Incompetence, thy name is Martin Skrtel.
Liverpool produced two halves of contrasting performances against Southampton in the Premier League this afternoon. Goals from Philippe Coutinho and Daniel Sturridge had Klopp's side coasting 2-0 at half-time. It could have been three, had Joe Allen's goal not been chalked off for offside. At half-time, with Dejan Lovren on a booking and in danger of getting a second, Klopp brought on Martin Skrtel for his first appearance since the 3-0 defeat to Watford in December.
Within four minutes of his return, Skrtel conceded a penalty, but was bailed out by Simon Mignolet who saved Saido Mané's spot kick. Liverpool then went about bottling the game anyway, with two goals from Mané either side of a Pellé equaliser winning the game for Southampton.
Skrtel had been virtually ever-present in the frequent omnishambles that was the Liverpool defence under Brendan Rodgers, and despite being tainted with association, consistently retained his place. There was a feeling that the spotlight of blame frequently shone on Mignolet, Sakho and Dejan Lovren was kind to Skrtel. Such obvious incompetence today meant that Skrtel was not escaping any ire this afternoon:
#LFC have conceded as many goals in 40 minutes with Martin Skrtel in the team than their previous 795 minutes without him.
— Jimmy Rice (@JimmyRiceWriter) March 20, 2016
The Skrtel effect 🙈 #LFC
— Mark Poland (@polie11) March 20, 2016
#LFC go from dominant to defensively haphazard all following the introduction of Martin Skrtel. Coincidence?
— Richard Buxton (@RichardBuxton_) March 20, 2016
3-2. Southampton deserve it on their second half showing, Liverpool have rarely threatened. And Skrtel is rusty, shall we say.
— Jim Boardman (@JimBoardman) March 20, 2016
Since Skrtel came on Southampton have had 3 shots on target and scored 3 goals.
— Anfield Road Live (@AnfieldRoadLive) March 20, 2016
Martin Skrtel has been at Liverpool for nearly a decade. Scandalous how that's been allowed to happen
— KLOPP 2026 🇩🇪 (@ThoseScouseLads) March 20, 2016
If Martin Skrtel ever plays for #LFC again it will be too soon.
— Dan Kennett (@DanKennett) March 20, 2016
Reasons Liverpool Lost:
1) Skrtel
2) Southampton's HT Changes
3 - 499) Skrtel
500) LFC complacency after halftime
501 - ∞) Skrtel— nate (@natefc) March 20, 2016
Martin Škrtel game by numbers:
3 goals conceded
1 penalty given away
0 tackles won
0 blocks
0 interceptions
Awful pic.twitter.com/uRVKO1HyeV— Squawka (@Squawka) March 20, 2016
Such obvious ineptitude will probably mean we are beginning to see the end of Skrtel's Liverpool career.
