Martin Skrtel

[Gazzla]

On the ground he looked very good, marking anyone or in the air he looked like a pub player, ultimately it was the later that cost us the points. Someone said it earlier, Skrtel is too erratic and we can't continue with an error prone defender despite some of his last ditch tackles as ultimately its the **** ups that cost the points

[baitman]

i cannot understand the fixation with trying to hold a player. you always end up the wrong side, behind the player, so will be second to the ball...

just play the ****ing ball

[Trippendicular]

Haha agree, BT literally couldn't stop talking about the shirt grabbing last two games. He's pretty bad for it but every single premier league match there is war in the box. Micky Owen has a real bee in his bonnet about it.

It drives me crazy. Owen the cunt is on a one-man mission to make Skrtel concede a penalty. Ridiculous today. Everytime it was Kompany on Skrtel, Kompany had his arm across Skrtel's neck and there wasn't a mention of it, and then Lescott blatantly pulls back Suarez after already clattering him and nothing's given. Mason needs to stop watching BT Sport, the cunt.

[fin7]

Who were the commentators today One of them went on and on about how Suarez would have dived and how we went down easily when he was kneed in the back by Lescott. It drove me nuts.

I was watching in Australia and Paul Walsh (ex red and city) said the exact same, could have been the same coverage as yours. I had a right laugh when I seen the replay.

[Sarb]

i cannot understand the fixation with trying to hold a player. you always end up the wrong side, behind the player, so will be second to the ball...

just play the ****ing ball

[The Birdman]

I'm not having this he had a decent game bollocks.
He's an international centre back playing for a top 4 / title challenging side and he makes too many basic errors every single week.

He can't defend set pieces properly so he gets involved in a wrestling match and as he's weak as piss everyone brushes him off.
His defending for Negredo's goal was amateur, Navas is going nowhere, all Skrtel has to do is get himself in a position to show Navas down the outside away from goal. Navas beats him for pace 1v1 but it would allow Sakho and Johnson especially time to cover round.
Instead he charges over like some over hyped ADHD kid who's just drank their body weight in Sunny Delight.

Odds on Chelsea will get a penalty for him wrestling someone.

I've been saying for ages now, he's not top 4 quality. Too many individual errors, not dominant or strong enough and not comfortable enough in possession

[baitman]

Instead he charges over like some over hyped ADHD kid who's just drank their body weight in Sunny Delight.

kwalatee

[MrMichael]

Took the bones out of Mig's wrist as a pre-game prank did he?

Lol, that was definitely Mig's error, however if Negredo had hit a much better shot we would rightly be highlighting Skrtels abysmal positioning during that break instead, he couldn't have made that pass easier for Navas.

IMO Skrtel is a committed defender who is short of being top class because of his decision making. It does not surprise me that, despite appearing to play well at times, we seem to concede too many silly goals with him in the team.

[G]

i've watched it again now.

He made 5 great last ditch challenges,two of which stemmed from his poor positioning in the first place,as mentioned above he was poor for the second goal and he lost all 3 of his duels with Kompany on corners. He won all 3 of the open play aerial duels he had,all of them against Negredo.He's far too loose on his man in open play most of the time too,slow closing down when he has the chance.

We lost all but 1 aerial balls into the box in the whole game which sums us up really but far and away the worst performer in that game was Johnson,his lack of defensive effort was pathetic,beaten by his man every time,every time the winger got at him the ball was successfully crossed into our area.He was marking Negredo on corners and lost the only battle he had with him in the game in that regard. It was a piss poor effort from him but all in all we need much better across the back line than we currently have to call on.

[~LFCHistory~]

Brendan has always learnt from his mistakes thus far so I'm hoping he realises very soon that giving Skrtel a second chance was a major **** up and that he is costing us goals and will continue to do so, there's no harm in giving Agger a run of games next to Sakho.

[Chris]

Lol, that was definitely Mig's error, however if Negredo had hit a much better shot we would rightly be highlighting Skrtels abysmal positioning during that break instead, he couldn't have made that pass easier for Navas.

IMO Skrtel is a committed defender who is short of being top class because of his decision making. It does not surprise me that, despite appearing to play well at times, we seem to concede too many silly goals with him in the team.

Yep, it was dire, he completely screwed Sakho over as well who was going to chase Navas. Similar at Hull where Toure had a simple header to clear but no Skrtel has to come over in to Kolos area, chaos ensues and Hull score. Its a constant theme when he plays, unorganised calamity moments. Wouldn't be so bad if he was 21 or something but he's one of our oldest players!

[baitman]

is it a language issue?

skrtel's english is good but can he be understood by sakho. they might be able to chat in training, but in a noisy stadium and under pressure, everything [except glen] moving fast, there may be communication issues.

[Liverpool]

Lol, that was definitely Mig's error, however if Negredo had hit a much better shot we would rightly be highlighting Skrtels abysmal positioning during that break instead, he couldn't have made that pass easier for Navas.

IMO Skrtel is a committed defender who is short of being top class because of his decision making. It does not surprise me that, despite appearing to play well at times, we seem to concede too many silly goals with him in the team.

No idea why he came over and left Negredo free. Navas was so far out he should have waited before leaving their main man free

[G]

is it a language issue?

skrtel's english is good but can he be understood by sakho. they might be able to chat in training, but in a noisy stadium and under pressure, everything [except glen] moving fast, there may be communication issues.

Skrtel was quite vocal and pointing at people telling them who to pick up for the first 20 minutes or so. He stopped after that.

[dww]

Lol, that was definitely Mig's error, however if Negredo had hit a much better shot we would rightly be highlighting Skrtels abysmal positioning during that break instead, he couldn't have made that pass easier for Navas.

IMO Skrtel is a committed defender who is short of being top class because of his decision making. It does not surprise me that, despite appearing to play well at times, we seem to concede too many silly goals with him in the team.

I'm pretty much in agreement with you. I do think he is a poor fit for Rodgers style of play. However, I think a lot of his supposed 'poor positioning' is him playing to orders which don't really suit him but he's making work more often than not. I can't see why Rodgers would keep picking him otherwise.

I think a real issue is that he has a weakness in the air. I think that people make too much of the pulling shirts thing - half the defenders (top or otherwise) in the division do it. He just loses to many headers when he loses the grappling match.