The Official "Why does BR prefer Lovren to Sakho" thread

[DeletedUser#1]

So as I suspected, It's Lovren who'll partner Skrtel in Helsinki and Stoke, and Sakho will start the season as second choice.

Despite being our best CB last season, our passing CB and even much better in pre-season games so far....yet Lovren will start the season ahead of him in pecking order.


WHY ? How come everyone can see it but that clueless mong in charge ?

Honestly, I was like fair FSG gave this man a new chance. We'll get behind him, see if something changes...but it's as he's learnt absolutely nothing from the debacle of last season. Still picking his favourites and based on politics.

Honestly, if it's gonna be like this season, I hope he gets sacked ASAP. He's handicapping the team already.

Picking Lovren ahead of Sakho, is like picking Borini over Sturridge

[Great Leader Sprucenuce]

BR is racist imo.

[Myesyats]

A lot of managers do something the fanbase doesn't accept. Guardiola puts half his men out of position, Luis Enrique doesn't believe in youth, Arsene doesn't spend etc and Brendan prefers white players leave him alone

[Curtinho]

Has the line-up for Stoke been cemented yet? Didn't think it had been. I guess he prefers Origi and Ings over Benteke also?

Not only that, but they haven't even played a game yet. Why don't you save the vitriol for if we actually fail/the partnership is made.

[DeletedUser#1]

Has the line-up for Stoke been cemented yet? Didn't think it had been. I guess he prefers Origi and Ings over Benteke also?

Not only that, but they haven't even played a game yet. Why don't you save the vitriol for if we actually fail/the partnership is made.

Lovren and Skrtel played PLENTY of games last season together and we were scrabbling near relegation spots as a result. Or have you forgotten August-November 2014 ???

I've seen enough of that, to know I'd rather Williamson-Steven Taylor partnership over that.

[Curtinho]

The whole team was in disarray, not just the defence. Not to mention there were a lot of new players, and we couldn't score either. I wouldn't compare what we're going into this season with to last season, in theory we should be much more cohesive and there's less passengers on the pitch.

We'll see when it starts though. Ideally I'd like to see Lovren/Sakho, if Lovren can take his late season form or find his Southampton form, or even just cut out some of his mental mistakes. The tools are there for him to be a good defender for us. He's been good this pre-season anyway.

Plus there's a whole lot less outside pressure this season, IMO, with Gerrard gone and the whole Sterling fiasco done with. Sturridge is ahead of schedule too in his recovery so who knows when he could come back.

[Great Leader Sprucenuce]

Has the line-up for Stoke been cemented yet? Didn't think it had been. I guess he prefers Origi and Ings over Benteke also?

Not only that, but they haven't even played a game yet. Why don't you save the vitriol for if we actually fail/the partnership is made.

Lovren and Skrtel played PLENTY of games last season together and we were scrabbling near relegation spots as a result. Or have you forgotten August-November 2014 ???

I've seen enough of that, to know I'd rather Williamson-Steven Taylor partnership over that.

You really don't

[Unique]

So as I suspected, It's Lovren who'll partner Skrtel in Helsinki and Stoke, and Sakho will start the season as second choice.

Despite being our best CB last season, our passing CB and even much better in pre-season games so far....yet Lovren will start the season ahead of him in pecking order.


WHY ? How come everyone can see it but that clueless mong in charge ?

Honestly, I was like fair FSG gave this man a new chance. We'll get behind him, see if something changes...but it's as he's learnt absolutely nothing from the debacle of last season. Still picking his favourites and based on politics.

Honestly, if it's gonna be like this season, I hope he gets sacked ASAP. He's handicapping the team already.

Picking Lovren ahead of Sakho, is like picking Borini over Sturridge

how do you know that.

[Nishankly]

I'd wait until August 9th, I dont think he is that stupid to play that line up now unless Sakho is injured.

[RealGunner]

Somehow I don't see Rodgers doing it. What I think is that Rodgers is trying his best to keep on playing Lovren to see if he improves or at least show his Southampton form.

And he probably is aware that Sakho is a natural option otherwise.

[Unique]

don't forget Liverpool play another game on sunday. so sakho will play in that game.

