Re: Liverpool's international watch thread.

[sportsczy]

Liverpool has to allow Sakho to play in a natural CB role where he can be aggressive.... i mean the guy is a beast in duels and completely control the air. I don't hink any CB at Liverpool could give the performance Sakho did last night for France Nt. Set the tone early, kept it up and intimidated everyone. Don't expect him to score goals though That was his Thuram moment..

[RedOranje]

Yea, I mean the Liverpool defensive performances with Skrtel and Agger definitely beg for improvement and we should obviously change the entire system of play for one player... that totally makes sense.

[McAgger]

Liverpool has to allow Sakho to play in a natural CB role where he can be aggressive....  i mean the guy is a beast in duels and completely control the air.  I don't hink any CB at Liverpool could give the performance Sakho did last night for France Nt.  Set the tone early, kept it up and intimidated everyone.  Don't expect him to score goals though  That was his Thuram moment..

Well that's just not true. Sakho had an amazing game but to say our other CB haven't had such performances is a farce.

Agger has already had plenty of such moments in his career. One that especially comes to mind is the CL semis vs Chelsea when we won 1-0 to take the game to pens and win. And also Euro 2012 against Holland he single handedly kept their defense from conceding in their 1-0 win.

Likewise for Skrtel and Toure.

[ExtremistEnigma]

Yea, I mean the Liverpool defensive performances with Skrtel and Agger definitely beg for improvement and we should obviously change the entire system of play for one player... that totally makes sense.

Yep sportsczy.. look how often they've started together in 2013. dat GOAT pairing

Sakho will eventually be a first teamer in a 4-man backline I believe. His recent performances have been encouraging.

[sportsczy]

Sorry but Agger and Skrtel have both been with Liverpool for a long, long time and Liverpool's defense has been mostly crap for the past several years... this is the first year where things are looking good back there in a long time. You can't say it's because of those 2 because they're not new... in fact the midfield isn't new either. What's changed? Kolo Toure and Sakho. You have one physical impact guy and another who just came out of nowhere to play great positional defense.

Agger and Skrtel are both ok; but average to me. There isn't one aspect of their games that you feel they can dominate with, which is why Liverpool struggle defensively against the better EPL teams. What you want to do is pair a physically dominant/aggressive CB with a tactical one. Then you have a combination that everyone will have trouble against.

But if the ambition is to do well against everyone but the better teams, then it's ok to pair two decent but not very good CBs that have no upside left in them. I doubt that get Liverpool to a CL position though. Somewhere down the line, you're going to have to get wins against the top sides.

[Nishankly]

This is actually something which is very weird, When we were a big game team, We had Skrtel-Agger as our CB pairing, When we were shit against top sides we had Skrtel-Agger as our CB pairing.

Whoever we buy or sell, Its always been them, They are at the worst and best moments every season, And again it looks as if they will continue to play together until one of them f*cks up, Which is imminent.

[Red Alert]

Sakho will eventually be a first teamer in a 4-man backline I believe. His recent performances have been encouraging.

Sakho will end up being a first teamer before January. He's easily our best defender (although Skrtel's having a better season so far), and Sakho is a "leader" which works in his favour.

[Red Alert]

Sorry but Agger and Skrtel have both been with Liverpool for a long, long time and Liverpool's defense has been mostly crap for the past several years... this is the first year where things are looking good back there in a long time.  You can't say it's because of those 2 because they're not new... in fact the midfield isn't new either.  What's changed?  Kolo Toure and Sakho.  You have one physical impact guy and another who just came out of nowhere to play great positional defense.

Agger and Skrtel are both ok; but average to me.  There isn't one aspect of their games that you feel they can dominate with, which is why Liverpool struggle defensively against the better EPL teams.  What you want to do is pair a physically dominant/aggressive CB with a tactical one.  Then you have a combination that everyone will have trouble against.

But if the ambition is to do well against everyone but the better teams, then it's ok to pair two decent but not very good CBs that have no upside left in them.  I doubt that get Liverpool to a CL position though.  Somewhere down the line, you're going to have to get wins against the top sides.

We've been crap (not only defensively but OVERALL) for a bunch of reasons, so to solely blame it on Skrtel and Agger would be ignorant.

It's changed because of our switch of goalkeepers, Mignolet has done very well this season; he's been A LOT more demanding in comparison to Reina.

Agger is quality when on form. His form recently has just been :facepalm:since Steve Clarke left Liverpool though. Apparently I'm deluded or "sarcastic" to say that but he has been. Definitely not the same player he was in the past.  

Skrtel has been our best defender this year, so not too sure how you say he's average. Skrtel is very good when a manager gives him a role to do (either shut down a player or just play no nonsense or even as the aggressive CB) but when he's given more responsibility, he tends to make mistakes. That's not too mean he's a limited CB, far from it actually, but he's arguably one of the best CB's in the league when he's told to do a specific role, he's just "solid" when having to do that extra job.

We don't struggle defensively against top teams, we struggled to score goals against them last season. This year we did very well to beat United and looked clueless against Arsenal because our midfield was overrun... that was more of a tactical mistake from Rodgers then to put the blame on the defence.

