First off Gary Neville averaged nine League games a season for his last four seasons and the reason he was getting games was because the only natural right back they had on the books was the teenager Rafael. It was a case of Neville, Rafael or the likes of Brown or O'Shea being played out of position.
If it is not a case of a manager picking a worse player then what other reason was there for Carra being first choice centre back ahead of both Skrtel and Agger. At the start of the season we had three full International centre backs and Carra yet Carra was ahead of all of them, maybe it was a postcode lottery.
first england and now stats - the very bottom of the barrell - those 9 games were nowt to do with him being injured all the time then? Brown was a better right back than centre back, when he made his gaffes they were less damaging - they could have bought in whoever they wanted to play right back - Ferguson preferred Neville and the only reason I can think of was the lads experience and leadership
it's a case of the manager selecting the player that suits the team best in their opinion at the time isn't it? - well its either that or your Carra conspiracy which has taken in three managers - which is the most likely scenario? why not try and see it from a positive side , trusting the manager and backroom staff?
a team is much more than the sum of its parts and it exists for a lot more than the 90 minutes a week that we see - fans deciding they know who should play and why, based on zip is just daft - everybody has an opinion but the idea we are better informed than those doing the selection is crazy ..........
In general Skrtels form since his knee injury has been average, Agger has been injured too much - on paper they make a superb pair, in practice this season they've been great but neither has been reliable enough before - Aggers longest run of consecutive games was something like 7 in three years (thats stats for ye)
when one or t'other came in to play and made mistakes it was either Carra's fault or the fact they hadn't played regularly - Carra steps in and its down to his age and he's past it - its not a level playing field
I'll use Coates but it could go for any of our three 'internationals' - I'm suprised you didn't say 4 - Wilson has 6 scottish caps doesn't he? Did Coates have a cold this week, did his cat die, how's his mum and dad, how's he getting on with his girlfriend, how much sleep's he getting, hows he settled in a new country, new continent, new language, new culture, whats his diet like, what type of knocks did he pick up in training, what shape was he in when Kuyt showed him up half a dozen times in training, was he coming for crosses well during set piece training - how are the drills coming with Skrtel, are the two of them making the right decisions, working well as a pair - is he working well with Enrique, timing the offside correctly , what do the medical people say about his physical condition, how's his sprint work coming, has he responded to the extra work he's doing on his turn, hows his mentality, does he look hungry or is he happy training - everything may be looking great, it may be looking crap - we dont know do we?
From what I understand about the lad he's a diamond and has all the requisite attributes to be excellent for us but none of that takes into account reality does it, teh day to day grind we actually live in.
lets take one specific real world example we've tried to incorporate Henderson, Enrique, Bellamy, Carroll, Suarez and Adam sometimes all at the same time and its showed - throwing in another newbie during that wasn't going to help was it?