[McAgger]

The Sunday game is U21 match. If Sakho plays in that while Lovren starts with the frist team, it will definitely mean he's second choice.

[Art Morte]

How about we wait until the Stoke match. I cannot believe Lovren would be ahead of Sakho, am expecting it to be Skrtel and Sakho against Stoke.

[iftikhar]

Those Poll-options

Sepi

[Nishankly]

The Sunday game is U21 match. If Sakho plays in that while Lovren starts with the frist team, it will definitely mean he's second choice.

There's no indication about that either. Its listed in the first team fixtures on the official site.

Lads left behind for this:

Bogdan
Enrique
Toure
Sakho
Illori
Moreno
Firmino
Lucas
Can
Allen
Rossiter
Markovic
Tex
Ojo
Benteke
Sinclair

[donttreadonred]

The Sunday game is U21 match. If Sakho plays in that while Lovren starts with the frist team, it will definitely mean he's second choice.

That's not necessarily true.

I was pretty concerned that Sakho didn't travel to Helsinki, as well. However, with the players that were left behind, it's pretty apparent that they are treating this exactly as they treated the tightly-packed Asian fixtures: as opportunities to play multiple formations and combinations of players with goals of fitness and first-team exposure/eperience.

Can you honestly tell me that any one of the preseason fixtures has shown what you would call a "first-choice" XI?

I think we all expected this to be a "dress rehearsal" for Stoke away. However, that went out the window when we saw Benteke, Firmino, Markovic, Allen, Lucas, Can, Moreno, Toure, Illori, and (of course) Sakho omitted from the travel plans. Say what you want about the these players' chances to be in the first XI. There's no question that nearly all of them will be involved with the first team in some capacity.

I also refuse to accept the argument that players were left out due to lack of familiarity with the squad... What? Are we treating Helsinki as a more important fixture than Swindon? Is that truly a better yard-stick by which to measure our progress. I mean no disrespect to Helsinki, but they're not exactly on the level of Premier League competition.

Moreover, if you think we're holding Benteke, Firmino, and Can out for fitness and familiarity reasons, have a word with yourself. You can be assured they will feature against Swindon, and that's only 24 hours later. That's effectively one more session: a session that will not even feature the complete squad. They're getting no more from that than they would traveling with the squad and watching from the stands.

No. I can't believe this is some almighty sign that today's squad is the chosen Premier League XI. It's merely a continuation of Brendan's strategy of giving players chances to prove themselves while managing fitness across a tightly-packed pre-season.

Now, if you want to have a discussion as to why Lovren (as an example, because he's not the only one) has been given so many chances to prove himself (and performed poorly in each of them by most accounts) while others (Markovic, Sakho, Moreno, Wisdom pre-loan, etc) have been limited... Well, that has the potential for an engaging debate.

[Helmer]

imo the options are really apt. They describe pretty well the confusion among the fans reagarding Lovren starting ahead of my d*** at the center of the defense.

[DeletedUser#1]

Dominic King, Tony Barrett and James Pearce have all tonight in their articles indicated that Lovren is ahead of Sakho in pecking order and will start the match vs. Stoke barring any injury.

But yea, keeps heads in sand guys.

Won't be surprised if Sakho asked to leave late in the window. He's a France vice-captain and isn't gonna stand for being benched for a vastly inferior player after proving his worth last season ahead of a home Euros for France.

What a travesty it would be....

Hope Lovren gets injured this week and I'm deadly serious. The prospect of losing a potentially WC centre back in Sakho because of braindead-ness of a manager who doesn't have ANY CLUE in spotting good defenders and setting up a proper defense is terrifying.

[DeletedUser#1]

And just as this day couldn't get any worse, RO just blocked me on Skype after I ranted about how much of a prick Rodgers is for his treatment of Sakho. Didn't know El Cujo had hacked his account

gonna hit the booze and stuff lads to forget about this.