[Nishankly]

1st - " International Break " = Swansea City [ 2-2 ]
2nd - " International Break " = Newcastle United [ 2-2 ]
3rd - " International Break " = Everton F.C. [ 3-3 ]

[Red Alert]

And all of those games were away from home. Thank god that the next international fixtures are next year.

[BeautifulGame]

A total of 14 Liverpool players have been selected for international duty as countries around the world lock horns in a series of friendlies on Wednesday.


The Reds have five representatives in the England squad to face Denmark in a friendly at Wembley, namely Steven Gerrard, Glen Johnson, Jordan Henderson, Raheem Sterling and Daniel Sturridge.

A familiar face will be in opposition to the quintet in London, as central defender Daniel Agger has made the short trip south from Merseyside to appear for his country.

His club colleague Martin Skrtel will journey to Israel for Slovakia's friendly, while midfielder Joe Allen returns to his homeland for Wales' fixture against Iceland.

Luis Suarez will take a break from terrorising Barclays Premier League defences to participate in Uruguay's friendly at Austria.

Goalkeeper Simon Mignolet and Kolo Toure could come face to face as Belgium host African contenders Ivory Coast in Brussels.

The Reds' deputy stopper, Brad Jones, will undergo an internal journey too; the Australian has been named in his nation's squad for their friendly with Ecuador at Millwall's home ground.

As he nears a return to full fitness, Mamadou Sakho has been selected in the France squad for their mouth-watering contest against the Netherlands in Paris.

On-loan attacker Victor Moses has travelled to America with Nigeria - the Super Eagles are in action against Mexico.

http://www.liverpoolfc.com/news/latest-news/156507-14-reds-head-for-international-duty

[Nishankly]

14 is a lot.

[Curtinho]

The Netherlands/France game will be one to watch IMO.

[iftikhar]

A total of 14 Liverpool players have been selected for international duty as countries around the world lock horns in a series of friendlies on Wednesday.


The Reds have five representatives in the England squad to face Denmark in a friendly at Wembley, namely Steven Gerrard, Glen Johnson, Jordan Henderson, Raheem Sterling and Daniel Sturridge.

A familiar face will be in opposition to the quintet in London, as central defender Daniel Agger has made the short trip south from Merseyside to appear for his country.

His club colleague Martin Skrtel will journey to Israel for Slovakia's friendly, while midfielder Joe Allen returns to his homeland for Wales' fixture against Iceland.

Luis Suarez will take a break from terrorising Barclays Premier League defences to participate in Uruguay's friendly at Austria.

Goalkeeper Simon Mignolet and Kolo Toure could come face to face as Belgium host African contenders Ivory Coast in Brussels.

The Reds' deputy stopper, Brad Jones, will undergo an internal journey too; the Australian has been named in his nation's squad for their friendly with Ecuador at Millwall's home ground.

As he nears a return to full fitness, Mamadou Sakho has been selected in the France squad for their mouth-watering contest against the Netherlands in Paris.

On-loan attacker Victor Moses has travelled to America with Nigeria - the Super Eagles are in action against Mexico.

http://www.liverpoolfc.com/news/latest-news/156507-14-reds-head-for-international-duty

---------Mignolet--------
Johnson-Skrtel-Agger-LWB
---Gerrard--Henderson---
Raheem----Allen---Suarez
--------Sturridge--------
  
Jones, Toure, Sakho, Moses

[BeautifulGame]

Good thing is 6 of them play at wembley and Uruguay match is at Austria. So none of them will have any jet lag issues .

Hopefully the Idiotic Woy doesnt play any of them for full 90 minutes

[iftikhar]

Hopefully the Idiotic Woy doesnt play any of them for full 90 minutes

That's audacity of hope. He called-up Johnson who returned from injury only days ago.

[McAgger]

Yeah it's not that bad, none of the ones that matter will travel a lot except Skrtel. Who cares about Moses being in the US, not likely to get any game time at United regardless.

[Art Morte]

Hopefully the Idiotic Woy doesnt play any of them for full 90 minutes

That's audacity of hope. He called-up Johnson who returned from injury only days ago.

And Walker pulled out because of a groin injury, so that's one RB less xD

[McAgger]

Let's just pray for no injuries. Our season could be ruined if the wrong player picks up an unfortunate injury.

[iftikhar]

Yeah it's not that bad, none of the ones that matter will travel a lot except Skrtel.

Let's just pray for no injuries. Our season could be ruined if the wrong player picks up an unfortunate injury.

[Red Alert]

Hopefully they play Flanagan over GJ.

(And Lampard over Gerrard.)

[Nishankly]

Flanagan in the English team?

[Red Alert]

Don't even know tbh.

I don't pay attention to the NT friendlies.

[Art Morte]

No, Flanagan really isn't in the team...

After Walker pulled out it's Smalling and Johnson who can play right-back. And Hogdson has just said that Baines will not play because he wants to take a look at Cole and Shaw.

[Nishankly]

Don't even know tbh.

I don't pay attention to the NT friendlies.

[Red Alert]

Let's all facepalm Red Alert because he has no interest at all in NT friendly games.

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