After yet another defensive horror-show, Liverpool are once again being linked with a summer move for ex-Tottenham hotspur central defender Steven Caulker, another player with whom Brendan Rodgers worked in the past.
According to the Daily Mail today:
"Liverpool are showing interest in Cardiff captain Steven Caulker.
"The 22-year-old has a release clause in his contract that he can leave following relegation".
LFC were linked with Caulker in March, when The Telegraph reported:
"Brendan Rodgers is interested in Cardiff captain Steven Caulker. Rodgers is a fan of Caulker, it is unclear whether the Liverpool transfer committee will be as keen"
Liverpool were also linked with Caulker last summer, and at the time, the Daily Mail claimed:
"He [Rodgers] is a fan of Tottenham's Steven Caulker but [his] valuation is high"
Prior to his move to Wales, Spurs reportedly slapped a £15m price-tag on Caulker, who ultimately cost a comparatively inexpensive £8m. Liverpool went out and splurged more than double that amount on Mamadou Sakho, a player who's made minimal impact on LFC, and I'd argue that at £8.5m, Caulker is the better-value signing.
Caulker - now rated in the £15m bracket again - is impressing his team-mates this season, and in a recent interview, Ben Turned raved:
"It’s hard to believe Steven is only 21. He has a lot of Premier League experience and, for me, he has no weaknesses. He’s doing a fantastic job"
Ex-Manc Ole Gunnar Solskjaer is also a fan of Caulker, and in April, he raved:
"He [Caulker] is maturing all the time. He is a leader, he's very talented, and he defends fantastically"
During his time at Swansea, Rodgers described Caulker as 'brilliant', but Cardiff City have conceded 72 goals this season, and have the second-worst defensive record in the league.
Football is a team game, but like Sakho, Caulker doesn't appear to be having a significant personal impact on his club's defensive solidity, and in my view, he is not a player who is going to come in and command LFC's defence.
Additionally, Caulker has no European experience, and the Reds can't afford to go into the Champions League with a comparatively inexperienced centre-half leading the defensive line.
Dream defensive signing? Mats Hummels.
Author: Jaimie K
According to the Daily Mail today:
"Liverpool are showing interest in Cardiff captain Steven Caulker.
"The 22-year-old has a release clause in his contract that he can leave following relegation".
LFC were linked with Caulker in March, when The Telegraph reported:
"Brendan Rodgers is interested in Cardiff captain Steven Caulker. Rodgers is a fan of Caulker, it is unclear whether the Liverpool transfer committee will be as keen"
Liverpool were also linked with Caulker last summer, and at the time, the Daily Mail claimed:
"He [Rodgers] is a fan of Tottenham's Steven Caulker but [his] valuation is high"
Prior to his move to Wales, Spurs reportedly slapped a £15m price-tag on Caulker, who ultimately cost a comparatively inexpensive £8m. Liverpool went out and splurged more than double that amount on Mamadou Sakho, a player who's made minimal impact on LFC, and I'd argue that at £8.5m, Caulker is the better-value signing.
Caulker - now rated in the £15m bracket again - is impressing his team-mates this season, and in a recent interview, Ben Turned raved:
"It’s hard to believe Steven is only 21. He has a lot of Premier League experience and, for me, he has no weaknesses. He’s doing a fantastic job"
Ex-Manc Ole Gunnar Solskjaer is also a fan of Caulker, and in April, he raved:
"He [Caulker] is maturing all the time. He is a leader, he's very talented, and he defends fantastically"
During his time at Swansea, Rodgers described Caulker as 'brilliant', but Cardiff City have conceded 72 goals this season, and have the second-worst defensive record in the league.
Football is a team game, but like Sakho, Caulker doesn't appear to be having a significant personal impact on his club's defensive solidity, and in my view, he is not a player who is going to come in and command LFC's defence.
Additionally, Caulker has no European experience, and the Reds can't afford to go into the Champions League with a comparatively inexperienced centre-half leading the defensive line.
Dream defensive signing? Mats Hummels.
Author: Jaimie K
I think the way we play football is 80% the reason why we concede so many goals. I don't think its fair to label all our defenders as waste and try to look out for alternates. I still think we have some top defenders and better than most in the EPL.
ReplyDeleteMATS HUMMELS!!!
ReplyDeleteBring back llori and try a combination of him and Sakho pre season...agree we need another good central defender especially if we are going to cash in on Agger/Skrtel...not sure Caulker is the answer though.
ReplyDeleteMatt Hummels all the way!
ReplyDeleteThat's a joke right???
