Liverpool’s defensive crisis has been in the news throughout the season and it will surely drag on till the end of the season. So far this season Liverpool’s central defensive partnerships have been chopped and changed five times during the course of the season and it will surely be more by the end of the season. Rodgers faces a selection headache for the upcoming crunch games against Manchester City and Chelsea in run up to the potential Title winning season. Rodgers has to keep the back line strong but not change them so often that they cannot play together.
Mamadou Sakho has been at Liverpool for over 7 months now, after arriving from Paris Saint-Germain for £16 million. Despite his injuries earlier in the season, he is edging his way back to full fitness and back into the starting line up. So far this season, he has played 14 games in the Premier League scoring one goal. He has many aspects of his game. One of his strengths is his passing; he fits into the Liverpool and Brendan Rodgers philosophy perfectly. His cool, laid back aura in possession breaks down play when the other team are on the attack, it also gives him the capability to play out of the defence instead of hitting the ball into ‘Row Z’. His average passing this season is 92%, 564 passes have been completed. Another strength of Sakho’s is his tackling and blocking ability, an example of where he shown his defensive prowess was against Crystal Palace where an attack broke out and as the shot was about to be struck his got there in the nick of time to clear the danger. This season Mamadou Sakho has won 59% of his duels, 69% of tackles successful and 55% headed duels won. He is a real danger both attacking corners and also defending corners.
The other candidate to play at centre back is Daniel Agger. He joined from Brøndby IF in 2006 for £6 million, the current longest serving defender in the squad, spending 8 years at Liverpool. So far in his Liverpool career he has made 173 games scoring 5 goals. Like Sakho, Agger’s strength is his passing, he tends to play shorter passes than passes, he tends to look for passes to central midfielders like Gerrard, Henderson, Allen or Lucas. Agger’s passing in the 18 appearances he has made 88% of his passes, 81% forward and 19% backward passes from him this season. He likes to stand up when facing the attacker rather than go to ground. When he is defending an attack, he stands up to the attacker putting them under pressure looking to out muscle his man, 56% of his tackles have been successful. Agger has the ‘No nonsense approach’ in 18 games he had cleared the ball 107 times, the only players to do it more were fellow defenders Martin Skrtel and Kolo Toure.
Comparing the two defenders, Daniel Agger has played four games more than the Frenchman. Sakho edges the interceptions, he has intercepted 25 times during his first Premier League season. Agger narrowly beats him in the blocked shots and clearances with 107-106 and blocking 8 to Sakho’s blocking 7.
Brendan Rodgers faces this type of headache in choosing which defender should play in the remaining 5 games in Liverpool’s potential League winning season.