Rodgers, though, had a ton of injury issues to deal with last season. Sakho, Enrique, Johnson, Toure, and Agger all had injury spells, some multiple. Here are those line-ups along with their stats:
M | GA | GAPM | CS | ||||
Johnson | Toure | Agger | Enrique | 2 | 0 | 0.00 | 2 |
Johnson | Skrtel | Agger | Enrique | 1 | 0 | 0.00 | 1 |
Johnson | Skrtel | Agger | Cissohko | 2 | 0 | 0.00 | 2 |
Johnson | Skrtel | Sakho | Flanagan | 3 | 2 | 0.67 | 1 |
Toure | Skrtel | Agger | Sakho | 1 | 1 | 1.00 | 0 |
Flanagan | Skrtel | Toure | Cissohko | 4 | 4 | 1.00 | 1 |
Johnson | Skrtel | Agger | Flanagan | 5 | 5 | 1.00 | 2 |
Toure | Skrtel | Sakho | 5 | 7 | 1.40 | 0 | |
Flanagan | Skrtel | Agger | Johnson | 2 | 3 | 1.50 | 1 |
Wisdom | Skrtel | Sakho | Enrique | 1 | 2 | 2.00 | 0 |
Johnson | Skrtel | Agger | Flanagan | 2 | 4 | 2.00 | 0 |
Johnson | Skrtel | Sakho | Cissohko | 1 | 2 | 2.00 | 0 |
Johnson | Skrtel | Sakho | Agger | 1 | 2 | 2.00 | 0 |
Johnson | Skrtel | Sakho | Flanagan | 5 | 10 | 2.00 | 0 |
Johnson | Skrtel | Toure | Cissohko | 2 | 5 | 2.50 | 0 |
Johnson | Skrtel | Toure | Flanagan | 1 | 3 | 3.00 | 0 |
Those are sorted by goals allowed per match and if we break it down per player:
ms | ga | gapm | cs | cs% | |
Agger | 16 | 15 | 0.94 | 8 | 0.50 |
Cissohko | 9 | 11 | 1.22 | 3 | 0.33 |
Johnson | 27 | 36 | 1.33 | 9 | 0.33 |
Toure | 15 | 20 | 1.33 | 3 | 0.20 |
Skrtel | 36 | 50 | 1.39 | 8 | 0.22 |
Flanagan | 22 | 31 | 1.41 | 5 | 0.23 |
Sakho | 17 | 26 | 1.53 | 1 | 0.06 |
It's pretty clear our most valuable player on the back line is Agger. It's not even close. In fact, we only had 2 clean sheets without him. What's disappointing is Sakho appears to be the biggest liability. One clean sheet in 17 starts and the highest goal allowed per match average at 1.53.
I'm not sure what Rodgers plans on doing since it was pretty clear by the end of last season that Skrtel and Sakho were his first choice centre backs. If they continue last year's form, that's not acceptable. Agger is our best defensive back and I don't know what else proof the gaffer needs. We will not win the league next year unless we shore up our defense, no matter what hard decisions need to be made. I like Sakho, but if that means sitting him, so be it.