21 Dec 2012

Sell him? Santos and Sao Paolo plan January move for €9m LFC star...

Liverpool bit-part defender Sebastian Coates continues to be linked with a January move away from Anfield, and reports in South America this week claim that two of Brazil's biggest clubs are currently exploring the possibility of signing him.

According to a report yesterday in Brazilian newspaper Folha de S.Paulo:

"Santos are also targeting another player, Uruguayan Sebastian Coates of Liverpool, who is also coveted by São Paulo.

"Coates' father recently dined with members of the Santos hierarchy, who expressed an interest in bringing the player back to South America in January".


Recent reports in Italy, Portugal and the UK claim that Coates' future at Liverpool is far from secure, and last week, the Daily Mail stated:

"Liverpool are in the market for a centre back with concerns over the future of Sebastian Coates. The Uruguay defender is attracting interest from Italian clubs. Juventus are among them as they look to replace 34-year-old Lucio".

Coates - who signed for LFC in a £7m (€9m) deal last summer - has made only 9 starts since signing for the club, and with the first-choice partnership of Martin Skrtel/Daniel Agger firmly entrenched at the club, that's not going to change for a while yet.

Liverpool have been linked with quite a few central defenders over the last year, which suggests that club is not entirely convinced that Coates is a long-term solution.

I personally don't feel that the Uruguayan is solid enough to be a first-choice defender for Liverpool, and his performances have proved that over the last year and a half. With Coates in the team:

* 30 goals conceded in 20 appearances.
* 1.5 goals conceded per game.
* 3 clean sheets in 20 apps.

Football is a team game, but the presence of Coates in the first XI doesn't seem to add any extra solidity to the defence.

Additionally, is Coates really credible competition for Skrtel and Agger? Do you think they go into every game thinking 'Damn, I better play out of my skin or I could be replaced by Coates!' ? I don't think so.

Skrtel made mistake after mistake earlier in the season that led to opposition goals; he basically destabilised the defence, and cost Liverpool vital points, but was he dropped? No.

Clearly, Rodgers didn't think that Coates was good enough to step into the breach, and that's a problem. Skrtel and Agger need genuine competition for their places; it isn't coming from Coates so it needs to come from someone else.

Another thing to consider: the club needs money for new transfers, and along with the likes of Joe Cole and Stewart Downing, Coates is arguably expendable, and the club could possibly get a few million for him without missing a beat team-wise.

The writing is on the wall for Coates: Rodgers has repeatedly stated that young players will get their chance at Anfield, and the rise of Suso, Wisdom and Sterling proves that. Coates, however, continues to be ignored, which doesn't bode well for his future at the club.

If Coates, Downing and Cole leave over the next 6 months, Jordan Henderson will be the only reminder of Kenny Dalglish's catastrophic transfer spending.

Should Liverpool sell Coates?



Jaimie Kanwar


42 comments:

  1. Still very young and raw. Needs time to develop, will only get better with time. Always an aerial threat and an acrobatic defender to say the least. I'm sure he will be with Liverpool for a long time once he gets a few consecutive starts under his belt. I've always seen him as the long term replacement for Sami Hyppia, i hope i'm right.

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  2. If we buy Yaroslavl Ratkitskiy, yes. Coates is a class A talent so only if we replace him with someone a lot better and that means not Lucio.

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  3. I really love his height not to mention his great ball use! He does however seem slow at times and that is why I believe he is struggling!

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  4. Doesn't seem to happen for him with us and I don't know why. Rodgers hardly plays him and Kenny didn't play him that much either. They obviously don't rate him that much. If we sign a player who will actually get in the team instead we should probably sell him, on a profit and with a buy-back clause added. It won't help us or his career if he spends his time sitting on the bench hardly getting playing time. I like him though.

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  5. Crazy if we do sell. He's 21 6ft 6 quick, strong with the technique to score the spectacular. Rio Ferdinand when he was young and young center backs in general are continually criticised for some of their defensive decisions between the age ages of 18-23. Caulker at Tottenham is also a young lad who will most most likely be given more time to improve after his recent dropping as he is decent and most importantly English. Which leads me bluntly on to my main point, if Coates is 21 6ft 6 quick, strong with the technique to score the spectacular and ENGLISH this speculation goes away in the blink of an eye.

    Suarez won't let him go anyway ;-)

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  6. I want to like the guy but the more i watch him the more i doubt him....gives away a lot of free kicks in silly areas...it may just be age and his tackle technique and awareness will improve...but if the manager doesn't rate him sell him or hes just blocking the passage of wisdom and co...he really needs to play in the centre of a back 3 if used and we play with a back 4.....

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  7. If he goes, might Luis Suarez follow?

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  8. I Don't want to seem picky Jamie but we haven't actually sold Carroll and i dont think daglish signed cole...no doubt you will post the relevant stats if im wrong YNWA

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  9. he would suit the Italian league...i think the premiership is a tad to hectic for him

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  10. Where did I say that Dalgish signed Cole? I've just lumped him in with the other deadwood we'll hopefully get rid of.

    No, we haven't actually sold Carroll, you're right, but I doubt he'll be back.

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  11. you could actually use this same argument for keeping carroll as target men are late starters ...look at kevin davies ...i think he was a record buy when first purchased ....unfortunately for reasons we are not privy to some players seem to get more chances than others at Liverpool...while others are discarded to the fringes for no apparent reason....its like they say its not what you know its who you know...

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  12. Wonder how long is his longest run of consecutive games is? Not easy to perform in a start here and there.

