(Here) We Go Again

This weekend was the moment that belief degenerated into hope for me. I no longer have any degree of certainty that Brendan Rodgers turns this around. I still think the season is salvageable (have you seen the state of the Manchester United side that currently sits in fourth place?) and sincerely want the manager to reverse the team’s fortunes but, if I’m totally honest, I have little confidence in that happening any more.

12.30 on Sunday was my own personal tipping point.

Watching this Liverpool side right now is akin to Groundhog Day without Bill Murray; Repetitive, mundane, predictable, inevitable and no bloody fun whatsoever. Each time match day rolls around I hope for change. Then the team sheet is released an hour before kick-off and the realisation that precious little has altered and the same monotony will envelop us once more sinks in. Same faces, same approach, same mind boggling decisions.

It’s easy to say this after the fact of course, but was anyone really surprised by what transpired at Selhurst Park after they saw Liverpool’s latest starting line up? I know I wasn’t. There were no solutions offered up to the problems that have plagued the team this season. The comical centre back partnership remained intact still with a lack of a screener in front of them and Glen Johnson found his way into first eleven yet again.

Ah, Glen. Can anyone explain why he was accommodated once more or why he was deployed on the left side? I’m assuming he didn’t start at right back because Yannick Bolasie’s pace would have torn him to shreds. Understandable. But why start him over one of the few summer signings who have actually impressed this season? Alberto Moreno has pace and gets the team up the pitch. Isn’t playing without natural width in midfield - as Liverpool did on Sunday - generally offset by having at least one full back capable of offering an attacking outlet in wide areas? Moreno does that. Johnson doesn’t. Not in 2014. He still meanders forward now and again, albeit with the threat of a sedated puppy. Yet he also requires constant protection even when he’s matched up against a bang average winger like Jason Puncheon.

At least the man charged with supporting him did his job admirably before he was predictably hauled off for no discernible reason other than the fact that he isn’t named Steven Gerrard.

Joe Allen was Liverpool’s outstanding performer against Palace. He offered constant support and protection for Johnson on the left. He kept the ball. He moved. He pressed. He tackled. He created a great opportunity for Rickie Lambert. Then he got hooked while the skipper remained on for yet another 90 minute slog before undoubtedly being required to do the same again just 72 hours later in Bulgaria. Immaculate planning, that.

Everyone knows how much Gerrard is struggling right now and he had a stinker once more against Palace. Yet, despite Lucas and Emre Can being available from the bench and Allen impressing in midfield, the captain remained out there for the duration as Rodgers once again took the easy option of replacing the diminutive Welshman rather than the labouring club icon.

Speaking of easy options, one would have thought there was a pretty simple selection choice on offer at the heart of Liverpool’s defence for Brendan Rodgers against Palace. The return of Kolo Toure at the expense of Dejan Lovren is seen by most as somewhat of a no brainer. We’ve been at the point for too long now where Lovren’s mere presence alone is basically costing Liverpool a goal a game. Toure impressed everyone in Madrid and yet hasn’t even had a look in since. So much for that ‘meritocracy’.

Toure again didn’t get a second on the pitch in South London. Instead it was another game, another Lovren start and another crucial goal that could be chalked up to farcical ‘defending’ from the Croatian. At this point I can only assume that Rodgers was personally responsible for recruiting the former Southampton man this summer. That’s the only possible reason I can see for the myopic approach he’s adopting when it comes to the out of form £20m centre back.

Mamadou Sakho was brought in for a similar fee last season and hasn’t received half of the backing and patience from Rodgers that Lovren has been afforded. The Frenchman may hardly been faultless during his time at Anfield but his replacement has made double the mistakes in a quarter of the game time. If Sakho’s form had been as poor as Lovren’s I’m certain that Rodgers would’ve bombed him out long ago yet, infuriatingly, the Croatian remains a fixture in the first team. Unless the manager is sticking by Lovren because he personally handpicked him as the solution to Liverpool’s defensive woes this summer then I’m truly at a loss to explain the continued stubborn persistence with the player.

This isn’t intended to simply be a hatchet job on Lovren, Gerrard and Johnson. Plenty of other players are underperforming also but the managerial approach to these three best symbolises Rodgers’ ongoing resistance to change and my exasperation with his team selections.

All three men have been horribly out of form for a prolonged period of time now and yet they are constantly selected ahead of players who have performed relatively well when given a chance in their absence. It’s not hard to imagine what the likes of Toure, Lucas, Can and Moreno were thinking as they watched Liverpool on Sunday when Lovren, Johnson and Gerrard all made it to the final whistle yet again.