[RedOranje]

Don't you dare lie and spin this, Sepi. I blocked you because you did the one thing you absolutely KNOW, beyond any reasonable iota of doubt, I will not put up with... and that's wish injury or direct seriously physical harm to a person, even more so as it was a person, nay TWO PEOPLE, directly connected to and a part of the club which you claim to support. Of course I blocked you. I have no time, not a single second, of patience for that type of despicable, low, disgusting talk and you have previously be warned on the forums about that type of thing as it is NOT welcome here and it is NOT welcome on my skype. This has NOTHING to do with your opinion on Rodgers, Sakho, or Lovren and EVERYTHING to do with your repeated nauseating talk of desiring injury and bodily harm on other people.

Sort it out.

[donttreadonred]

Dominic King, Tony Barrett and James Pearce have all tonight in their articles indicated that Lovren is ahead of Sakho in pecking order and will start the match vs. Stoke barring any injury.

But yea, keeps heads in sand guys.

Won't be surprised if Sakho asked to leave late in the window. He's a France vice-captain and isn't gonna stand for being benched for a vastly inferior player after proving his worth last season ahead of a home Euros for France.

What a travesty it would be....

Hope Lovren gets injured this week and I'm deadly serious. The prospect of losing a potentially WC centre back in Sakho because of braindead-ness of a manager who doesn't have ANY CLUE in spotting good defenders and setting up a proper defense is terrifying.

I saw the reports come out after the game from each of the main journos. I would also point out that most of them suggested that they didn’t understand the choice, either. So, at least we’re not alone.

Not sure that it constitutes “heads in sand” to attempt to apply logical thinking to something that has the reporters close to the club scratching their heads. I think we all obviously see Rodgers attempting to justify the expenditure on Lovren (and to a more successful extent Lallana). The only question here is to what extent Rodgers is willing to go… My previous post questioned the belief that he was automatically going to play Lovren ahead of Sakho in competitive fixtures based solely on pairings in a tightly-packed preseason. I still don’t think one predicates the other. That said, the journos reporting the hierarchy (and notably doing an about-face from their earlier opinions on the depth chart) suggest that Rodgers is willing to push this justification into the competitive season and risk dropping points to uphold his ego.

I too am upset that Sakho (a focal point of the French National team and a top-class CB) is looking to be second choice to a positionally-suspect, notoriously error-prone CB. However, I’m still going to wish Lovren well, if for the one simple fact that if Lovren does well, Liverpool will perform better. I must say that it’s rather disgusting to wish injury on any player, much less one for your own team, and I am disappointed to see that posted here. It gives the implication that you would rather see your own opinions justified than see a person (and by extension, the club) succeed.

[Unique]

Dominic King, Tony Barrett and James Pearce have all tonight in their articles indicated that Lovren is ahead of Sakho in pecking order and will start the match vs. Stoke barring any injury.

But yea, keeps heads in sand guys.

Won't be surprised if Sakho asked to leave late in the window. He's a France vice-captain and isn't gonna stand for being benched for a vastly inferior player after proving his worth last season ahead of a home Euros for France.

What a travesty it would be....

Hope Lovren gets injured this week and I'm deadly serious. The prospect of losing a potentially WC centre back in Sakho because of braindead-ness of a manager who doesn't have ANY CLUE in spotting good defenders and setting up a proper defense is terrifying.

im not having a dig at you mate but why are you allways so bitter and angry. if lovren plays he plays. if he plays badly he will be replaced. but the guy does not deserve a broken leg for bad form. its just a game mate. chill out a bit. no point worrying about a problem unless your in a position to fix it.

[iftikhar]

I think the only reason Lovren is getting so much chances is because Rodgers wants to see if he (Lovren) can show any glimpse of redemption.

Last season Sakho played in 27 games (2297 mins) as against 38 games (2962 mins) by Lovren. The later barely featured since December.

I think instead of risking Lovren in competitive games, Rodgers is testing him in warm-ups.

[Unique]

Liverpool team to play Swindon Bogdan, Alexander-Arnold, Moreno, Toure, Sakho, Lucas, Can, Allen, Markovic, Firmino, Benteke.

[iftikhar]

A poll on popular Liverpool fan site This is Anfield shows 91 percent of voters opting for Sakho to start ahead of the £20 million former Southampton man Lovren. One can only presume the other 9 percent are Stoke City fans, various members of Lovren's family and possibly even Rodgers himself.

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