AS we all know, Didier Deschamps was once firmly in the running to become Liverpool manager in the not-too-distant past. If the former World Cup-winning captain keeps an eye on the Reds these days, then I reckon he might be a little perplexed by one of Brendan Rodgers’ defensive selections.
The reigning France manager appears to be a big fan of Mamadou Sakho, who regularly starts for, and has captained, the French national team under Deschamps’ leadership. Highly regarded defenders like Eliaquim Mangala and Laurent Koscielny are overlooked in favour of the ex-PSG skipper currently plying his trade at Anfield. I purposely use the word ‘currently’ because it’s becoming increasingly likely to me that Sakho’s Liverpool career will be over before too long.
Walking out on your team prior to any game, as Sakho did before the Merseyside derby, is a stupid thing to do. The player was rightly criticised and punished for his actions. He was bang out of order to abandon Anfield when he wasn’t selected for that match and while I can never condone or accept that kind of behaviour, I’m beginning to at least understand his misguided petulance more every time I watch Liverpool’s comical attempts to defend this season. One player’s performances in particular have left me empathising with Sakho’s poor behaviour.
I wasn’t a big advocate for signing Dejan Lovren in the summer. The eventual £20m price tag made what seemed to be a somewhat unnecessary transfer look downright foolish to me. I didn’t understand why Liverpool were looking to sign a player at such a high price to replace the newest and arguably best centre half at the club. Sakho’s ungainly style unquestionably divides opinion, but after his first season in English football his potential was evident even if his consistency wasn’t. Quick, strong in the tackle and – crucially – rarely bullied, I considered him as a player who could really go up a level or two in the immediate future with some tweaks to his game. His front foot approach and ability to defend high up the pitch seemed to fit perfectly with Liverpool’s playing style. He impressed in the World Cup this summer as well and it seemed obvious to me that there was a lot more to come from the player going forward. Brendan Rodgers clearly didn’t share this optimistic line of thinking.
Whatever anyone falsely claims about all centre backs being able to play equally well on the left or the right hand side of defence, Dejan Lovren was signed to play instead of Sakho. His sole season at Southampton (presumably Liverpool signed him because of his performances during that campaign and nothing he’d done prior to it as the club could have purchased Lovren for a fraction of the cost from Lyon before he joined Saints) was played almost exclusively in the left centre half position. In other words, Sakho’s position.
As I said, despite an up and down debut season at Anfield I looked upon Sakho as a player could easily go on to bigger and better things if he ironed out some of the kinks in his game. Then I’d look at Martin Skrtel. Everyone knows what Skrtel is. We’ve seen it for nearly seven years now so we’re fully aware; He’s a decent but flawed defender and is unlikely to become anything more than that at this stage of his career.
At the end of last season Skrtel was the centre back that I expected Rodgers to upgrade on during the summer transfer window. At the beginning of the last campaign the manager looked as though he’d lost faith in the Slovakian. Kolo Toure was starting games in his place before injuries allowed Skrtel back into the side. To his credit, Skrtel scored a few goals and had an okay season when he regained his place, but the same problems that existed in his game five or six years ago still endured. Easily bullied by big target men, rashness in the tackle, happier defending the edge of the box than pushing up, a walking penalty at set pieces – why wouldn’t Rodgers have been looking to replace Skrtel rather than the younger albeit more raw Sakho? Whatever his reasons, the manager clearly identified the left of his central defence as the primary problem area at the back.
As things stand today Skrtel and Lovren are the partnership that will start games together for Liverpool when everyone is fit and available. We’ve seen that already this season and this represents a huge problem. It’s early days of course, but Dejan Lovren doesn’t look like a better option than the dwindling version of Daniel Agger who fell out of favour with Rodgers last season, let alone than Sakho.
