He is slowly starting to convince me although I remain a sceptic.
There is no denying he has made us a lot better than we were and I think he will improve our defence as well and I maintain that there are players there that are good enough for a top 4 team especially in the centre of defence.
As much criticism as they are having to accept at the moment I think that we have really good cover in that position and on their day Skertel, Agger and Sakho can be the best centre backs in the league. Having said that they are all prone to mistakes and not great organisers. I think that is why Rodgers let Illori (a great talented centre back) go on loan and kept Toure around. We all saw how great Kolo Toure can be at the start of the season when we did not score as much and had an excellent defensive record.
People have short memories and now the tables have turned. The reason our defence have not been stable is in my opinion not only because we have had lots of injuries both at centre back and at wing backs (flanagan, Johnson, enrique, Kelly, chissoko, agger, sakho, toure have all been out with injury from time to time), but more because of the leadership issue.
A lack of stability and leadership at the back leads to more mistakes and Skertel being in there the most and being the one constant has made many of them but he has also been our best defender this season.
Getting back to defensive solidity is important especially as we face up against Chelsea, City and Tottenham at home but also against Soton next week away and United away in the run in as well.
I am really excited because I think we have the chance to surprise some people but realise at the same time there is a huge chance I will be disappointed yet again. In the 15-16 years I have watched Liverpool and arguably watched most of their games, there has been numerous disappointments. Too many to count with one major exception in 2005.
Especially in the league I have been disappointed because there has been cup wins in there. Recall Evans, Houllier, Benitez and lastly Kenny and Hodgson's reigns. None of them have come close to being what we wanted apart from maybe Benitez.
I believe we have every chance to put that right with 11 games to go. What stands in the way is not only our defensive prowess but our ability to continue to score goals with Suarez and Sturridge having played every game they have been fit to play. The same is true with Coutinho and Skertel.
A little rotation I think is healthy and we have a massively talented Victor Moses on the bench that has not gotten much playing time. Same goes for Joe Allen.
I hope both starts on the weekend, coutinho gets a rest and that if we lead convincingly Suarez and Sturridge and Gerrard comes off at 65-70 mins.
If Henderson and Coutinho starts on the bench they can come on along with Apas.
I maintain we end up in 6th but hope we wont.
YNWA,
Stian
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