31 Oct 2014

Sakho Out? - BR pushing to sign 'superior' €14m star who admires Hyypia & Vidic

Liverpool are reportedly considering a January move for Bayer Leverksen star Omer Toprak, who is also being monitored by arch-rivals Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur.

According to reports this week:

* Liverpool scouts watched the €14m-rated Turkey centre-back in Leverkusen's recent Champions League win over Zenit St. Petersburg.

* Rodgers is considering a move to reinforce LFC's ailing defence.

* Toprak wants a 'new challenge', and is 'hopeful' of a move to the Prem.

Some info about Toprak:

* 116 appearances for Leverkuses.
* Averages 31 apps a season.
* 23 apps for the Turkey national team.
* Current deal expires in 2018.

* Two-footed, as revealed in a recent interview: "I've put a lot of effort into improve my left foot. In today's high-paced football you should be able to use the ball with both feet"

When asked recently about defenders he admires, Toprak told reporters:

"Puyol and Vidic from Manchester United - I've watched them carefully in the past. Nesta and Maldini are also other I try and learn from".

Torak - described by Rudi Voller as a 'superior' defender, a 'leader', and 'one of the best defenders in the Bundesliga' - also revealed that he tried to learn from Liverpool legend Sami Hyypia, who managed Leverkusen for two years between 2009 and 2011:

"Sami Hyppi played for years at Liverpool have played for years, and won Champions League, so it was a great opportunity for me to talk with him and learn from his experience".

Well, when it comes to the art of defending, there's no better player to learn from than Sami Hyypia, an absolute powerhouse for Liverpool who, to this day, has never been replaced.

As for LFC's alleged interest in Toprak - if he comes in, who drops out? The club cannot support five senior centre-backs, so something will have to give.

After spending £20m on Lovren - who is now the most expensive defender in Liverpool's history, it's more likely that one of Sakho and Skrtel will make way, either in January, or in the summer.

My money is on Sakho, mainly because Skrtel has a long history of effective performances for Liverpool, and Lovren is also a left-sided central defender, which makes Sakho surplus to requirements.

The club can't keep throwing money at the problem, though. What happens if Toprak comes in and the defence doesn't improve? Spend £20m on yet another centre half? If the last year has proven anything, it's that LFC's defence is poor irrespective of who plays, which suggest that coaching is the issue.

As such, before Rodgers wastes any more money, the club's defensive coaching strategy should be reviewed, which means Rodgers should set aside his hubris/pride, and bring in a defensive coach to try and solve the problem.

Author:


40 comments:

  1. Don't know anything about this guy- but I like his attitude and humility...

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  2. please, lets show some intent and go for the best. £30M for Marco Reus, £35M for Matt Hummels and £25M for Pedro. 2 experienced wingers with alot of world class quality and a world class CB, the best, all for £80M. then after this year if Markovic continues to fail with his poor ability scrap him and sign Memphis Depay. a proper winger who scores and creates regularly. £15M should be enough.


    but for January i want us to be ambitious and try to buy Pedro, Reus and Hummels. were a massive club and if we cough up the cash we will get them. after that we surely be back in business. i see us like this


    -------------------------------Mingolet
    Johnson----------Hummels--------Lovren---------Moreno
    --------------------Hendo-----------Coutinho
    ------Pedro---------------Sterling-------------Reus
    ----------------------------Sturridge


    dream? could say but at the end of the day in the past 4 years the club has spent over £400M. also i have massive confidence in Origi. he is definately a top player and i actually believe with the right team he would be he perfect striker. if he went to Real Madrid now i reckon he would put 25 goals if he started every game. thats why in January we should focus on buying Reus and Pedro for roughly £60M. because without quality delivery you cannot score goals. then next summer we should have a starting 11 which will terrify teams.

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  3. The important thing is that we keep throwing money at defenders until we have enough to clog up the goal completely because then, and only then, might we keep a couple of clean sheets.

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  4. You lost me at Johnson....

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  5. Never heard of him

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  6. We-don't-need-new-defenders. Baffles me how fans can see it but a professional manager who works with the team every day can't.

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  7. I lke to blive we got some very capable defenders, but they got nobody to protect them.notice lovren he isnt all tht bad,but now looks terible abd a bit unsure.this is a guy who had wanyama and schneiderlin protectin him,and now he has gerad protecting(suposedly)him,, gerad cant even protect himself,if big sam kud tell tht gersd is done and can easily be taken out of a game by simply puting a man on him , wat mo th other realy top managers..wer looking to buy in rong areas,all we nid is a defensive mid player to protect our vulnerable defense,br is just obsesd eth kiping gerad in th team tht he is wiling to dsacrifice every other player in th side,, he has sacrificed a dm so tht gerad lays ther coz he kudnt handle th speed of atacking mid position ,,,next gersd will be th golkeeper so tht he doesnt run at all.

