Is this man anything more than a liability at Liverpool?

According to Martin Skrtel, who played every minute of every Liverpool Premier League game last season, 2010/11 has been his best year in Liverpool colours yet. According to the Liverpool Echo, the Slovakian reckons he has proven a lot of people wrong this season:

“It’s probably been my best season, because I have played every single game – but it would have been better if the results had been better. When I came here, a lot of people talked about the way I play, and many said I didn’t have the quality to play for Liverpool.”

I have to say that despite Skrtel’s new found confidence and enthusiasm, I still don’t rate him as a player. If Liverpool want to be challenging for silverware next season, I don’t think they can afford to grant him a starting berth in their squad. Liverpool need to make acquiring a new centre-back a summer priority.

I grant that he was only as bad as the rest of the team was under the management of Roy Hodgson and that since Kenny Dalglish has taken over he’s looked like a quality player. I hope that people don’t grant too much importance to the fact that he’s played every minute of Liverpool’s Premier League campaign this season. This happened because he has been the only Liverpool defender to stay fit.

I’d argue that the fact that Skrtel’s played every game this season is evidence of a lack of depth in Liverpool’s squad – especially given how low his form dipped during Hodgson’s tenure. His defending tends to be somewhat on the nervous side and when he’s lacking in confidence he’s particularly mistake prone.

He doesn’t have the natural ability to read the game as well as Jamie Carragher and isn’t as comfortable on the ball as Daniel Agger. The fact is, Martin Skrtel fails to fill Liverpool fans with confidence and can often look like he’s all set to fly in and give away a dangerous free-kick or a penalty.

Given his unreliability, I’d argue that Skrtel should at most be utilised as a squad player. Kenny has a lot of work to do during the summer bolstering his back four and I hope that the right decisions are made. To challenge for silverware once more Liverpool will need a strong base. A dependable, tough new centre-back may be able to provide just that.

Despite Skrtel’s ubiquitous presence this season, I hope he takes something of a backseat next year.

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