Ask any Liverpool fan if the club needs to sign another central defender during the January transfer window, and I'm sure the answer will be a resounding NO. After all, the the Reds already have Skrtel, Sakho, Toure, Agger, and Ilori vying for two places in the team, so there's clearly no pressing need to buy another centre-back. Well, Brendan Rodgers seems to like stockpiling centre-halves, and it seems that he's got his eye on yet another one.
According to football agent Saffet Balkan, Liverpool are interesting in signing Anderlecht central defender Cheikhou Kouyaté.
Balkan told reporters this week:
"I have been in talks with representatives from Liverpool and Arsenal over Cheikhou Kouyate. Arsenal are very interested, and it’s very likely that he’ll be joining a Premier League club soon."
Earlier today, The Independent reported:
"Both sides [Arsenal and Liverpool] have scouted the 24-year-old for the last two months and plan to make a bid for Kouyate this month".
Some info about Kouyate:
* 24 years old.
* A towering height of 6'4
* Arsenal were interested in 2012 but couldn't secure a work permit.
* Now has a Belgian passport, which removes the work permit requirement.
* 111 appearance for Anderlecht so far.
* 5 appearances for the Senegal national team.
Decent pedigree, but it appears that Kouyaté has his heart set on a move to Arsenal. In September 2012, he told reporters:
"Qualifying for the Champions League was also very important for me, because without that I think I should have been in London where I had a good contact with Arsene Wenger and Arsenal."
Then, when asked in April 2013 about his future, Kouyaté once again name-checked the Gunners:
"I am happy here but if Arsenal called me to go to London I would have no doubt about going. I hear they have asked for some information on me from the last few months."
One glaring issue that continues to plague Liverpool is vulnerability from set-pieces, especially high balls into the box. Liverpool's defenders are repeatedly beaten in the air (which often leads to goals) and this may explain why Rodgers is targeting a tall central defender.
The question is, why didn't Rodgers solve this problem in the summer? Liverpool's weakness in the air is not a new issue, and instead of spending €19m on Sakho, Rodgers' could've bought a big, tall defender like Kouyate, which (arguably) would've been a better solution.
I've argued for years that Liverpool have failed to effectively replace Sami Hyypia. The team misses a defender with the Big Finn's imperious aerial ability, and the likes of Sakho and Agger are just not getting it done in this particular area. Skrtel also gets beaten in the air sometimes, but he compensates by being rock solid in almost every other area.
There's no way the team can support FIVE senior central defenders (!); Rodgers has problems now fitting everyone in, and if €6m-rated Kouyaté - or some other defender - comes in, competition in the squad will become even more unhealthy.
One thing is (arguably) certain: if Rodgers is looking at new central defenders, it means he's not satisfied with the options already available at the club, and this in turn shines a light (once again) on his dealings in the transfer market.
Author: Jaimie K
According to football agent Saffet Balkan, Liverpool are interesting in signing Anderlecht central defender Cheikhou Kouyaté.
Balkan told reporters this week:
"I have been in talks with representatives from Liverpool and Arsenal over Cheikhou Kouyate. Arsenal are very interested, and it’s very likely that he’ll be joining a Premier League club soon."
Earlier today, The Independent reported:
"Both sides [Arsenal and Liverpool] have scouted the 24-year-old for the last two months and plan to make a bid for Kouyate this month".
Some info about Kouyate:
* 24 years old.
* A towering height of 6'4
* Arsenal were interested in 2012 but couldn't secure a work permit.
* Now has a Belgian passport, which removes the work permit requirement.
* 111 appearance for Anderlecht so far.
* 5 appearances for the Senegal national team.
Decent pedigree, but it appears that Kouyaté has his heart set on a move to Arsenal. In September 2012, he told reporters:
"Qualifying for the Champions League was also very important for me, because without that I think I should have been in London where I had a good contact with Arsene Wenger and Arsenal."
Then, when asked in April 2013 about his future, Kouyaté once again name-checked the Gunners:
"I am happy here but if Arsenal called me to go to London I would have no doubt about going. I hear they have asked for some information on me from the last few months."