Before I wrote this piece I looked back over the 14 goals Liverpool have conceded in the Champions League and Premier League to date. Eight of those goals contained a significant involvement or mistake from Lovren. From allowing forwards to easily run in behind him to score for Manchester City and Ludogorets to losing a physical battle with Philippe Senderos on the corner that led to Aston Villa’s winner at the Kop end, Lovren has made costly error after costly error when you assess the goals this side have given away this season. Even in Liverpool’s outstanding game of the campaign against Spurs, Lovren twice made critical mistakes that should have resulted in goals against his team. His blushes were spared on that day by a poor finish from Emmanuel Adebayor and a great Simon Mignolet save from Nacer Chadli.
In a red shirt Lovren has been repeatedly rash. His passing hasn’t been particularly impressive. He’s painfully slow on the turn and has little speed in his legs – Roberto Soldado left him for dead in a foot race at White Hart Lane last season. His judgement isn’t there either as shown by the penalty he conceded against West Brom and his missed headed interception that preceded QPR’s opening goal at Loftus Road. So forgive my negativity when I pose this question, but what exactly does Dejan Lovren actually offer that Mamadou Sakho, Kolo Toure, Martin Skrtel or even Daniel Agger didn’t last term?
When he joined the club we were repeatedly informed by Rodgers and others in the press that Lovren was an exemplary leader. Sorry, but shouting a bit and waving your arms doesn’t constitute leading. Liverpool’s defensive line looks even less organised now than it did last season and he’s not advanced the team’s cause in that respect in any discernible way. I also saw lots of people claiming he’s a ‘beast’ which I understand is teenage speak for physically imposing.
Well, Bobby Zamora repeatedly bullied him at QPR as though he were a school boy on Sunday so I guess the ‘beast’ theory now lies in tatters in the bin. Plenty of excited Lovren advocates told me during the summer he was better on the ball than Sakho or Skrtel. I don’t see this either. Often times he plays people into trouble in midfield and if you aren’t having kittens whenever he and Simon Mignolet exchange passes then I’ll need some of what you’re having please.
Of course, while it would be ridiculous to lay the blame for Liverpool’s defensive woes solely at the door of one player, I have to point out that the extravagantly priced defensive signing looks as odd to me now as it appeared back in August. Bar a decent début nothing has allayed the fears I had regarding Lovren’s signing and his transfer fee.
To be fair, Lovren isn’t exactly surrounded by team mates who inspire confidence or coherence. Whether it’s having to play next to a perennially distracted Jose Enrique who is likely to be day dreaming about his next online FIFA tournament or having to protect a keeper who looks as confident as Jerzy Dudek did whenever Manchester United rolled into town during the mid 2000s, there are undoubtedly mitigating circumstances involved when it comes to Lovren’s maladaptive start to Anfield life. The lack of a true defensive screen in front of him in midfield probably isn’t helping either. Last season he had the imposing Victor Wanyama sat a few yards in advance of him while at Anfield he has far less protection. All that being said, I still need to see something soon. Anything that will help me understand why we paid top dollar for a player that the club wasn’t interested in at a third of the price just twelve months prior to his eventual arrival in L4.
Rodgers talked Lovren up all summer long and has protected him even at the expense of others. The manager publicly placed the blame for Sergio Aguero’s goal at the Etihad stadium on Alberto Moreno to avoid criticising his £20m signing. Apparently, Aguero walking on to the pitch, jogging behind Lovren and leaving him for dead wasn’t as crucial to that goal being conceded as our Spanish full back not getting tight enough to Jesus Navas (on the halfway line of all places!). Shifting the blame on to Moreno that day when Lovren was clearly at fault set alarm bells ringing in my head.
It appears that Lovren is a player that Rodgers badly wanted and fought hard for this summer and as a result he will defend him to hilt. We’ve seen precious little in the way of criticism for the Croatian despite his numerous costly errors while others have been hung out to dry or dropped from the side entirely for less significant transgressions. It seems obvious to me that Lovren isn’t going to be left out of the team any time soon despite his wretched form. Rodgers has invested a lot of money and a lot of hot air in his newest centre back and he’s obviously one of the first names on the team sheet as things stand. Sakho fans like myself will just have to lump it.