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  13. Stavroskyrtsosthess12:28 pm, December 21, 2012

    we are making a huge mistake i think.i love Carragher,he is a legend for the club,he has offered us so many those years but come on,he is 35 years old,he is too slow,he makes a lot of mistakes,...he's past it.and i dunno why Rodgers keeps playing him over Coates in the Cup and Europa games.ok Sebastian's scored an own goal vs Udinese but i cannot count how many own goals Jamie Carragher has scored in his years for us!!!Coates is young,he's big,he's an aerial threat to the opponents and if anybody knows,he was voted as the best young player in the Copa America.we managed to sign him while Man City,many Italian top clubs and some clubs in Spain wanted him and since then he's hardly played but Carragher who is 35 years old plays more!!
    YNWA

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  14. Longest run is this season - two starts in a row (!) Young Boys the WBA.

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  15. hes not realy been given a run apart from playing with carra,give him some game time with another centerback then i will judge him,no offence to carra

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  16. I think it's down to age and inexperience. Lucas gave away countless silly free-kicks in dangerous areas in his early days with us.

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  17. LOL ...your admiration for the daglish tenure veritably shines through

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  18. He must be laying dreadful in training ...because since skitel has secured a better deal hes been an accident waiting to and frequently happening

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  19. i just think the entire team do not get rodgers and his tacky takka

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  20. whats funny is when they hold Barcelona up as an example of chicken tika ....barcelona would look good playing kick and rush with there playing staff...the fact they play that style is meaningless its the same with spain....they could play any formation and look good

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  21. Nail on the proverbial head. There is a buy British play British policy at this club that has only marginally improved since Rodgers arrived. How Grandpa Carragher gets starts over Coates in EL is beyond me.

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  22. coates is just to slow to make it in the epl. his positional sense isnt that great. can recoup the money spent yes sell him asap.carras last couple of games he has been top draw and with kelly on the way back.no reason to keep him. hes 21 and should be at his quickest he aint going to get any faster and is to slow for the english game

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  23. quick ? turns like the bismark!!

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  24. here we go again, what is the point of us having coaches? we just seem to be getting rid of players before they have really been given a chance to shine in the first team.

    coates will be a great defender if given time and games, he sits on the bench most of the time and people expect him to make an immediate impact when he is brought on, it's not being realistic to think he will play like puyol of barca! just give the guy time to ajust for god sake, after all what is the point of having a squad?.

    All players make mistakes but defenders get the blame for everthing due to them being the last line of defence, the better we are at the front of the pitch the better we will be at the back, we need to stop looking for people to blame and fix the real problems which the last time i checked was at the front of the pitch, unless you all think we can win 1-0 every week, come guys!!!

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  25. Tbh I did expect Coates to look better than he has done, but he has only been handed sporadic appearances and rarely with the standard first team - I'd be loathe to give up on him so quickly at his age, and would rather loan him to a Prem club for the rest of the season, or better yet give him a few more appearances alongside Agger to see what he has to offer in a settled team

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  26. he should be started ahead of agger or skrtel who are both inconsistent one injury prone and the other a bit brain dead at times both get caught ball watching.
    good game 1 in 3 if were lucky

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  27. We are not big in the defense department. If need be, buy before selling. He will come good with playing time.
    Why not move him into a DM role? He is good on the ball. Has a good head and can defend. Instead of looking for a new player to cover Lucas, why not mould coates into a different role?

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  28. Frankly, he was bought as a back up for Agger and Skrtel, with Agger getting injured as he has done. The fact that Agger hasn't been injured this season is the main reason that Coates hasn't played. Agger and Skrtel was seen a few seasons ago as our future defensive pairing, that has come to fruition and when they are both fit, they are first choice, simple as that. And having a talent like Coates in the squad is pushing Agger and Skrtel to perform better, which they have been performing very well this season. When talent is performing well and fit, there is no reason to replace them.

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  29. No one who matters is saying Carroll is a bad player, he was bought for 35m by Dalglish and then not played on a regular basis by Dalglish, which was unforgivable, then when Rodgers came in, he doesn't suit the type of play that Rodgers likes to play. This is nothing against Carroll or Rodgers, they just simply don't suit each other.

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  30. Buy British play British policy, which is why the first choice defensive pairing is Agger who is Danish and Skrtel who is Slovakian, yep, makes sense there.

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  31. Doesn't do free signings? Then what was Doni? Doni was signed in the Dalglish era as a free transfer.

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  32. I would imagine he was bought to cover Agger for when Agger gets injured, however, he hasn't been injured this year.

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  33. What an ignorant statement. Just because the defense is mostly foreign doesn't mean that transfer policy and team selection hasn't been Buy British. Last season it was Carroll, Henderson, Downing and Adam. This year we bought Allen. Why is it always Cole and Henderson brought on as substitutes? Cole over Suso? Someone tell me with a straight face Sahin shouldn't be in this team ahead of at least one of the other players. Gerrard and Allen are there because the manager prefers British players.
    Am 22/12/2012 um 3:51 AM schrieb "Disqus" :

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  34. Coates still young, loan him to other club I'm pretty sure he will be achieve what Carra did.

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  35. Coates was brought in as back up and prospect, but it's kind of worrying that both Kenny and Brendan rather played Carra, who is, imho, past it for two years now, than Coates most of the times when they rotated the squad or one of Agger and Skrtel wasn't available.

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  36. But how do ya think a whole generation of footballers from Spain have developed to have such technique?
    Because they've all been coached in this style from a young age.
    I think you have cause and effect reversed there mate

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  37. Coates having biggest potential to shining as future star for LFC but he need times to hit the form because he is still young.Why not loan him to only bigger clubs like AC MILAN.REAL MADRID,BARCELONA,PSG?We need to give him many oppurtunity to playing with high level games.

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  38. why? coshe will sit on the bench at all the clubs mentioned.no point what so ever .sell him and get someone more mobile

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