One glaring issue that continues to plague Liverpool is vulnerability from set-pieces, especially high balls into the box. Liverpool's defenders are repeatedly beaten in the air (which often leads to goals) and this may explain why Rodgers is targeting a tall central defender.
The question is, why didn't Rodgers solve this problem in the summer? Liverpool's weakness in the air is not a new issue, and instead of spending €19m on Sakho, Rodgers' could've bought a big, tall defender like Kouyate, which (arguably) would've been a better solution.
I've argued for years that Liverpool have failed to effectively replace Sami Hyypia. The team misses a defender with the Big Finn's imperious aerial ability, and the likes of Sakho and Agger are just not getting it done in this particular area. Skrtel also gets beaten in the air sometimes, but he compensates by being rock solid in almost every other area.
There's no way the team can support FIVE senior central defenders (!); Rodgers has problems now fitting everyone in, and if €6m-rated Kouyaté - or some other defender - comes in, competition in the squad will become even more unhealthy.
One thing is (arguably) certain: if Rodgers is looking at new central defenders, it means he's not satisfied with the options already available at the club, and this in turn shines a light (once again) on his dealings in the transfer market.
Author: Jaimie K
Bye bye Agger. A prerequisite for a defender should be the ability to defend...despite all the years playing football he's still no better a defender than when he first put on a red shirt.
ReplyDelete...if this is holding up (potentially sacrificing) the Salah deal; then some big questions need to be asked. I assume the problem is that Basel want to replace Salah before letting him leave because beyond him they dont really have much pace - Fair enough. But if its because we decided we wouldnt pay the extra 3mil or whatever and look to be getting another CB instead; I mean talk about getting your priorities straight. Rodgers has clearly gone insane.
ReplyDeleteAny news on Moses getting his return ticket early? *Crosses fingers*
Skrtel, Agger, Toure, Sakho, Ilori, Coates, Wisdom, Kelly!! Darn...we are over stocked..!!
ReplyDeleteSeriously?
ReplyDeleteI am Sure someone is going out then Either Toure end of year or Agger to Napoli .
ReplyDeleteOnce Again We are not getting to signing we have been told or expected .
he can also play defensive mid, if we do sign him i see him being signed as competition for lucas rather than at center back
ReplyDeleteYes. He's been seriously overrated for years. Can anyone recall him having an outstanding defensive game? I don't think he has the awareness nor the ability to put a good defensive performance in.
ReplyDeleteInteresting.
ReplyDeleteTold by who? Some players agent? A journalist? If you want to believe those people that's your choice I guess.
ReplyDeleteJust sign 1 winger, 1 attacking midfielder and 1 defensive midfielder. We will be done till summer.
ReplyDeleteSome over reactive posts on here, the link is a tenuous one don't you think? I am certain we will not be in the market for another central defender this month. On another note Jamie, you have often complained about us having too much competition in central defence, do you still think we have too many central defenders? The current injury situation shows this not to be the case don't you think?
ReplyDeleteWe need 3 great cb, and Skrtel Sakho and Agger should be those three, but I am not convinced with either to be at cl level at the moment- Sakho being the best prospect. If they are at their best we are great, but if they keep making mistakes, we are in trouble..
ReplyDeletesorry jaimie as good as brendan is i will be bitterly dissapointed if we sign a DM we need an attacking mid who can hold his own when were up against strong physical sides but also attack with purpose create havov and weight in with a few goals imo
ReplyDeletePicking this rumor out of the pile as a better possibility than all the rest is a bit of a stretch. Besides it doesn't make sense. No rational person, and I assume BR to be in that camp, thinks we need more defenders. Now, BR may already know that one or more of our present defenders won't be here after January and THEN this might be a possibility. Cissokho could go back to France. Agger could go to Rafa. Who knows?
ReplyDeleteWe definitely do need another central defender. We haven't got the four front-line guys we need. Injury or suspension for Skrtel and we're bollocksed.