Fair enough. Rodgers knows a lot more about football than I could ever hope to and he’s earned a bucket load of credit during his time as manager. Hopefully the faith he has placed in the defender pays off in the long run and Lovren improves. He drastically needs to, because right now he is the anointed leader of a shambolic defence and that simply can’t continue if Liverpool are serious about keeping their place in the top four this season.
If, as I expect, Lovren remains as the focal point of this team’s back line then one would assume that Mamadou Sakho isn’t going to get many games this season and will likely be off sooner or later. He’s already been warned by Deschamps that he needs to play regularly for his club to keep his place in the French side. Considering the qualities both players have exhibited to date, discarding Sakho in favour of Lovren would represent somewhat of a blunder for me. Sakho can certainly be shaky now and then, but at least he’s provided glimpses of the player that he can become and he doesn’t cost his side a goal every other game. Despite his rough edges, I can fully appreciate why Didier Deschamps puts faith in him for his national team.
Now we need to see something to justify why Brendan Rodgers is placing the same kind of faith in Lovren because, at the moment, there is precious little to suggest that selecting the Croatian at the expense of Sakho when he returns from injury would be anything other than folly.
Just as I’m sure that Didier Deschamps is, I am perplexed by Brendan Rodgers’ preference of Dejan Lovren over Mamadou Sakho. Be it through a change in personnel or Lovren simply discovering some form, things need to change at the back for Liverpool and quickly.
Bit harsh I think. Sahko’s been injured so you can’t say Brendan wouldn’t have been selecting him. Saying he’s the first player on the team sheet is also a stretch. Who else is he going to play there? It’s hard to lead a defense when your partner refuses to hold a line (Skrtel). Yes, Lovren has been shaky as a leaf in a hurricane but so has been Sahko to be fair. I think they are both very much better than they have shown for Liverpool. Both look different players with their national teams. I’m a huge fan of Sahko but I also think Lovren is a good player that will come good.
I’ve got to agree the signing of Lovren was surprising, particularly for £20 million.
The bigger question is Rodgers’ transfer policy of which Lovren is but one example. He has been manager of Liverpool FC for almost two and a half years and signed 25 players. A huge number and at some cost, (£212 million), but how many have been successful? Sturridge is the only stand out success. Coutinho could also be regarded as a bargain, but even he struggles to get a place despite being hailed as the “brain of the team” by Rodgers. Allen at £15 million was over priced, but at least he has settled to be a good squad player. The new Spanish full backs look to be decent, so if they prove to be worth a place in the side that’s five signings who can be regarded as successes, with only Sturridge and possibly Moreno guaranteed a first team place. Not a particularly good record is it, even allowing for the risks involved in all transfer dealings?
More pertinently, Rodgers arrived with his self professed ‘philosophy’ of relentless possession. We have yet to see any Liverpool side sent out by Rodgers able to put that philosophy into practice, (whether we want that style or not).
If I was FSG I would be asking him to go through his 180 page dossier and ask him which page we are on currently?
to buy lovren and as it seems, we lose Suso in one season is enough for me to get a divorce from BR.
Suso is the next David Silva but BR just isn’t buying it cos he doesn’t run like the wind.
I absolutely agree with your findings .For me Lovren has not his place in this X1.Always a great fan of Liverpool i was forced to shut down my TV at half time .Sincerely we do’nt merit this 3 points .It’s a shame
Good piece Dave, let’s hope he comes good. One thing that does worry me: Saints fans tell me Fonte was the leader at St Mary’s. If that’s the case then Brendan’s judgement really should be questioned, given the bluster. Let’s hope not.
As for Sakho, yes he’s great for France with Cabaye shielding and Varane alongside him. We should snap Cabaye up in January, he wants to come back to the Premiership, perfect replacement for Gerrard. I’d love Varane too, but I doubt Real will be selling: he’s a class act!
It was Varane’s mistake that sent them out of the WC. Sakho was entirely composed.
I know. Sakho was the leader and the better defender in Brazil. Varane’s still a very good player. The question is: why isn’t Sakho composed at Liverpool?
