Skrtel or Sakho? Who is better to partner Lovren?

Despite being far apart on the ethnic field, Martin Skrtel and Mamadou Sakho play an eerily similar style of football on the pitch.  The Slovakian and the Senegalese-Frenchman are both efficient passers, each posting around 90% last season and this campaign so far, neither are very committal to tackling, preferring to play a 'stand-offish', marking style of defense, and both like to get forward, though Sakho does this much more to my liking.  If I had to give an edge to either concerning attacking and/or defending, I'd say Skrtel is actually better on both sides of the ball despite Sakho being more 'creative'.

That is not the question though, it is whom is better to partner our Croatian juggernaut, Dejan Lovren.  To do that, let's take a look at Lovren's style of play.  Our Number Six is not as good a passer as his fellow centre backs, but has improved from last season when he played for Southampton.  So far he's posted an 88.5% pass completion percentage compared to 82% last year, which is even more impressive when you consider he's averaged 17 more pass attempts per a match this season so far.  That probably has more to do with the fact that the Saints averaged nearly 2 more yards per pass and attempted 14 more long balls per match, finishing second in the league with 70 attempts on average. Lovren is also more likely to 'go to ground' and attempt a tackle than Skrtel or Sakho.  He has completed 11 successful tackles this season so far while the other two have 3 combined.

One could argue match-ups should play a part, but there are two great examples from this season that make that argument invalid.  Skrtel paired Lovren at the Etihad which Liverpool lost 3-1 despite playing well.  Unfortunately, City played slightly better even though two of their goals were due to defensive mishap, none the fault of Skrtel though.  In fact, I re-watched an extended highlights video of that match and noticed a lot of friction and distrust displayed between Lovren and Skrtel, but ultimately, the first two goals were mostly the fault of Lovren being out of position.

During the build-up of the first goal, Lovren is more concerned with whether Skrtel is marking Dzeko instead of covering 'his' area, the left side of the box.

As the above still shot from the match shows, Lovren was not in the best possible position and was unable to provide proper coverage for Moreno and Gerrard.  In a panic, he heads the ball right to a surging Jovetic.  Sure, Moreno could have done better to clear, but he shouldn't had to in the first place.

Here is a still shot just before the second goal:

Jovetic has the ball and is about to release both Zabaleta and Nasri with an excellent back heel pass through.  Lovren is way out of position to begin with, why he is so far forward is beyond me.  Jovetic has his back to the goal, which for him to gain possession and right himself would take more than enough time for Henderson and/or Gerrard to collapse on him, so Lovren had no business being there.  Once the break starts, Skrtel had no choice but provide coverage on the left, leaving Johnson to mark Dzeko.  Jovetic sneaked in behind, found himself all alone on the right, and the rest, they say, is history.  Had Lovren stayed behind Zabaleta, he would have most likely been able to clear the ball or at least disrupt play enough to prevent the goal, plus Skrtel would have been able to stay more central and allow Johnson to pick up Jovetic.  One could argue that Lovren was trying to set an offside trap, but if that is so, he's doing a terrible job of communicating it to his fellow defenders.

In the City match, a Skrtel-Lovren pairing was ideal being that Lovren is usually better at maintaining his position than Sakho.  Unfortunately he failed to do so.  For Villa, a Sakho-Lovren pairing is more ideal because Villa is dreadful and adding another player on attack seemingly can only help.  Unfortunately it did not, but once again Lovren was somewhat at fault for the goal.  He was beaten by Senderos on the corner, had Manquillo's arm not blocked the attempt, there was a chance of it getting past Lallana and going in.  It instead fell to Agbonlahor.  I would say Balotelli and Moreno's inability to clear it before it got to Senderos was more of an issue than Lovren's marking.

It would have been nice to have Skrtel for Ludogorets.  I can't see him getting caught out of position as much as Sakho and Lovren did.  I didn't expect to draw this conclusion, but after looking over the stats and watching match highlights, maybe the best pairing for Lovren is a seat on the bench.  The only thing he brings so far is tackling and errors.  That may be harsh, but it is clear he has positioning and communication issues, certainly with Skrtel on the latter.  Maybe Rodgers should give him a couple of matches off and some time to think about his latest performances.  I think he's a great defender and player in general, but it seems like he's trying to do too much and it's hurting the side.

LFC at Man City: Matchday history madness

In the past 20 league meetings at City, Liverpool is 5-9-6, having failed to win at the Etihad in six years, losing 3 of the last 4.  Prior to then, the Reds had suffered three total loses there in 17 years.  Last season they met on Boxing Day with a mystery offside call and a controversial non-call on a penalty shout for Suarez denying LFC a draw and/or possible win.

Their annual league date at City has occurred on week two of the season twice in the past 23 years with Man City winning both ties.  The first was in 1991 at Maine Road with the home side winning 2-1 and the other was in 2010-2011 at Eastlands with City winning 3-0, thanks in part to a brace by Carlos Tevez.

Liverpool is 7-6-7 in their last 20 week two matches away, but have won their last two, at Villa last season and at Emirates in 2011-12.  Of their five wins prior, they've won the league 4 of those times they've won their week two road fixture.

Man City is 9-4-7 in week two fixtures overall for the past 20 seasons.  They have not lost at home in week 2 for 25 years though, posting a 9-2-0 record over that span.  Their last week two loss at home was 1-2 to Southampton in 1989.

The previous season number two is 4-7-9 in their away fixture at the previous season league champion in the past 20 years. Here's an interesting stat, the four times the previous second place side has won, they've gone on to win the league.  Prior to the last two seasons, the defending champs had won five straight, five of six, and was undefeated in 10 (6-4-0).

So what does this say about next Monday's match? Well, history is not on Liverpool's side, that's for sure.  It's too early to make any predictions though, no idea who'll be available or if we my sign an influential player by then.