With our opening Premiership fixture less than a week away, the manager certainly has a few concerns over who to play at the heart of our defence. Our three first team centre halves; Carragher, Agger and Skrtel have all picked up knocks during pre-season making them doubts for the curtain raiser against Tottenham.
Now Rafa is confident that Carra will be fit to make the trip but both Agger and Skrtel have faced longer lay offs and neither have, yet, played in the month of August. I doubt either will be match fit for the game at White Hart Lane. Daniel Ayala, Mikel San Jose and Martin Kelly have been tried out in pre-season but do you throw a youngster in for such a difficult game?
We have been linked with Michael Turner from Hull, Sylvain Distin from Portsmouth and Stoke’s Ryan Shawcross to try and bolster up our numbers at the back but time is running out if any of them are to be signed by the time we head south to north-London.
Another defender, Fabio Aurelio, will also be missing the trip to Spurs due to a knee injury.
So where does it leave us? Do we risk an unfit Skrtel or Agger or do we throw a youngster in for the opening game of the season? Other alternatives that have been suggested has been to move Johnson in one and have Stephen Darby at right back.
It’s certainly a headache for the manager.
Rafa seems somewhat obsessed with the backline forever tinkering with it even when everything is fine.It’s about time we began worrying about the forwards where Torres is often over-burdened and expected to perform miracles.
We need to attack the opposition if we’re to have any chance of being title contenders.
sorry i missed out stevie g behind torres haha sorry ppl so it will b:
reina
johnson skrtel carra insua (or dossena)
kuyt lucas (or benayoun) masch riera
gerrard
torres
…YNWA
skrtel is back from injury everybody its on the liverpool official site. so starting line up will be:
reina
johnson skrtel carra insua (or dossena)
kuyt lucas (or benayoun) masch riera
torres
PPL WEVE GOT NOUT WORRY BOUT …YNWA
Reina
Johnson – Kelly – Carra – Insua
Benayoun – Gerrard – Masch – Riera
Kuyt
Torres
Why are we debating playing fullbacks at centre back? For years we moaned if Houllier played people out of position.
We have some centre backs so lets play them there, no matter how inexperienced. The only way they’ll improve is to get games under their belts. I was at the Atletico friendly and yes San Jose looked slow and nervy but Ayala did ok. If we have centre backs lets play them there and let the fullbacks get on with their jobs. If we go in with two inexperienced centre backs then we must get Masch and Lucas to sit a lot deeper to add protection.
Reina
Johnson – Kelly – Ayala – Insua
Mascherano – Lucas
Kuyt – Gerrard – Benayoun
Torres
That would be my starting XI if we don’t have Carra, Agger or Skrtel.
If we’re talking of getting a new centre back in then I’d probably go for Shawcross out of the ones mention. English, young and probably the best value for money. Turner I think is overrated and Distin would unsettle the dressing room.
Just my opinion, look forward to hearing some others.
martin kelly would be my choice for centre back. i went to the A.madrid game and he was very impressive when he came on for Johnson. He is tall and pacey with a good range of passing. He seems confident on the ball too. San Jose and Ayala looked out of their depth on saturday. They will come on over the next year but i think it’s too soon to put them up against defoe, pav, crouch or keane.
haha missed out Gerrard by accident and now it seems he might be injured for the game anyway REALLY hope not even though I like Yossi still he is no Gerrard
Since when have Liverpool been playing 4-4-2? I wouldn’t understand him starting Voronin and Torres. Probably line up:
Reina
Johnson Kelly Carragher Insua
Lucas Mascherano
Kuyt Riera
Torres
Rafa should realise that last season premier league was lost due to not playing the best players at home matches. The best starting 11 should play if all are fit. At defence skirtel and carra are ok but its not playing the best 11 against teams that have lost the premier league. Too many home draws when maximum points should have been gained. Teams will come to anfield for draws but the game should be taken to them instill some fear into opposition. Bill shank style. This is anfield and you do not allow opposition to play. You take the game to them. If too much is concentrated on the middle try the wings with devastating pace and crosses for el nino to finish off. Drawing at home against teams that should have been beaten is no good might as well go for it and you will find will get the win. CONSISTENCY is key and players must realise what is expected. This season Chelsea big threat to premier league title. They have all the players from previous season and have added. Liverpool have lost Alonso and therefore must acquire another player not just acquillanni who is injured. This season no good finishing second it should be one better and that’s the title. Too many draws is the problem at home that’s the problem. Rafa please please go for it. At spurs the defence needs to be solid since give them space to play and they will win at spurs need to catch them out. First game of the season and they will be up for it and liverpool players need to be up for it too otherwise lose the game. Passionate and psyche up for each game and will succeed. NB blistering pace and wing play with crosses bamboozle defence.