If the preferential treatment to Lovren can be chalked up to him being a ‘Rodgers signing’ then the only possible reason for Gerrard’s continued presence in the team that my brain can muster is arguably even more concerning.

Basically it seems to me to come down to the fact that this manager doesn’t have balls to drop or even substitute his club captain regardless of how he is performing. Gerrard isn’t offering any protection to a defence that requires it in spades right now and his offensive weapons are no longer hurting opponents. Playing 90 minutes in virtually every game is doing him no favours whatsoever. He looks physically and mentally drained, devoid of confidence and belief. What harm could come from using him as an impact player from the bench for a while?

To be honest I’m sick of even thinking about what Liverpool could or should be doing when it comes to the deployment of Gerrard. It’s something that people have been debating all season long despite the fact that we all know it’s a futile discussion. Rodgers isn’t dropping Gerrard any time soon and while the skipper isn’t Liverpool’s biggest problem, the fact that he seemingly has to play in this team irrespective of how poor his form is is damaging the team and putting the manager under more pressure.

Admirably, Rodgers acknowledged after the Palace debacle that his job will be on the line if results don’t improve. While that is commendable it is only going to be of any real significance if it drives him to a new approach. Quite why he wouldn’t make sweeping changes from here on in is beyond me. It’s his head on the chopping block and maintaining the status quo is only going to see his reputation and job security diminish further. He’s been eating his way through a turd sandwich for months now and yet inexplicably hasn’t decided to order something else from the menu. He just keeps chewing and hoping it will eventually taste better.

I wrote a piece just a few days back stating that Liverpool had six winnable games in a row and could get their season back on track over the next few weeks. I firmly believed it possible if the manager made some changes. At 12.30 on Sunday my belief that improvement was imminent all but evaporated. It seems clear now that Rodgers isn’t changing. He’s doubling down. He’s sticking by his underperforming players, ignoring alternatives and hoping these lads will magically rediscover their form. It’s a hell of a gamble and evidence suggests the odds are well and truly stacked against him.

The manager is in a hole and he’s only digging himself further into trouble at the moment. I suppose all we can do is hope, like him, that things somehow get better from here. But when ‘hope’ is all you have left to cling to you know you are in serious trouble.    

The Next Six

Crystal Palace, Ludogorets, Stoke City, Leicester City, Sunderland and Basel.

When you’re managing a team in desperate need of victories you can’t ask for a more appealing set of fixtures than that. Those six sides are the opponents that Liverpool will face before their trip to Old Trafford on December 14^th. Frankly, they range from very poor to average in terms of quality. Brendan Rodgers should be relishing the prospect of getting his team’s season back on track over the next three weeks, but confidence in Liverpool’s ability to negotiate that less than daunting group of games is pretty low right now.

Despite it only being November, the reds are already perilously close to entering these matches with a ‘must win’ feeling hanging over their heads. In truth, this potential do or die perception to upcoming games would have already been a reality in recent fixtures were it not for the stuttering form of Champions League chasing sides like Arsenal, Everton and Manchester United which has mercifully postponed that particular narrative. The incompetence and inconsistency of their rivals has somehow left Liverpool with much to play for even after their depressing opening third of the season.

Despite the fact that Liverpool are still within touching distance of the top four, pressure is undoubtedly mounting on Brendan Rodgers. Sadly his much needed release valve is again out of reach now that Daniel Sturridge is injured once more. The striker’s absence has no doubt been a cause of many of the ills that his team have experienced since August, but the continued absence of the England forward cannot be used as a viable excuse over the next three weeks.

Sturridge or no Sturridge, Rodgers has a better squad at his disposal than all of his next six direct opponents and, bad form or not, Liverpool can beat all of the sides listed above. Indeed, they should beat all of them.

Yes, major problems exist in every area of the Liverpool team right now but it’s high time for the manager to step up and start finding some solutions. And make no mistake, despite the disastrous form, there are solutions residing within this squad of players. The question is whether Rodgers is willing to augment his failing approach and go in a new direction or not. To date this hasn’t been done, but now is surely the time for changes to be made. Things can’t go on like this much longer or Liverpool’s season will be effectively over before the New Year.

