Should Agger and Toure start the Season as 1st choice Centre Halves?

Recently I've been asked to submit a weekly post to www.tomkinstimes.com weekly symposium. The format is that a question is sent out once a week to symposium members who each submit their response to be published on the website created and run by renowned author, blogger and liverpoolfc.tv columnist Paul Tomkins. I will post my symposium posts on The Red Article one day after they appear on The Tomkins Times, this is because TTT is a subscription only website so I need to ensure they have exclusivity on what I provide in the first place.

If you enjoy this you should check out www.tomkinstimes.com it is a fantastic website which boasts an excellent selection of members who participate in some excellent well rounded discussions on all things LFC. Plenty of the content on there is available for free so you can see if you like it before considering getting a subscription.

Anyway, this week's question was:

Should Agger and Toure start the season as 1st choice Centre Halves?

Although Kolo has been signed as a direct replacement for the retiring Jamie Carragher, I don’t think this should mean that he automatically fills the starting position Carragher held for the second half of last season.

In my eyes he has been bought as an option and should therefore need to earn a starting berth in the same way any of our defenders should. It seems that there is little doubt Agger will start the season as the first choice so the real question is who will partner him. As things stand we have three experienced options for centre-back. Skrtel undoubtedly had a poor season last time out but it seems statistically he matched up to both Agger and Toure for the most part, outperforming them both in relation to Aerial Duel win % but obviously trailing behind them both by some margin with regard to defensive errors.

While I’m afraid it would be futile to make the case for Skrtel’s inclusion given that he is very likely to be sold this summer I can’t help but express my frustration that we may be giving up on him a little bit prematurely. If there is one out, there will surely be one in, and given Toure’s already joined I am interested to see what type of defender will be sought.

One thing it seems we may be missing in a Toure – Agger partnership is a dominating aerial presence – according to EPL index Agger won 61% of aerial 50-50s last season while Toure falls behind by some margin with only a 40% success rate, I think this is an attribute which is important to have in our first choice partnership. We already have a few young players who may vie to become the back-up option at centre-back in Martin Kelly and Andre Wisdom. Both have gained some experience at full-back but it seems both will be aiming to move to the centre and although they may have to wait for the opportunity they can be considered as cover at least for the season ahead.

It remains to be seen who we will add to the squad before the season begins and I think that we need to consider the quality of any new addition before we decide on what our strongest pairing is. I think Agger and Toure are definitely a capable partnership but that doesn’t mean they should be automatic first choice and I still think we can improve in this area.

Link to original Piece: HERE

PLEASE LEAVE COMMENTS BELOW GIVING YOUR OWN ANSWER:

Who should be Liverpool's next vice captain?

Its been a bit quiet on The Red Article lately, with the arrival of a brand new baby only 7 weeks ago to join her 15 month old sister and 8 year old brother! its simply been a bit hard to dedicate much time to the blog. I'm hoping to get back to posting regularly once the season kicks off but in the meantime I'm going to be posting a number of short articles at least once a week to keep things ticking over.

Recently I've been asked to submit a weekly post to www.tomkinstimes.com weekly symposium. The format is that a question is sent out once a week to symposium members who each submit their response to be published on the website created and run by renowned author, blogger and liverpoolfc.tv columnist Paul Tomkins. I will post my symposium posts on The Red Article one day after they appear on The Tomkins Times, this is because TTT is a subscription only website so I need to ensure they have exclusivity on what I provide in the first place.

If you enjoy this you should check out www.tomkinstimes.com it is a fantastic website which boasts an excellent selection of members who participate in some excellent well rounded discussions on all things LFC. Plenty of the content on there is available for free so you can see if you like it before considering getting a subscription.

Anyway, this week's question was:

Who would you make Liverpool FC's next Vice Captain?

Funnily enough, the role of Vice Captain might have even more meaning than it did for Jamie in that over the next while (although probably not immediately) Steven Gerrard’s playing  time is bound to be reduced somewhat meaning there may be a more frequent need to fill the actual captaincy. There have been plenty of times in the history of the club when we had an ample amount of standout candidates at any given time. Even three years ago there would have been plenty of names springing to the fore, but right now things aren’t so straightforward. As the playing squad stands there are question marks over almost every one of the players you might think of. Pepe Reina has been most people’s stand out candidate for a long time but there are obvious issues in that he may not be first choice goalkeeper this season, and he may not even be at the club. Daniel Agger was the subject of a number of strong bids last summer and after his dip in form last season you would have to think that if a big bid was received the club may consider sanctioning the sale. That said though, he played a lot of games last year and he wasn’t our only defender to have a dip in form. He certainly loves and understands the club and supporters so he is certainly one to consider. Lucas Leiva at his peak would seem to fit the role perfectly. He plays in a position which allows him to have good communications throughout the game with pretty much every other player. He may not be the most vocal player in the squad but he does seem well liked and when on form he truly leads by example, sacrificing himself for the good of the team. Also, it has been clear from a lot of the young players at the squad, particularly South-Americans and Spaniards, that they really see Lucas’ career progression at the club as something to look up to. The adversities he has had to succeed through show a strength of character which is there to be envied and it is something we should utilise to the full. The main issue with Lucas is that since his two injuries he is yet to re-attain his full performance levels, and many people believe that because of the injuries he may never do. I don’t subscribe to this theory and I think after a full pre-season he will become one of the players we like to describe as the “spine” of our team again. Having looked at what I consider to be the main options,  I think Lucas is man to fill the position of Vice Captain for the coming season.

Link to original article on TTT: HERE

Please leave comments below letting me know who would be your choice for our next Vice Captain.