As much as I agree with most of this (especially that Sakho should start) I think the bigger issue is Skrtle. I can have patience with Lovern as it takes time to get used to “the weight of the shirt” but the common theme on use being awful at the back is Skrtle. And then there is Enrique, he is everything I hate about modern football.
Well said; as big a mystery as why Rodgers wasted over 20 million on Aspas, Alberto and Ilori when he could have got 1 decent player that might have got a game.
Because that is always what happens with transfers, a large fraction of them don’t work out. Besides I still rate ilori’s prospects very highly and see him coming back and establishing a spot in the team over the next couple of seasons.
Mind you it must be hard playing alongside a player who constantly confuses the edge of the 6 yard box with the edge of the 18 yard box. If Skirtel gets any deeper he’ll be sweeping up behind Mignolet!
I’m with you fellas on Skrtel – can be brilliant but more often that not more interested in wrestling his opponent to the floor than winning the actual ball, which i think is his job as a former low level centre half.
Settled back 4 is the key and we’ve just not had that – Lovren may come good, will Skrtel? Can Lovren and Sakho play together? Can Enrique just fook off?
I still maintain we should have kept Agger, and yes, I would love to see Sakho get a run in the team as well. But frankly, the way we’ve softened up at the back it would take vintage Masch in front of a settled back four, and some vintage Pepe action in the penalty area, to tighten things up at the moment.
Second genuinely brilliant article I’ve read on here. At last, someone on TAW not acting as some low ranking PR employee of LFC.
Lovren’s been shit. He has got worse each game. He plays for Croatia. We bought him off Southampton.
Sakho’s been inconsistent. He has had good games and bad. He plays for France. We bought him off Paris St Germain.
Rodger’s has overall done a good to very good job at our club since his arrival. But there are two areas where you can point to and say he has been an abject failure; improving our defence and in the transfer market. The latter however is muddied by the fact we don’t fucking know who is signing who.
Thus we can only really point to the defence and say Brendan, get your act together.
Agreed. We need a single point of accountability for the signings. Reminds me too much of Rafa’s dog days. Please, no more stories about lamps and sofas……
Can’t say I agree with the notion that sakho merits a place in the team. I actually think Lovren has been decent in possession. The Match against Spurs is being hailed as this awesome display when we could easily have conceded 2 goals by half time; sakho was culpable in respect of both those incidents in my opinion. I think Lovren is struggling with this expectation that he’s going to be the leader in central defence that we’ve been lacking: he’s been going for balls that he can’t possibly win, trying to assert himself on the game. Wisdom seems to have done well for west brom this year so maybe he’s the man that might succeed skrtel and nail down that right sided central defensive position
I’m pretty sure two of those good chances were actually caused by lovren coming over to do sakho’s job for him on the left side and leaving a gaping hole for sakho to fill if I remember correctly
I think there’s more to this than meets the eye. I was a huge advocate of bringing Lovren in (based on his scores in fantasy football) but also the pundits and press rated him highly. I didn’t know Sakho before he came to Anfield but I almost burst out laughing when I saw him play for us. My feeling was PSG had seen us coming. Toure I knew well from his years in the Prem and I thought he was a fantastic signing as a solid 4th choice defender.
If we were on a game show and they flashed up a picture of all 3 (Sakho, Lovren & Toure) with the caption ‘What’s the connection?’ then the answer would be simple. I’m sure you’ve got it by now.
A) They all came to Liverpool with good reputations but all have become failures to the extent they’ve become comedy characters.
Here’s my question. Why?
Is it pressure? Is it a case they weren’t actually ever any good and it was all hearsay? Maybe it’s just coincidence and bad luck or maybe it’s something the club / Rodgers is doing or telling them. I don’t buy this ‘had better holding midfielders in front of them’, had better keeper behind. Don’t get me wrong, I think they are both mitigating circumstances but I think the answer is less simplistic than that. I’ve seen the errors they’ve all made. They’re obscene for people who play at the highest level. Let’s face it, Glen Johnson is a class defender too. When we bought Enrique he came with a fair bit of promise. They’ve both been, largely, appalling when they’ve played over the past 18 months. Now, I’m no expert and can’t offer any insight into what is going on but what I can say is – I don’t believe in fairies. I don’t believe we just keep buying badly. I don’t believe we bought these without watching them a few times first. I don’t believe when they were watched they played like they do for us and we thought ‘they look good’. I just believe in me and what I see. Something doesn’t add up. I wouldn’t write them off just yet.
