always playing. Skrtel deserves more credit than he gets. if we will have all of these players why do we need others?

  3. stupid post…we are having problems at da back and of all defenders you could think of its Dann and Cahill..that you think would solve our problems at da back???? the sooner you guys remove the idea of nonsence rubbish british players off your minds the better…apart from that phil jones there is NO..and i mean all no british defender is quality at all NON of dem…we were linked with Godin recently and your here talking about someone as rubbish as Cahill who is simply overrated..cahill or no cahill we wud leak goals alot i bet you..Godin is by farrrrrrrrrrrrrr better than him…..wat a very stupid transfer policy..we could av had Mata by now but no typical liverpool we get da wack players…Godin or Cahill i would take godin anyday jst coz cahill is british my foot he is overrated

  4. I don’t think we should be buying players just because they are British. If they aren’t the best options in the market, we should look elsewhere. Dann would be a nice move for the sentiment of him being a scouser, but he isn’t good enough. Cahill is really good – whether he can make that step up to be one of the top, top defenders though – I’m not yet convinced, but I wouldn’t mind us signing him.

    At the moment though, I think the best options are abroad. Subotic, Hummels, Godin, and maybe Kjaer or Vertonghen. A few of these are well on the road to becoming amongst the handful of best centre backs in the world. None would be particularly cheap, but then neither would Cahill.

  5. couldnt agree more. Our defence at times was shocking last yr. Skrtel is consistent to a certain level but he’s too rash, doesnt read things quickly enough and against quick forwards is a liability. Attitude is brilliant, loves a header and a battle but that isnt what we need a lot of the time. Soto exactly the same faults only magnified, but also brilliant attitude and a real threat worth 5 a seaon. Either way both these players have played way too much alongside agger and carra and it hasnt served us well last few yrs, especially from set peices. Personally i’d take what we could get for agger too if bayern want him and put it towards cahill and start playin kelly at cb

  6. 3 mil for NGog if fucking so selling him now and Poulson for 1.5m is like selling a 2nd hand washed up car for a great fcuking deal. Do it!

  7. do you really think that British means good and loyal? do you really think that all the non Brits in the squad are bad and disloyal? do I detect some xenophobia here? Please give some credit where its due and lye off poor ‘YOUNG’ N’gog, he may leave but all he has done is do what has been asked of him and quit honestly he has done well for that. I personally don’t care where any player is from as long as they live and breath LFC as many non Brits have done over the decades.

  8. Can we stop Junior writing in text speak, and annoying text speak at that. “problems at da back” – Can you speak English? The original post was not stupid despite Junior’s tedious comments. The fact is that all fans thought a centre back and a left back were 2 of the highest priorities and we’ve signed 3 midfielders. Gary Cahill is a good player, whether he is worth the money is up for debate but you cannot say he is “british my foot he is overrated.” This doesn’t really add to the debate as it is gibberish

Comments are closed