Dejan Lovren

[Kenneth]

I think the full backs are a massive upgrade on last season.

Me too. The defence has been upgraded, no doubt about it, they need time to settle in.

[Fredo]

Lovren has been here what, 5 minutes? He's dominant, can organise and reads the play very well. There's no point analysing a player so early. He got on the wrong end of Senderos for the goal yesterday but the other defenders just stood there not reacting. If I were to criticise an individual in our defence I'd criticise Mignolet.

[RichC]

I do wish we had a commanding presence in goal that's for sure.

I think Lovren is nervous, and with 2 new, young full backs - do either of them speak English well yet? - and Sakho/Skrtel alongside, both of whom have idiosyncrasies, we need to give Lovren time to grow into the role. I will be much more worried if we don't start improving as things settle down.

I have to agree about the keeper at the moment, watching him yesterday rooted to his line at set pieces was worrying every time we faced a corner or freekick.

We need to give time to this back 4 but I have to say if Valdes came in on a free I'd not be too upset if only to give Mig a rocket up him

[G]

Senderos got free 4 times from corners and frees . Too many. I had hoped they would carry on keeping cleansheets during their ropey settling in period. If they don't then the manager has every reason to bring Skrtel straight back in which really won't be helpful.

[Fredo]

Senderos got free 4 times from corners and frees . Too many. I had hoped they would carry on keeping cleansheets during their ropey settling in period. If they don't then the manager has every reason to bring Skrtel straight back in which really won't be helpful.

We need to stick to a settled centre back pairing. I do think that Skrtel is a better defender than Sakho at this point in time, so when he comes back it should be at the expense of the latter. But I'd let this partnership settle down for a few more games.

[captainfog]

Lovren has been here what, 5 minutes? He's dominant, can organise and reads the play very well. There's no point analysing a player so early. He got on the wrong end of Senderos for the goal yesterday but the other defenders just stood there not reacting. If I were to criticise an individual in our defence I'd criticise Mignolet.

Is he? I've not seen any evidence so far, but I hope you're right. I assume you didn't regularly watch Southampton so what are you basing this assumption on?

[Fredo]

I did watch him a fair few times last season. He's a good player, but he's not the finished article. He reminds me a bit of Vidic, but with more pace.

[Chris]

It's pointless defending well for 89mins if you're going to give a goal away by not marking properly so he needs to improve there. Still, 1 goal conceded in 2 games with the new partnership and the opponents havent had many chances, I'll take that.

[gentingfrmhell]

I think Lovren has some great attributes. He's deceptively quick, he's relatively strong, doesn't shirk the physicality of the game and his passing is decent. Unfortunately, he has a tendency to roam, which is a bad combination as Sakho does the same. Our back line, which should in tandem, is erratic. When you look at the corner from which Southampton scored, Lovren wasn't even goal side. Maybe he's finding his feet in a new defensive set-up, but I'm fairly sure Southampton used a mixture of man-to-man and zonal marking, so it can't be that different.

Sakho looks awesome with Skrtel but nervous with Lovren. Lovren looks steady with Skrtel, but Skrtel is all at sea ... I dunno, somebody tell me it's going to come good with time. Mignolet is 26, Manquillo is 20, Lovren 25, Sakho 24 and Moreno 22 and they going to peak together at the right time?

hope they do, would probably need some time for our all new defense to gel.

[~LFCHistory~]

The stupidest thing we could do is to not give the Lovren/Sakho partnership a real chance, not 2 games FFS
That partnership may or may not work but what most of us have worked out is that any pairing that includes either Skrtel or Kolo does not and can not work because neither of them are good enough or young enough to improve whereas Sakho and Lovren are.

[~LFCHistory~]

hope they do, would probably need some time for our all new defense to gel.

2 games that back 4 has played together. 2 not 20 and I'm guessing the average age of it is 21/22 or something like that. A bit of perspective may be needed I'd suggest.

[Fredo]

Probably the single piece of wisdom to get from a defeat such as this is that no one has a ****ing clue.

[danperkins]

Probably the single piece of wisdom to get from a defeat such as this is that no one has a ****ing clue.

[Chris]

The stupidest thing we could do is to not give the Lovren/Sakho partnership a real chance, not 2 games FFS
That partnership may or may not work but what most of us have worked out is that any pairing that includes either Skrtel or Kolo does not and can not work because neither of them are good enough or young enough to improve whereas Sakho and Lovren are.

Yep, imagine if Utd had given up on Vidic and Evra after their clownish early appearances. 1 goal conceded in 2 games is a good start anyway!

Some of the stuff on here has been amusing though, especially the hypocrisy, one person has spent the last year spamming the forum with "it's all Gerrards fault, Johnsons fault, Sakho's fault, Agger's fault, Manquillo's fault, Moreno's fault, Mignolet's fault" for a right sided centre halfs mistakes yet as soon as another right sided centre back comes in and makes a few mistakes it means he's rash and a maniac. Funny old game!

[G]

A snippet from Barrett on the Rattle is that Lovren and Skrtel are very much Rodgers first choice centre backs so this current partnership probably won't be getting time unless they start keeping cleansheets and looking solid in the process.