What about Yoko?
You’re right btw.
Haha, the dream is over mate!
Let’s hope not!
And what would Robbie Fowler think of that song?
finally someone gets it. Lovren is very direct, he attacks the ball, much like Gerrard.
Trouble is for a defensive player you need to read the play and runners and choose when to attack the ball and when to stay put. Also to identify when a space to one side or other / or behind is a danger area that you must move into to cover.
Lovren doesn’t do that. He ignores spaces thinking he can run and attack the ball if it comes, but failed vs Citeh and ludogorets as you’ve pointed out. He always attacks the ball no matter what, so he won’t change.
Against Basle, he left Streller to attack the ball, missed it and Streller is unmarked to hammer the ball home after it flicked off Skrtel’s head. Lovren was at fault there too.
He just doesn’t have the game, he was poor at the WC this summer and Soton conceded almost as much as we did last season and that was with Wanyama and Schneiderlin infront of him
It’s killing me given how good Sakho will become in the next couple of years. If we lose Suso and Sakho I want Rodgers out.
From what I’ve heard. Everyone is raving about Sakho and how he plays for France. Well, he doesn’t play like that for us – and that’s reality.
Hasn’t been given the same chances Lovren has been given though, has he? He’s been treated very differently from Lovren despite the fact he has performed better.
Play him 11 games on the trot while telling him you’re my main man at the back and I can GUARANTEE his efforts will be better than those of Lovren from these opening 11 games. They can’t be any worse.
Think it comes down to the fact Rodgers signed Lovren while the transfer committee signed Sakho. And that’s wrong of Rodgers to not be objective and base selection on performances.
He started half of all games last season. If we’re judging Lovren on 11 then it’s fair to judge Sakho on 21.
Exactly. And who has performed better?
Neither have covered themselves in glory but Sakho been easily better for me, especially when you take into consideration Lovren had already become used to English football before he came to us and Sakho has clearly never felt any confidence coming from the manager, whereas Lovren has.
For what it’s worth Chris, at the start of the season I thought it was gonna be Lovren and Sakho and I was made up. I played centre half until a few years ago and I didn’t see much difference between left side and right side so I presumed being professionals they’d just work it out and form a partnership. I still want to see that partnership given a go. All 4 of them have made mistakes that I find unacceptable and in fairness, Sakho has probably made the least. Go back to pre season and I was fighting Sakho’s corner all day. Like Lovren, I still think he’s got a lot more to give.
My impression is, if you fall foul of Rodgers then you have to be one of the very best in the team to be forgiven. I can see sakho getting pushed out too, which is disappointing. Did you think the timing of his injury was odd? It made me very sceptical.
Dude, you are really on a campaign with this suso thing aren’t you? Really, you are calling for Rodgers out?? I have always liked suso but i don’t see the need to get your knickers in a twist about him not getting a game at the moment (where is it being rumored that he is on the way out?). Calling him the next David silva is a pretty big wrap, can’t help but think he is never going to be able to drift past players the way silva does and the fact that he only has one foot will limit him too much in the end to reach that level.
Agreed Lovren’s had a tough start but Rodgers’ system puts so much pressure on the CBs that I’m not all that surprised. The fullbacks play so high the CBs are often isolated 1-1 and at 25 Lovren probably doesnt yet have the experience to handle it.
Having said that Sakho hasn’t done well in a red shirt either. His positioning is poor and he lacks composure on the ball giving it away for a good chance at least once in a match. Sakho I still think is in Rodgers’ plans but Skrtel has played so well he wants to use him. Yes he makes the odd mistake but in this system those are going to happen because of how aggressively Rodgers plays. Last season Skrtel was easily our best defender making the most clearances per game (11.4) of any in the PL.