ReplyDeleteWisdom and Kelly not good enough and but for injury Coates would have been sold. Agger is injury prone
ReplyDeletewell he has to sell Agger and Skrtell and Coates then he will have his own team of cb's Toure, Sakho,Illori, and then this guy. I dont think he contemplated Skrtell's form to be honest. You never know these things in football. But the thing is we cannot afford to have all these guys fighting over 2 places especially when we are short everywhere else. Lucas is the only dm,Wingers-Sterling is doing ok but Moses is poor.(don't know what has happened to him since Wigan).Strikers- what happens if the SAS were out injured - Aspas, I dont think so !
ReplyDeletehe's kinda weak in the air and consistently goes missing or caught napping during corners..
ReplyDeletehis ONLY strength is in his distribution though his tackling is at best, average/decent..
There is a difference between scouting and intending to buy. There is also a difference between being not good enough and there being better players out there. Our scouting group will be constantly monitoring players and often that will include discussions with agents or clubs. That's how it should be, but all it means is that we are keeping an eye on players that might be good enough for the club. No player is perfect and unless you've got Messi, Ronaldo or Suarez there will always be a potential upgrade out there. It would be dumb to not know about those players and their availability or interest in playing for us.
ReplyDeleteExtrapolating all this to infer that Rodgers is not satisfied with the defenders he's got doesn't make much sense to me. In an absolute sense the manager will never be satisfied. Mourinho explained this very well once, in the candid way only he can: managers are never truly 100% satisfied with the players they're got because most managers are perfectionists. It doesn't mean they consider their current players not good enough, but it's part of the manager's job to know how to get to that next level, improve that extra bit more.
The bottom line is that we have good defenders. They're not perfect and we clearly have issues from set pieces but I still think that's more of a tactical issue rather than about the skills of the individual personnel. I think our best signing in defense would be a new team coach to help sort out those issues. It's also the case that there is more to a defender than just getting your head to a ball. If that was the case then Andy Carroll would make a brilliant central defender. But if there is a player out there who is better than the players we have, who would add to our team then of course the manager is going to look at them. It would really be quite daft not to. Saying that this is a reflection on the transfer dealings of Rodgers is a needless over-extension, just another lame attempt to sound critical and knowledgeable in the face of contrary evidence. Until you sign 17 perfect players with no flaws who are impervious to injury then it's normal and expected to keep an eye on the market.
It also seems quite obvious now that the player will sign for Arsenal if anyone. So while we made an inquiry it's unlikely we were that interested. The truth is that top class central defenders who are good in the air, good with distribution, tackle well and have good leadership attributes are pretty rare. Our centre backs have most of these qualities and Sakho is looking like close to the complete package. As he settles into the team I think we'll find he is all of those things and worth every penny.
Another C.B doubt i would take this rumour seriously unless B.R is planning a new formation like an 8 1 1
ReplyDeleteIMO Agger will be sold end of season.
ReplyDeleteIt's yes for me too. Agger's performances range from decent to simply appalling. He consistenly makes schoolboy errors and his positional play is ludicrously poor. Most difinitely over-rated.
ReplyDeleteIt is about the transfer fee. Basle have had better offers and LFC seem reluctant to match them. Salah himself wants to come to LFC but at the end of the day it will be Basle who make the final decision.
ReplyDeleteNo article about the only transfer that is likely to happen??? MVilla is coming it seems and thanks in large part to Sakho. Apparently he's in Liverpool again at the moment and publicly stated he's been an LFC fan since childhood Also Kazan have said he can leave. Let's wait and see if FSG stuff this one up.
ReplyDeletewe have 6 defender sebastian coates
ReplyDeleteRodgers is a art collector of CB's. Or, CB's are like plants at BR's back yard that he buys cause he had a bad day at the transfer market under FSG.
ReplyDeleteBut seriously, the club has to be more patient and buy the right player so they don't have to re build every market. If I'm not mistaken though, this is a right footer center back, which means Ilori will probably shoot himself.
If, though, i would know he would be an improvement of what we have, then that's always good. I have a strong feeling though that he is Arsenal bound and that Wenger knows how and when to buy better than Rodgers...