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  8. Sakho wont be sold because hes left footed but moreso because hes absolutely crap. Saying that, if Rafa can win a champions league with traore then at the same time surely Rodgers should be making more of what we have. Imho the defensive problems are 30% personnel related and 70% the way they are being coached. Its criminal we sold agger and reina for 5 million and spent 60 million plus to make the problems at the back even worse.

    I like rodgers as a manager but like rafa hes starting to make decisions that if he keeps making could lead to his own demise. He plays favourites with certain players no matter how they are playing. Gerrard has been a shadow of himself but is probably still first name on the team sheet. Sterling plays 120 minutes against Middlesborough but is rested for the PL. Coutihno seems to get subbed whether hes performing or not usually instesd of more deserving candidates.Why? Because he doesnt complain.

    I like Rodgers, i want him to get the years he deserves to build what i think he can. I believe he needs to go back to the ruthless decision making we saw at the start of his tenure and at the same display humility in terms of accepting his mistakes and deflating his ego

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  9. Liverpool should buy a quality defensive midfielder that protects the centre backs we have.A commanding keeper that gives the backline confidence.A new defensive coach should be a priority too.
    We need to stop the simplistic thought process.Conceding goals doesn't mean we should spend big on centre backs every transfer window.

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  10. if Rodgers doesn't find a problem with the defensive coach, then Rodgers himself is the problem.SELL SAKHO BUY MAT HUMMELS IS THE ANSWER.
    Sakho is not even good enough for championship football. who the hell wasted 18M pounds on such a bull-shit player.

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  11. We seem to be addressing only part of the problem. We need a proper defensive midfielder because 4 John Terry's will look bad without good DM cover............we need an Alex Song clone and quick......Stevie isn't the answer there.....

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  12. Why would they sell Sakho his worst performance at Liverpool would be close to Lovrens best but in saying that no point in buying more defenders BR needs to pick his best pairing and stick with it.

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  13. As I and tons of others have said at this site we need 2-3 big boy adds instead of 7-8 so-so guys.
    Outs
    Alberto
    Assaidi (after Loan)
    Lucas
    Enrique
    Balotelli
    Markovic
    Johnson

    Ins
    Reus
    Pedro
    The meanest, fastest defensive mid we can find

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  14. totally agree. br put your pride aside and get somebody in that is a defensive expert.my only question is sakho is a beast when playing internattionally, but when it comes to l/pool, it is a totally different player.could it be that there is a kink missing in the midfield(gerrard?) or are we to attack minded?Any inputs to prove me wrong?

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  15. strange that we are not interested in khedira?

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  16. Sami Khedira would be a top quality centre back shield.He's a physical no nonsense type.Plays the role with intelligence.Is decent on the ball and covers a lot of ground.
    Khedira's recovered well from his nightmare knee injury, but he finds it hard to get minutes at Real Madrid.Under 40 minutes of League football so far.He needs a move.I think plenty of clubs would potentially fight us for his signature, if we looked to get him.
    Saying that I thought clubs would go to war over Alex Song, but West Ham got him on loan.

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  17. Agree fully with Jaime , a defensive coach is long overdue - 2 years , to be precise

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  18. Center backs are to BR what goalkeepers were to Alex Ferguson

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  19. do we really need a coach. We could just tell our full backs to support the play instead of impersonating wingers and leaving our center backs exposed when we inevitably lose the the ball in the last third.

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  20. yeah.....

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  21. I have heard of him but only very very recently - I believe he has heard of some good defenders like Nesta and Hypia :-)

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  22. Will we have been scouting Bender?

    With Toure likely gone this lad may go in ahead of Skrtel (I hope) if he is a replacement for Sakho then BR's detractors are right and he doesn't know anything about defence.

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  23. Actually skrtel would probably make way. Age is a major factor, get skrtel out for a decent fee.

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  24. Yeah I agree. Sakho arguably has the most ability. I don't think our defensive coaching staff can match his though (if said staff even exists)

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  25. Please do not compare BR to Rafa Benitez as there is no comparison . BR has achieved nothing in the game and won nothing to date with any club he has managed. RB won two Spanish League titles, Spanish Cup , Europa League twice , Champions League , FA Cup, Super cup x 2 and a world club championship and reached another champions league final whilst working for the owners who almost sent Liverpool FC into oblivion.


    Where do you even start to make a comparison as the atmosphere at Liverpool was poisonous and everyone was working to sell the club for the most money and they were prepared to gamble on the clubs future.


    Would have RB back tomorrow as we spent Five seasons dining at Europe's top table beating RM away , Inter Milan away when they both had great sides and Barcelona too ! Reminding myself of BR success so far , oh it's zero.

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  26. Van Gallstone after him apparently

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  27. Gerrard has already expressed that he wished the club had invested 'properly' in the summer. Now he's suggesting he might be moving on next year. Clearly he's not happy with what is going on with our transfer policy. With £120 million spent, and with not much to show for it, neither are the fans! Is it really Rodgers who chose what we have? Or do we still have a transfer committee? Whichever, it's clearly failed, if it is Rodgers he should be out, likewise for the committee. Can't see us being a threat to winning....well, anything really, not even the the league cup, we have fallen into the 'middle of the table' brigade. FSG need to revise their stratedgy on transfers, or 'eff off. If it's 'money ball' they're playing, they're not very good at it. We might just get Toprak as we've never heard of him.