At the back the manager needs to accept that his much talked up (by himself) £20m signing Dejan Lovren isn’t working out while Martin Skrtel remains the inconsistent centre half he always has been. A very strong argument could be made for dropping both players as soon as possible, especially given Kolo Toure’s performance in Madrid which undoubtedly leaves him deserving a recall. Mamadou Sakho should soon return from injury and while it’s pretty obvious that the manager doesn’t particularly fancy him, it seems natural that the Frenchman should be Liverpool’s first choice centre half when he’s fit again. Sure, he can look ungainly but he offers genuine pace and physicality – two more attributes than either Skrtel or Lovren are displaying at present.

Glen Johnson’s form may have been deemed acceptable enough to have somehow earned him a new contract offer from the club but it is hard to argue that it should currently merit him a place in the first team. Javi Manquillo is available and a far more dependable alternative at present even if his attacking limitations are obvious. Decisions need to be taken when it comes to Liverpool’s wretched back line and the problems don’t end there.

Further forward the balance in midfield this season has been absent but again, options for Rodgers are plentiful. Emre Can has played himself into form and it seems safe to assume that he’s cemented his place in this team right now. Philippe Coutinho is slowly emerging from his early season slump and showing signs of life once more while his compatriot Lucas Leiva, lack of mobility aside, offers some level of actual defensive protection and knowhow which is more than can be said at present for Steven Gerrard.

The captain has suffered more than most of late and the folly of him playing for the full 90 minutes in every meaningful game this season needs to be addressed soon. To write the skipper off completely would be extreme but to claim that he’s undroppable at this stage is just as fanciful. Lamentably, Rodgers hasn’t looked like excluding Gerrard from any big games in two and a half years so to expect him to do so now would perhaps be asking a bit too much. Something needs to be done though. This Steven Gerrard is offering nothing to this Liverpool team. This Liverpool team is offering nothing to this Steven Gerrard.

When you add Joe Allen, Adam Lallana and Jordan Henderson to the midfield mix, Rodgers could scarcely ask for more pieces to figure out this particular puzzle. He wanted the ability to rotate and he certainly has that in abundance in the middle third of the pitch. Now he must find the best combination to get Liverpool’s engine room ticking again. Gerrard sitting deep with a partner alongside him has left it spluttering so far and stalled the entire team. An improvement surely shouldn’t be too difficult to find given the mix of talented players at the manager’s disposal.

Up front things are admittedly more complicated, but again, there are other methods that the manager will hopefully explore over the coming weeks. One would think he has to. To suggest that what we’ve seen thus far isn’t working would be the ultimate understatement. Liverpool’s play in the final third isn’t even threatening to work these days. Mario Balotelli playing as a lone striker provides few worries for opposition defences. Ditto the industrious but lightweight Fabio Borini. It’s not difficult to imagine that if the Italians were paired together they would be more likely to actually create a few chances or even – imagine this - score a few goals. Raheem Sterling could certainly inject some much needed pace and threaten sides in behind if he were pushed up as foil for Balotelli. It remains a mystery that Liverpool’s best player has been largely confined to the touchlines for most of the season to date. The less said about Rickie Lambert right now the better, sadly.

On a personal level the most concerning and frustrating aspect of this nightmare of a season so far has been the reluctance of Rodgers to accommodate a second centre forward in his team selections. The persistence with a single front man is way beyond ridiculous and bordering on negligent at this point. To continue with a lone striker system seems unlikely to result in anything other than accelerating the possibility of the manager being served with his P45. It certainly isn’t resulting in goals.

Liverpool have scored just 8 times in their last 8 league games which is surely proof enough that the current approach needs to be binned. Change is now a necessity. Admittedly, any of the alternative systems or personnel changes on offer could also flop, but what is there to lose at this point? When none of your strikers have mustered a single league goal to their names it would be literally impossible for any alternative approach to produce worse results. At the very least a change would offer some variety and show fans that there is a desire to abandon the monotonous status quo and fix things. Right now watching Liverpool trying to score goals is as predictable as it is dull.

All that being said, if Rodgers can somehow turn things around and win 5 or 6 games before he takes his team to Old Trafford, then he will likely find his team in the last 16 of the Champions League and back the top four domestically. It’s an achievable goal to set and not unreasonable to expect a squad of this expense and quality to be able to do just that.

A good run now would see the gathering questions about Rodgers’ future fade into the background again. If things don’t change and results remain poor then those questions will only grow louder, and rightly so. If Liverpool are still languishing in mid table and have departed from the Champions League by the time they face Manchester United then Rodgers will have nowhere else to look but the mirror. Sadly, if significant personnel or systemic changes aren’t going to occur you would have to presume that the current malaise will endure.