I am still annoyed about the money we spent on Sakho, not good enough for that money. That was a really bad move.
ReplyDeleteWhat BR should focus on first and mostly at this point, is a line of midfield defense who are more capable of securing our defense from half the goals we concede, let alone the set pieces goals for a moment.
Its fuc*ed up if you ask me. Salah should be an LFC player and we should make our way to pay whatever we need to pay. He will have an impact close to the one of Suarez if he joins us. We could have had him and Makitiryan by now which whould have made us almost twice as good from what we are now. These are the future stars of Football but FSG spends 15 on Allen, 18 on Sakho, 9 on Aspas, 7 (!) on Ilori. !!! They reported that we wanted Ilori for 3, we ended up paying 7??? And they couldn't throw a buck early to secure Salah? A**holes. Truly amazing.
ReplyDeleteI have mentioned this lad a few times on this site but no seemed to have heard of him. As much as we don't need a new centre back but say we signed him and he turned out to be brilliant I would feel so smug!
ReplyDeleteSorry but you can't say that Salah is a fiction tale. You couldn't say it about Makitiryan as well, which said himself he considered Liverpool but then Durtmund came we the fatter bid. In both of these cases as it seems, which are significant ones, in my opinion FSG are playing games that only very cauculated business men who don't really know enough about football play. These are, were, two players we should have spilled our pockets to get.
ReplyDeleteDo we really have a chance here against Arsenal though? Leave the DM aside, because if we are getting a DM there are much better options of natural DM's, there's already 3 (Coates 4) CB's of his position. If he was better then all of them then i wouldn't mind of course, but at this scenario how can he chose Liverpool over Arsenal? Wenger knows his business really well, BR should learn from mistakes when he buys in the future but for now we need Natural midfielders and an, attacker, and a full back.
ReplyDeleteYou can say exactly that about the whole squad except 3 maybe.
ReplyDeleteThe biggest problem of out CB's situation is that Sakho came not as good as expected. Like now you called him a prospect which is not good enough for the 18 in my option. The other funny problem is that Skrtel surprised to have a much better season then expected, but not amazing enough to not think about replacing him.
I can already answer that for you. No. FSG will not stuff this one up. They will disappoint.
ReplyDeleteWe will end up with mediocre again, players not LFC standard, just like Allen, Aspas, Alberto, Borini, Moses, Assaidi, Sissokho etc... i would'nt give Rodgers a fiver to spend, 'cos you know what you'll get.
ReplyDeleteTrue, our defense is 'got at' too easily, a quality DM imo is top priority. Trouble is Rodgers and FSG will get him from the dog and duck!
ReplyDeleteBesides, what's so great about M'villa? In my opinion we can do better.
ReplyDeleteMVilla in Liverpool now, Really? Believe it when i see it.
ReplyDeleteMy only problem of this video it doesn't really show his defensive capabilities but what it does seem like he could be a poor mans Yaya Toure. He's clearly fast so that would be helpful. He's tall, and despite his figure is quite powerful. If Agger wasn't injured I would have said sell him in now and bring in this lad and make him and Sakho into a future partnership.
ReplyDeleteBros, u truly understand LFC need. Great thinking!!
ReplyDeleteAh yes I remember the days when you could assemble a top team, have a good night out followed by a fish supper and still have enough change left over from a fiver for the bus fare home.
ReplyDeleteHe's in Liverpool City I don't mean at the club. What he's doing there who knows maybe visiting his mate again.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you totally. If FSG had of offered 10m quickly we would have him by now. But because they procrastinated other clubs have come in and it would take a minimum of 12m maybe 15m to get him now. Sound familiar. Same story as the summer transfer window. You think they would have learnt something by now.
ReplyDeleteBut in other two lines you have rotations, subs are ussually made there, and one man piece of brilliance can do the trick. in the hart of the defence, perfection is needed.
ReplyDeleteWhether this guy is of the required quality, the truth is that I'm not especially satisfied with any of our defenders.
ReplyDelete