Why Liverpool must reunite the pair of Skrtel and Agger against Swansea

Daniel Agger

Liverpool head into the final three months of the 2013-14 season knowing they have only one competition to aim for success in: the Premier League.

Following their FA Cup exit last weekend and no European football this term, Liverpool will now mainly face a stretch of playing one game per week until the end of the campaign as they look to seal at worst a top-four finish, or at best, well, considerably more.

To that end, manager Brendan Rodgers will hope to be able to field his strongest XI on as many occasions as possible in the knowledge that the players have plenty of time to recover and prepare for the next fixture.

While there are not too many injuries or absences in the attacking half of the field, the defence has been another story of late. Daniel Agger has returned to the squad after his latest set-back to play the final minutes against Fulham in midweek and the full FA Cup game at Arsenal last weekend, and the Dane now has to stay in place against Swansea in Liverpool’s next match.

Taking the place of Kolo Toure, Agger gives the Reds not only better composure on the ball and more aggression, but he also has a longer-standing relationship with Martin Skrtel, the current first-choice centre-back. Such an understanding and communication will be important over the run-in as the Reds seek to win each game.

Toure was forced into the left-sided role at centre-back after injuries to Agger and Mamadou Sakho and it was clear that he was rather less comfortable in that slot. Despite a good performance in the derby against Everton, Toure has looked awkward receiving the ball to feet by the left touchline, on occasion merely clearing into touch instead of finding a team-mate with a pass.

How Liverpool’s centre-backs compare to each other

Of course, from a Liverpool perspective, even that is preferable to the horrific sideways pass straight to Victor Anichebe which cost the Reds two points at West Brom three weeks ago—and Toure compounded that with another awful mistake, slicing an own goal at Fulham a week ago.

Isolated mistakes, but very costly ones. Toure is in a group of five Liverpool players to have committed three or more defensive errors this season—but only Toure has seen those errors lead to two goals against his team.

Mistakes and confidence aside, using the Comparison Matrix for a range of metrics clearly shows Agger to be the preferential partner for Skrtel out of the two.

Defensively, Agger is known for being robust in the challenge, committed and a good reader of the game. These are shown in his ability to make more interceptions than Toure (1.11 to 0.96 per 90 minutes) but few would have Agger being Liverpool’s stand-out defender aerially. In fact, though, Agger is Liverpool’s best central defender by headed duels won percentage this season, including Sakho and Skrtel.

The Dane has won a towering 72.7% of all his aerial battles this season—compared to a lowly 50% for Toure.

Martin Skrtel has distanced himself as Anfield’s outstanding centre-back

One area where Toure outperforms Agger defensively is in clearances, making 9.2 per 90 mins to Agger’s 7.8, but as Skrtel is the league leader in number of clearances this season, it’s not really an area Liverpool need to worry about too much with the small drop.

As an attacking side, the Reds rely on their defence to get moves started and again it is Agger who performs best: he plays more successful passes per 90 minutes than Toure, 40 to 38, but crucially, that difference increases when it comes to forward passes made. Agger’s 38.2 forward passes per game is almost four more than Toure, just what you’d expect from the offensive and ambitious No. 5.

In truth it’s not even really a close call; as the natural left-sided option Agger is likely to start beside Skrtel, with Toure providing bench cover. Rodgers will hope that putting his two long-serving defenders together provides the platform for the Reds to go on an keep another clean sheet at Anfield and take another three points.