Totaly agree with you redref keep the money and get a proven striker in to play with Torres we cant rely on Veronin he is just awful. Give Lucus his chance this season as long as they dont rely too much on him coz lets face it he is no Gerrard.
I would like to see benayoun get his chance this year he has done well when coming off the bench last year. It all goes without saying we NEED another striker and midfielder incase Gerrard and Torres are out injured we cant rest on laurrels that we beat man utd without them last year coz it be different this term.
Rafa get the yanks to dig deep for once and give him the funds to get two decent players ASAP
Things may not turn out to be too bad with Carrager and Skirtle/ Agger both fit.
Dont pay over the odds for stand in centre backs unless they are a good buy with plenty of room for improvement once under Rafa.
We could do with more height in our team at the back as Carrager isnt exactly a giant.
The Mighty Reds LFC
never change the winning team!! same formation like lfc played against spurs last time!!!
If Carra,Agger and Skrtl are unfit to play Spurs we’ve no choice but to throw in the youngsters,there is no point taking such a big risk by playing injured players at the start of the season.I understand that money is available so priority should be to purchase a classy forward before a defender.
It’s just a matter of time before some of our senior centre halves return to the side.
What about Lucas Neill, he is a decent player also?
Or bring Hyypia back for the month of August! that would be awesome
I would deffo prefair to see Johnson centre half and Darby right back Johnson is massive and just needs to make a nuisance of himself Ayala and San Jose have made mistakes that have ruined our pre-season games and I wouldn’t want to risk them we have a number of options to fill in right back even including Masch.
Of the 3 possible signing, Distin is the best quality of the 3 but longevity and to have more English players eligable for the CL I’d say go in for either of the other 2 boys but not 12mil for Turner thats a rip
I think Rafa should sign Sol Campbell. He is out of contract at Portsmouth but has massive experience. He would defo sign for a club like liverpool and could be signed with no fee involved. This would give us time to get the other 3 fit and would also help with European games where squad rotation might work for the group stages. I know we have looked at Turner but i feel he is no better than the guys we already have nor is Snowcroft. The squad needs strenghting in other areas and the move above would free up some pounds to go after other targets. We still need a winger, attacking midfielder and another striker.
i think any of those 3 would do.maybe sign one of them, ask the owners for more money, sign david silva for £20mil and then on the last day of the window – sign tuncay as a back up. 🙂 sorted
Given that Agger was out several times last season, I wonder whether we could trust his fitness long term, so it would make sense to bring in a young an promising centre-half. It’s a pitty Sami Hyypia left because he thought he wouldn’t get enough games. He’d surely be in the starting line-up under these circumstances.
For next Saturday, well, I wouldn’t switch Johnson to the centre as his defensive play doesn’t really merit that, does it. I’ve been impressed by David Kelly from the little I’ve seen him play so far, so I’d rather bring him than Stephen Darby in.
It don’t matter who your centre halves are J D is on form and will score goals against anyone! COYFS
I think Rafa, if Carra’s fit, will use one of the kids to play against Spurs.
Hopefully this will be Kelly as he’s been the most impressive in pre-season, and anyway, its no point us buying another defender when we will have 3 centre halfs to play in the next week or so. Won’t it be better to keep the money for somewhere we need to improve!
Well whatever we do we shouldn’t play Degan, he’s rubbish – he runs forward and doesn’t get back and did you see how lazy he was against Espanyol? He gave up chasing the ball until he realised the ref wasn’t going to blow for offside and by then it was too late, they’d scored.
A posibility could be to play Johnson on the right Insua on the left and play Dossena and Plesis in the centre, it might not be as strong as Carragher, Agger or Skrtel but they’ve got more match experiance then Kelly, San Jose and Ayala.
or would be even better without lucas!!!
reina
mascherano, johnson, kelly, insua
benayoun, gerrard, kuyt, riera
voronin, torres
I’d go for Johnson right-back, Carra and Kelly at CB and Insua left-back. Kelly’s impressed in pre-season and deserves a shot.
in my opinion, liverpool starting XI could be like this…
reina
mascherano, johnson, kelly, insua
kuyt, gerrard, lucas(give him 1 chance), riera
voronin(could be good), torres
It sure is a headache for rafa. I think he should go for turner as his first option since lets face it agger and skrtel have been injured quite a lot these days and if this continues we are deffinitly going to need back up throughout the rest of the season. having said that I think that with carra back if he has one of the youngsters playing with him it is good for them to stat to progress in the first team and see what these lads have got, but this all depends on how serious agger and skrtel are cause we cant have the kids playing all season thats for sure. So were those this leave us? If I where rafa I’d splash the cash(Which should be available I would say there is about 25 million in the citty) and go for safety first.