ReplyDeleteYes that's part of it, but fact of the matter is our defenders are all error prone. 90% of the time they are terrific, but as shown last match, that 10% can really kill a team. Someone not quite as good, but extremely reliable would be good to help solidify near the end of matches, or start the occasional game when others are in poor form
ReplyDeletellori and sako id sooner have torvil and dean
ReplyDeleteI would love Caulker in the squad. I know he mite cause occasional blunders in the beginning but nothing assures me more than having him as a rock at the back for the next decade. Caulker and Sakho would be my ideal combination to replace the Skrtel and Aggers of the past
ReplyDeleteMehdi Benatia,Eluaquim Mangala,Nicolas Nkoulou....I have no clue why we are goin for Caulker...He is decent but there will be plenty of Gud CB as I mentioned above. In summer blow....Hope Ian Dough Nut Ayre and the greedy transfer committe don't blow us out as they did in January Window
ReplyDeleteI say Luisao. And if at all possible both Luisao AND Garay :-) Great pairing that. Luisao with strength and speed and Garay with finesse. They're like Terry and Carvalho but then if Terry would actually be a decent football player (and human being)
ReplyDeleteHummels is overrated! Gimme some younguns we can shape. Gimme Ginter, Ilori, and Caulker. There's three young defenders to add to Sakho. And hey! We already have one of them.
ReplyDeleteI would love if we went for Lovren(Southampton), hes been one of the best defenders in the PL. According to WhoScored only Srktel did better this season. We were linked with him last summer before Saints signed him for half the money we payed for Sakho, who clearly didn't have the same impact as Lovren. He's 24 and has CL experience with Lyon. Maybe a double deal with Lalana?
ReplyDeleteBrendand Rodgers has done fantasticly well to get us into this position, but over 2 games he has bottled our title chances. lets start with Chelsea. Daniel Sturridge is ever so desperate to show Chelsea what they missed, he leaves him on the bench. out goalscoring chances are automatically decreased as with Sturridge on the pitch, his runs and pace along with Sterling and Suarez all over the place would put Chelsea on the back-foot and we would have probably got that 1st goal. instead they got the goal and we were chasing the game after that. then we 3 nil up against palace. Why would you bring on Coutinho for Sterling and not Lucas? as soon as Coutinho come on they scored. he was just standing there and they played a quick free kick and scored. GJ was ridiculously poor but that has been known for a while. why would you take off Raheem when he covers so much ground and carries too much game intelligence. as soon as he came off Bolasie exposed GJ and it was a walk in the park for CP. Coutinho had a pretty easy oppurtunity to make it 4-1 right after they scored and he hit t right at the keeper when it was a clear low footer shot into the bottom corner. tbh he doesnt deserve to go to the World Cup. i hope he improves for next season but Coutinho is not good enough and Sterling is the real Ronaldinho. then BR took off our goalscorer sturridge and puts on Moses? Moses has now missed 2 open goals against CP home and away. poor player. cant wait till he goes back.
ReplyDeletewe need to buy Yarmolenko, Rakitic, Lallana, Pedro, Ben Arfa, Diame and Montoya. no excuses. £100M
--------------------------------Suarez/Sturridge
Yarmolenko/Ben Arfa---------------------Pedro/Sterling
-----------------------------Sterling/Lallana
-----------Gerrard/Rakitic/Hendo-------Rakitic/Diame
-Montoya-------Ilori/Agger----Skrtel/Sakho-----Flannagan/Enrique
we need this as out CL squad. this season was heartbreak, getting so close but we must assemble a deadly CL squad to come back firing next season. we can rotate for all competitions and wont have to sub Sturridge for nonsense like Victor Moses and start Lucas in a attacking midfield role
I'll put my neck on the line here and say we won't sign any CBs this summer unless someone is sold. There is no reason to think Agger or Skrtel would be sold, and to sell Sakho at this stage of his LFC career makes no sense. Our defensive line needs time to work together and sort out these problems, not new players and new combinations. We have 4 quality CBs if you count Toure and Ilori will continue to develop in the background. The improvement needs to come in how they play together and the decisions they make as a team and I think Rodgers will be content with the players he already has.
ReplyDeleteIf they are terrific for 90% of the time then what we need to do is work on that 10%, not buy new players. Players can grow and learn and I think the evidence is there that our current set of defenders have the ability. Maybe mental strength can't be coached, but I'd like to see us try to fix this first before splashing more money on players we may not actually need.
ReplyDeleteYes, if we can get him
ReplyDeletemaybe we can give them sakho in return.
ReplyDeleteCualker is a player we need. He is big strong and some what decent on the ball. He has been a captain of his team, we need some leaders at the back to sort things out when other teams are coming at us with everything they have. On the plus side he is English, with the ability he has already shown he might be in contention for England starting XI after he WC
ReplyDeleteThey are terrific 90% of the time when we have been pining the other team in their half. Our defenders have always looked nervous when other teams do the same to us. It is not just the defenders, and we must admit S Gerrard is not that mobile defensively, neither is Lucas anymore. Our mid did not have the same energy off the ball without Hendo.
ReplyDelete