Brendan Rogers - "We showed Composure"

Centre-back Martin Skrtel has scored more Premier League goals than former team-mate Fernando Torres this season and the Slovakian epitomises Liverpool's flawed-but-fantastic performances. Peter Fraser analyses Saturday's thrilling win at Cardiff City

Last summer, having grown disillusioned at a total of just 25 Premier League appearances and seven outings in the Europa League in 2012/13 under Liverpool boss Brendan Rodgers, Martin Skrtel almost left Anfield. The centre-back confesses he nearly quit Merseyside at a time when he was being linked with a return to Zenit St Petersburg or a reunion with his former Liverpool manager, Rafa Benitez, at Napoli.

 

Rodgers: 'We showed composure'

But Skrtel said this February regarding the 2013/14 campaign: "Before this season started, I just said to myself, 'I will fight and work very hard to try to show people I am able to play and start the games'. I tried to work very hard in training every day and when I got a chance to play, I tried to do my best to help the team."
It was not until last September that the Slovakia international, who joined Liverpool in a £6million deal from Zenit in the January of 2008, got that chance - starting in the 1-0 home win over Manchester United - but he has since not looked back.

Skrtel has now made 31 appearances in all club competitions this season when it is only March and he has become a vitally important part of Rodgers' Liverpool. At the same time, he epitomises the flawed-but-fantastic, wonderfully entertaining and ultimately successful nature of his club's performances in the current Premier League - not to mention an ongoing title challenge.

The 31st of Skrtel's appearances came in Saturday's goals-galore 6-3 victory at relegation-threatened Cardiff City, when he scored his fifth and sixth goal of the season to keep Liverpool in the mix with Chelsea and Manchester City after three successive away games - despite the scare of Rodgers' men having to come from 1-0 and 2-1 down in Wales. Skrtel scored from his only two shots and importantly equalised at 2-2 just before half-time prior to putting Liverpool in front at 3-2 after half-time.

Last summer, having grown disillusioned at a total of just 25 Premier League appearances and seven outings in the Europa League in 2012/13 under Liverpool boss Brendan Rodgers, Martin Skrtel almost left Anfield. The centre-back confesses he nearly quit Merseyside at a time when he was being linked with a return to Zenit St Petersburg or a reunion with his former Liverpool manager, Rafa Benitez, at Napoli.

 

 Skrtel, though, did stand up to the trademark aerial threat of Cardiff, winning 71.4% of his aerial duels - which was more than any other player on the field who had contested seven or more. Likewise, Skrtel made a characteristic 13 clearances in the game, more than double any other player in the match, and won possession nine times, more than any of his Liverpool team-mates.

Last season, there was a sense that no Liverpool player had struggled more than the no-nonsense Skrtel to adapt to Rodgers' policy of passing the ball out from the back. Remember his back-pass to Carlos Tevez in Rodgers' first Premier League home game in charge? And there remains a thought that Skrtel would more often than not prefer to send the ball sailing skywards up field than pass out to his full-backs.

However, at Cardiff, Skrtel boasted Liverpool's most impressive passing statistics. The centre-back played 57 passes at a success rate of 96.5 per cent. He lost possession just twice, which was fewer than any of his team-mates. Skrtel even contributed an assist with a more characteristic long ball forward for Suarez's hat-trick and Liverpool's sixth goal. Skrtel, meanwhile, was the man to see more of the ball than centre-back partner Agger, suggesting he is now the man Rodgers tasks with passing out from the back.

Ultimately, Skrtel looks a player reborn. He has been challenged to bring different elements to his game under Rodgers and is consequently blossoming. As a part of a struggling Liverpool defence, there, too, is a sense he represents the overall conundrum of this astonishingly interesting team as a whole - there are things wrong but it just works. That is the thing with this Liverpool squad, they are baffling yet brilliant and Skrtel is a case in point. It could yet result in the title.