Difficult decisions need to be taken, underperforming players need to be dropped, noses need to be put out of joint and the repetition of mistakes must cease. If the manager can do these things then Liverpool fans should be looking forward to the knockout stages of Europe’s elite competition and believing in their team’s ability to return to that competition again next season.

The time for excuses and lamenting bad luck is over. The mistakes need to stop. Liverpool need to start winning football matches urgently and how they go about achieving that is down to their manager. The next six games give him the perfect opportunity to get the train back on the tracks. Come December 14^th we will all have a clearer understanding of how capable Brendan Rodgers is of sorting this mess out. 

Liverpool - A Confused football team

Confusion rules my mind when I think of my football team these days. This Liverpool team confuses me. Brendan Rodgers confuses me.

Question marks are everywhere and never more so than now, in the aftermath of defeat to Real Madrid and prior to the impending visit of Chelsea. I have no idea of how I should even be feeling at the moment.

Should I be proud that an ‘under strength’ Liverpool eleven were so resolute and committed away to a side clearly superior to them in the Spanish capital? Or should I be worried that we've essentially been reduced to playing a Hail Mary pass in the Bernabeu as early as November?

Should I be pleased that Kolo Toure was reintroduced on Tuesday and looked solid during 90 testing minutes against one of the most potent attacking outfits on the planet? Or do I instead lament the fact that Dejan Lovren – a player we signed for an eye watering £20m - currently looks less reliable than everyone’s favourite internet meme from the Ivory Coast? I like Kolo, I just don’t like the thought of having to trust in him very often.

Should I be encouraged that Javi Manquillo put in another accomplished defensive performance at right back on his to return to Madrid? Or do I worry that, come Saturday, the Spaniard’s attacking limitations may leave Brendan Rodgers unable to resist yet another roll of the human dice that is Glen Johnson? Roll a six and you’re rewarded with the composed, enterprising Glen from Cardiff away in March. One through five though and you get Glen from, well, take your pick from any number of stinkers over the past 18 months. Rodgers has rolled that particular dice many times and it’s fair to say he’s not landed on six very often lately.

Should I admire Fabio Borini’s endless movement and insatiable levels of graft or remain frustrated by his ultimate lack of oomph when it really matters? Fabio has movement and graft in abundance but bloody hell how he could use some additional oomph.

Mario has oomph. Loads of it, in fact. But he lacks the movement and some would say the graft. Together I could see Mario and Fabio being something. Sadly, I suspect they will be separated again on Saturday for yet another ‘one up top’ job that I have come to despise of late. The disjointed 4-2-3-1 system the team has adopted recently may offer an obvious scapegoat for people in the form of an isolated and frustrated Balotelli, but it’s providing precious little threat to our opponents. Of all the question marks against this team and it’s manager right now it is the consistent use of a system that seems to suit none of the club’s best players that is undoubtedly the most infuriating.

And so to Chelsea.

I hope Brendan surprises me this weekend and abandons the recent approach of Gerrard playing deep with a partner alongside him, two wide players and a lone(ly) striker. Whatever the reasons Rodgers has for playing in this manner, it’s clear that it’s not been working and I would very much like to see it binned sooner rather than later.

Brendan used to be brilliant at rectifying his mistakes and solving problems. These days he appears to be making the same cock ups over and over again while creating further dilemmas for himself in the process. Perhaps having to juggle a larger squad deprived of it’s two greatest offensive weapons from last term has muddled his mind too. Maybe he needs to go back to his roots. I’d certainly like to see him revisit a buzzword of his that he was previously rather fond of: Meritocracy.

That word means that the footballers who perform well deserve to play again and duly do so. Those out form don’t, regardless of their status in the squad or their price tags. Going back to that word and all that it implies at this stage would require balls. It could mean selecting a kid with fewer than 20 senior league games to his name over an experienced international full back to mark the magnificent Eden Hazard on Saturday.

The real world implementation of that buzzword would also require the manager to accept his own mistakes and set about rectifying them rather than ploughing on regardless full of bloody mindedness and blind faith. It could mean laughing stock/cult hero (delete as applicable) Kolo Toure coming in for a prolonged run in the side at the expense of the woefully out of form ‘defensive leader’ that the manager recklessly splashed £20m on this summer.

