A defensive performance of questionable quality from Martin Skrtel and Kolo Toure against Hull at the weekend left question marks over Liverpool's best centre-back pairing.
Skrtel and Toure played together as a pair for the first team at Hull, with less than impressive results, but while Liverpool may consider their strength in depth in the centre-back area a plus, it seems Rodgers could be in danger of making the Reds less defensively solid by chopping and changing his defenders.
So which combination has been the best for Liverpool at centre-back up to this point of the season?
Liverpool have fielded no less than five different centre-back pairings this season, and if we include the back three Brendan Rodgers has also used into account, then the club has seen a total of six different combinations at the heart of their defence. Some of those combinations were a one-off, some have been repeated on several occasions.
The game against Hull was the first time a pairing of Martin Skrtel and Kolo Toure has been picked by Rodgers, and with three goals conceded against one of the Premier League's lesser lights, it could yet be the last.
A similar one-off was the pairing of Mamadou Sakho and Martin Skrtel that took the field in a 2-2 draw against Swansea in September.
The third pairing that Rodgers has only used once is that of Andre Wisdom and Kolo Toure, who shipped two goals in a 4-2 Capital One Cup victory over Notts County, but the two have unsurprisingly never played together in the league.
A pairing that has been slightly more successful but not without its flaws is the old standard of Daniel Agger and Martin Skrtel. An excellent 1-0 victory over Man United on September 1 featured this experienced pairing, while they also played in a comfortable 4-0 victory over Fulham in November.
The two defenders did, however, ship three goals while playing together in the Merseyside derby, as well as playing in the 1-0 defeat against Southampton in September, so it isn’t a partnership without flaws.
The combination Rodgers has used the most this season isn’t a partnership at all, with Toure, Sakho and Skrtel playing six games together. Of those six games, Liverpool won three, drew one and lost two, so while their win record is strong, they have failed to win just as many games, leaving doubts over how effective they really are together.
Incredibly, the Liverpool partnership that has proven the most successful this season was abandoned only two games into their Premier League campaign. The pairing of Kolo Toure and Daniel Agger played in Liverpool’s two opening fixtures of the 2013/14 Premier League, winning both games and keeping two clean sheets.
Critics will point out that their opponents were ‘only’ Aston Villa and Stoke City, but there is no denying how effective the defensive combination was. Should they be given another chance, following last weekend’s showing?
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