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  28. Ming, Johnson, hendo, Sturridge? Would'nt make the bench in a good side.

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  29. You've murdered the English language m8, but you have a point. I think our midfield is the worst since the early sixties, and i can remember that, they just don't know how to defend the back four, they surely can't retain the ball, just gung ho all the time, lose the ball and it's straight back on our defence. A DM should have been top priority for Rodgers, looks like he's in awe of Gerrard though, big mistake.

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  30. As we just found out with loss to Newcastle: We need a tough tackling DM, Henderson(24) and J Allen(24) are toothless and offer no real class, creativity or goal threat from centre of park.


    B Rodgers needs to bring in two tough tackling enforcers in January: Y M'Villa(24) Of Rubin Kazan for £10-£14M
    and C Tiote(28) Of Newcastle for £7-£12M


    B Rodgers needs to bring in more class, creativity, goals, pace and speed to attack: As without Sturridge(25) and Sterling(19) both in attack we look lethargic/Pedestrian in attack.


    B Rodgers needs to ship out: These 6 players :


    GK: B Jones (32) CB: K Toure(33) RB: G Johnson(29)


    DM: L Leiva(27) AM: Suso(20) FD: F Borini(23)




    And replace them with A Class quality GK, 2 MOBILE DM'S, A RWF, A CM and A pacey quick forward.



    Three Defensive players:
    1:GK: K Casilla(28) Of Espanyol for £6-£8M
    2: DM: Y M'Villa(24) Of Rubin Kazan for £10-£14M
    3: DM: C Tiote(28) Of Newcastle for £7-£12M




    Three Attacking players:
    4: RWF/LWF: Pedro(27) Of Barcelona for £24-£27M
    5: CM: Y Cabaye(28) Of PSG for £14-£18M
    6: FD: L Adriano(27) Of Shakhtar Donesk for £14-£18M


    6 DEAD WOOD PLAYERS WHO OFFER THE TEAM AND SQUAD WHO ARE CURRENTLY STRUGGLING NOTHING TO BE REPLACED WITH CLASS QUALITY PLAYERS WHO WILL TIGHTEN BACK LINE AND ATTACKERS WHO WILL BRING MORE CLASS, CREATIVITY, GOALS, MOBILITY, PACE AND SPEED TO SIDE.

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  31. Casilla makes me more nervous than Mignolet, he makes some strange choices regarding some straight forward shots and crosses. Would prefer a GK that catches the ball rather than punches all the time. M'villa and Pedro would be the only 2 out of that list who I'd be interested in and Suso should be given a go imo, he was really outstanding last year in a very poor team playing week in week out, . Last 17 minutes 1-0 down we didn't even have a go.....depressing. Lot of current squad a disgrace and not putting in a shift.

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  32. I don't hate Sakho, but never understood his signing. He lacks of technical ability and instincts to play football. All he has is physicality. I've never seen a professional football player who looks more awkward with the ball than Sakho. His positioning is terrible and when the opponents attack him, he pedals back instead of facing them to put pressure on them and force a mistake.

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  33. Guess you missed the post that shows that Sturridge has better stats than Aguero. More goals per min, goals /assists per min etc etc and less time injured

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  34. Get a grip man. Hysterical overreaction.
    Gung Ho? slow and ponderous more like

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  35. K Casilla(28) is a descent GK and can also distribute the ball well. T Krul(26) is also an awesome GK, but would Newcastle sell him to us.




    The 6 players i mentioned are better than what we have:

    K Casilla(28) Of Espanyol is a better GK than Mignolet(26) and B Jones(32)


    Y M'Villa(24) would bring more class, mobility, power, physical strength and protect our back 4 and will break down attacks better than any centre midfielder we currently have at club.


    C Tiote(28) would offer more solidity mobility and protection to back 4 and team than any of the centre midfielders we have at club.


    Y Cabaye(28) Offer more class , creativity and goals than J Allen(24), E Can(21) and J Henderson(24) together.


    Pedro(27) is world class winger who guarantees teams goals, look at what Sanchez(26) is doing for Arsenal. And Pedro(27) is more mobile, quicker and a better finisher than Sanchez(26)


    L Adriano(27) offer more class, creativity, energy, Goals, mobility, pace and speed than M Balotelli(24), F Borini(23) and R Lambert(32). And he would guarantee the club 17-25 goals a season every season.

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  36. I think its time to go back to our zonal marking for set pieces. we are a shambles with man marking.

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  37. Muelensteen and Allardyce are both right about Rodgers. That's why we're shipping goals.

    Sakho starts for France regularly ahead of Mangala, and City just paid around £30m for him. I'm prepared to bet that Sakho is statistically better than Lovren, and if he gets accustomed to English culture could well go on to have a successful liverpool career. Confidence translates on the pitch and I reckon that's what Sakho needs.

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