Based on the idea of a footballing meritocracy Fabio Borini should play against Chelsea as well.  I doubt he will but if he does then I hope it’s not as a lone striker. The alternative may very well mean relinquishing midfield control against high class opponents to facilitate a conventional strike partnership comprised of two Italian lads, neither of whom seems to have the manager’s full trust, but why not try it? It seems no more likely to fail than persisting with the unimpressive setup we've seen recently. Who knows, it might just help to get something out of Balotelli and it would certainly allow Raheem Sterling to play with more freedom in the centre of the pitch again rather than being confined to the touchline playing as an default winger or an auxiliary wing back.

One positive from the defeat to Real was that, whether you agreed with his decisions or not, Brendan Rodgers clearly showed everyone that does indeed have the balls to make big decisions. His team selection left him wide open to a media lynching had Liverpool been humbled. In truth he’s still received a lot of criticism for the starting eleven he chose. If he follows that with a defeat to Chelsea one can only imagine the hysteria that could ensue.

Yet, despite the obvious negative reaction and ramifications of his selection in Madrid, the manager stuck to his guns and rotated heavily. It didn't work as well as some are implying – we lost, that’s never an indication of success – but the performance was of a high enough level to provide him with a shield to defend himself with. It hasn't pacified everyone and losing to Chelsea will only compound the anger that many are feeling right now but at the very least Rodgers did it his way on Tuesday night. Rights or wrongs can be debated but this wasn't a half baked plan and nor was it only partially executed. It was a clear and obvious ploy with genuine thought behind it. He went about his task with absolute conviction.

I want to see more of that.

More certainty. More clarity. For better or for worse. Losing football matches will always hurt no matter what the circumstances but as long as there is a clear plan on show then there is always hope of a brighter tomorrow. That’s the reason that Man United fans are more upbeat with fewer points under Louis van Gaal than they were at the same stage under David Moyes last season. They feel like they’re building toward something again rather than merely flinging muck forlornly at a wall and hoping for the best.

Giving the likes of Manquillo, Toure and Borini a run of games may not be what Rodgers envisaged himself having to do back in August when he was fresh from throwing £100m around the transfer market but it would at least offer some stability at a time when it is badly needed. So would allowing Borini and Balotelli the opportunity to get a partnership going before Daniel Sturridge returns. Whether these potential changes would succeed or not is up for debate – what isn’t right now? – but at least they would restore some order and return some semblance of identity to a team who appear to have lost theirs of late.

Whatever path the manager decides to go down from here we must hope that he embarks upon it devoid of the murky, muddled thinking that has surrounded his team selections too often this season. Liverpool need their identity back. Confusion currently reigns but confused teams can never reign. It's high time Liverpool stepped out of the gloom and got back to the business of being about something again. 

Anfield on Saturday is as good a place to start as any. 

Forget Mario - Liverpool have Real problems

Brendan Rodgers and some of his players should be buying Mario Balotelli a pint at some point this week. It’s the least they could do for the deserved scrutiny he has unwittingly helped them to avoid.

Naively swapping shirts a few seconds too early has unsurprisingly directed the focus and ire of many supporters and the media (sadly this includes the local press as well as the nationals) on to the misfiring striker’s ‘offensive behaviour’ while the real questions that should currently be being addressed are going largely unreported. Clicks are obviously easier to come by when headlines include the word ‘Balotelli’.

The most worrying issue surrounding Liverpool right now isn’t a shirt changing hands at an inappropriate moment. It isn’t even the team’s inability to find a way to coexist and flourish with Balotelli in it (though that is certainly a bone of contention worthy of addressing). No, the underlying problem here is that this team is about as easy to break through as a pane of sugar glass and it has been for far too long. No defensive progress is being made and it’s costing the reds week in and week out. Having to score a minimum of two or three goals per game to accumulate points is doable when you have Luis Suarez and Daniel Sturridge in your side as we saw last season. Without them, though? Well, it gets a lot harder. Not every side is going to be as accommodating as QPR. Real Madrid certainly weren’t.

Every single concern that supporters have harboured this season was cruelly laid bare on Wednesday. The goalkeeper. The centre halves. Glen Johnson. The lack of protection in midfield. Liverpool’s performance was a lethal cocktail of problems that Real Madrid dismissively downed in one go before putting their feet up for 45 minutes of relaxation in preparation of far greater tests to come.

So where to start? The man between the posts seems as good a place as any. When keepers at Anfield lose their way history tells us that they rarely find it again. David James, Sander Westerveld, Jerzy Dudek and Pepe Reina all went through severe dips in form that they never recovered from. Simon Mignolet looks as though he’s the latest Liverpool number one to suffer this fate.