The other issue has been no Flanno. He may not offer too much going forward but he also made the third most tackles per game of any player (3.4) and was generally a solid presence that we needed.
If we can get a back four of Moreno-Lovren-Skrtel-Flanno playing together we should be at least decent at the back.
Always comforting to find people who share my love of Sakho (and Allen, mind). Would like to see Lovren and Sakho getting a chance to settle with Valdes organizing the box and, eventually, Can playing as a DM. With the exception of Valdes, of course, all three (and Allen, mind) are quite young for their positions, but with bags of potential.
Skrtel scored some vital goals for us, but he just doesn’t seem to have playing a high line in his genetic code. And how he got away with the shirt pulling was a nerve-wracking mystery to me. I was always half-convinced that it would end up costing us crucial points. I suppose it was his dropping precipitously back that ultimately did, though.
And there’s something so endearing about Kolo Toure to me. No matter how many times I watch his pitch pounding blunders, I can’t stop loving the guy. I’m just not sure I want him playing in competitive games.
I also think its a bit harsh on the lad. He has struggled but the teams defensive woes can’t all be on him.. although i do think Agger was slightly better so his sale is confusing. Lets hope Real do us in on Wed #YNWA
This isn’t funny at all. Don’t like what I have to say, fine. Come up with an educated response with some evidence as to why I am wrong. Otherwise, fuck off and stop impersonating someone on an anonymous forum like a Grade A Cunt.
It’s as if you cannot criticise anything about LFC if you’re a Liverpool fan. It’s as if some objectivity isn’t permitted. A fucking pathetic attitude.
Could be just another guy called Chris…
Not sure if this has already been mentioned, but the author is dreaming if he thinks Lyon would’ve sold Lovren to us for £7 million last year.
LFC always has to pay a premium for a player, and whilst £20 million is a lot, Lyon wouldn’t have accepted anything less than £14mil from us 16 months ago. Added to the years acclimatisation at Southampton, I don’t think we’ve over-paid.
But he needs to stop trying to win EVERY first ball. QPR saw his tendency to do this, and killed us.
Mate, I really hope Lovren succeeds. Mainly because in the summer my mate said he was an awful footballer and I said he’s gonna sort our defence out once and for all. You know how it is. That said, I find it a bit disturbing how horrendous he is at football. However you look at it £20m is a lot for a centre half. When you see him play it becomes an astronomical fee. But, as I said earlier, I don’t think we’re getting the best out of him. I fuckin hope not anyway.
Although I usually really like what you have to say I found this article to be quite the cheap shot Dave. I would have really liked to hear your thoughts on balotelli considering that you have watched him a fair bit and was a fan of his when he came. I reckon a lot of it with lovren is down to confidence and adjusting to an environment that, if we are honest, has many good centre backs look pretty ordinary. Sure he has made a lot of mistakes and I would probably prefer sakho myself but I think he needs a bit of time to work out how to best fit in. If both pochettino and Rodgers rate him I think we need to cut him some slack to allow him to play his best football.
Re sakho, I am pretty sure the plan from the start was to go with sakho and lovren (with lovren on the right) but when it became obvious that it was affecting lovrens game playing on his non favoured side and he needed some confidence I think switched back to skrtel (you have to hand it to skrtel for always fighting hard for his place too). You could definitely make a strong case that it should have been lovren who made way so I can understand why sakho was pissed but after being the big money signing in the summer it would have been a huge knock on lovren so I see why he didn’t on balance.
@theanfieldwrap
Just a small technical note, the gambling banner keeps on getting in the way of my text box when trying to reply on my iPhone/iPad so I can’t see what I am typing.
Completely agree with all points put across. Many seem blinded and don’t see the mistakes Dejan makes again and again. Maybe he can play the passes? Maybe? But why would we want a defender that can play a pass but then fail to defend it when it goes wrong?