About this time every season, Martin Skrtel decides to be munificent and donate goals to the opposition. Manchester City last year, Southampton this year.
A frustrating afternoon where several things didn't click.
For me, Gerrard looked tired apart from his free kicks, the defence seemed oddly set up at the start and there was no real fluency up front.
We will win other games and lose other games, but between last Sunday and this Sunday a lot of confidence has been lost.
Why?
Tiredness? Tactics? Or just a bad day at that massive noisy office?
I know you've opened with Skrtel here, but it increasingly seems that all I do is complain about him. So im going to try to refrain from doing so for too long because this dead horse has been flogged so much already.
Skrtel is a player that just isnt that good. He's never been that good. And just because hes not that bad either, it doesnt make him the defender that we need.
He's not comfortable with the ball at his feet (thats why he likes defending deep, cos all he has to do is clear his lines), he's not comfortable with a high line (he back peddles better than an MP) and considering he looks the way he does he's a remarkably soft touch.
He's be an absolutely fine defender for many teams, many mid-table teams. Where he's allowed to defend on his 18 yard box, clear the ball in to touch and his mistakes wont cost his team a place in the top 4, cos theyre never challenging for one.
Those are the reasons he looked decent for Kenny's/Clarke's defence. People seem to forget that we finished 8th that season he won POTY, we were a mid table team. And it brought the best out of Skrtel. We played in to his hands.
The most frustrating thing about all of this is that Rodgers knows this, he knows Skrtel isnt the sort of defender who can play for him. And thats why we've brought in 3 CBs this summer. Illori/Kolo/Sakho these are the sort of defenders that can play for Rodgers. They can push the line high up the pitch, they dont panic every time they get the ball. And most importantly, two of them might possibly get to the level of a top 4 CB. The other, has proved he's already been good enough. Skrtel never has, and never will.
It leads me to wonder why the hell Rodgers even played him today. Picking him 'on form' is as stupid as it is cliched. Skrtel, more than anything, has form for not being a good fit and for being flighty. He proved to be just those things today. Again.
As much as Rodgers will claim his hand was forced, it wasnt. He could have played Kelly, he could have played Flanagan. He could even have played Henderson at RB and therefore moved Toure in to Skrtel place. He just got it plain wrong.
Hopefully Skrtel wont get too many more opportunities to prove a leopard doesnt change it's shit tattoos.
Skrtel wasnt the only thing Rodgers got wrong today though, not by a long way.
He seems insistent on playing Gerrard and Lucas together for every single minute of every single game he can. Even when its clear it''s not working. So often one of them needs pulling, through tiredness, poor performance, or simply to just change things around. So often, the change never comes. It's frustrating, and i cant really offer up a theory as to why he's operating in this fashion.
Dont get me started on Aspas.
Overall it was just the perfect storm today, bad decisions, poor performances, tiredness (Sturridge especially), and they all added up to make a big mess. It was as bad as it seemed. Excuses will be made however.
God knows what Utd will throw up, we need to rotate, and dont appear to have the squad to be able to do so right now. This is hardly an ideal scenario for Rodgers, normally he's freshen things up in the league cup, but its the mancs, so we need to go for it full tilt. Usually after 2 poor performances he'd want to wash them away with a really strong one, but its the mancs, and it's going to be very hard to do just that. And finally if we don't win not only have we lost 2 in a row (should have been 3) but we've lost 2 in a row (should have been 3) and been knocked out by David Moyes' Man Utd.
He'll earn his crust this week, one way or another.