For all his faults, last season the Belgian did win crucial points for his team. He was obviously flawed in many respects but by and large he was excelling in the areas that Liverpool most expected and required him to. As recently as the opening day of the current domestic campaign his stupendous save late on against Southampton secured his team two additional points. Since then it’s been all downhill.

The indecision in his game is tangible. He’s not staying on his line but he’s not dominating his box either. Seeing him diving at the ball with his feet rather than his hands as if he were an outfield player asked to fill in between the sticks last night was as sad to see as it was alarming. No confidence resides within the man these days.

Brendan Rodgers recently asserted that Victor Valdes isn’t coming to Anfield. We’re getting to the point now where we have to hope that that is only the case because someone else has been lined up.

The relationship between Mignolet and his back four is a toxic circle of never ending doubt and distrust. Defenders don’t know if the Belgian is coming or staying. Mignolet doesn’t look as if he knows himself. How could he? When his centre halves are defending the edge of their box and through balls are still finding their way to the feet of opposing strikers (as was the case with Cristiano Ronaldo’s goal) it offers a reason at least for why the Belgian is so regularly caught in no man’s land. Twelve months ago the keeper was no more dominant than he is now but at least he was consistent in his play. His back four seemed to be confident that he would stay on his line for better or worse whereas these days the only certainty is uncertainty.

One clean sheet since March can’t be all down to the goalkeeper, though. Real Madrid are undoubtedly a wonderful group of footballers, but at Anfield they scored two goals from build up play that Sunday League sides could have put together without too much fuss. Glen Johnson looking at Karim Benzema three times before ultimately neglecting to get tight to the striker was embarrassingly shoddy work, but sadly not untypical. Yet another goal direct from yet another set piece minutes later was beyond frustrating. Giving young Alberto Moreno a pass for a moment, could anyone seriously point to any of Liverpool’s starting defenders on Wednesday and claim with any certainty that they are good enough for a team with genuine aspirations of success?

As with Mignolet, Johnson and Martin Skrtel’s deficiencies aren’t news to anyone. If replacements who can improve upon the standards that they offer can’t be found or aren’t being sought then we have major problems. In the summer Liverpool elected to replace Mamadou Sakho rather than Skrtel. People can debate all they want about the rights and wrongs of that but what isn’t up for debate at this juncture is whether they succeeded. Dejan Lovren cost £20m. Amongst all the outrage and pontificating about shirts being swapped last night, this is a fact that too few are concentrating on. When you spend £20m on a centre back you have a right to expect top quality, yet the Croatian looks worse than any of our much maligned centre halves did during last season. If that was the best deal that the transfer committee and the manager could come up with after a summer of work in the market then one wonders exactly what they were playing at.

There are a number of people willing to write off a £16m striker in October after a poor start and I wonder how much longer our £20m centre back will be given before the same fate befalls him. His performances certainly haven’t merited any more leniency than what is currently being offered to the likes of Balotelli.

As daunting and as likely as the prospect of an even more severe hiding in the Bernabeu currently is, what remains more concerning still is the fact that Hull City are likely to have red pulses racing every time they get in to Liverpool’s half at the weekend, especially when they have dead ball situations to exploit. Set pieces haven’t been this scary since Gary Pallister was nodding them in at every opportunity against Roy Evans’ Liverpool nearly two decades ago.

Thankfully, plenty of the season still remains. The problems are obvious and now is the time to find solutions. Nothing is gone at this point. Progressing from the Champions League group remains a possibility and, Chelsea and City aside, no other teams look any less flawed than we do domestically. If Rodgers can somehow, someway get his side’s defensive act together then this campaign could still be one of promise and expectation rather than one defined by the present mood of fear and pessimism.

My Lovren Problem

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 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. That was strange to me.

As I said, despite an up and down début season at Anfield I looked at 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 for me. 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 fourteen 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 errors 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. However, all that being said, I 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 half way 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 mistakes. It seems obvious to me that Lovren isn’t going to be left out of the team anytime 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. Considering the qualities both players have shown to date that would represent somewhat of a blunder for me. Sakho can be shaky now and then, but at least he’s shown glimpses of the player he can become and he doesn’t cost his side a goal every other game. I can fully see why Didier Deschamps puts faith in him for the French national side.

Now we need to see something to justify why Brendan Rodgers is placing the same kind of faith in Dejan Lovren because at the moment there is precious little to suggest that preferring the Croatian at the expense of Sakho when he returns from injury would be anything but folly.

Just as I’m sure that Didier Deschamps is, I remain perplexed by Dejan Lovren’s standing in this Liverpool squad right now.