Seven years ago, a veteran erred, gifted a goal and Brendan Rodgers’ Liverpool did not win the league. Admittedly, Kolo Toure’s culpability for Victor Anichebe’s equaliser for West Bromwich Albion in February 2014 has not acquired the same notoriety as Steven Gerrard’s infamous slip against Chelsea.
And yet there is a case for arguing that Rodgers would be a Premier League champion already if he had better central defenders at Anfield. It is not merely about the “Crystanbul” collapse, from 3-0 up to 3-3 at Selhurst Park. The eventual total of 50 goals conceded pointed to a problem. A series of scorelines – 3-2, 4-3, 6-3 – suggested that even when Rodgers’ Liverpool kept on winning, his was not a failsafe formula.
Fast forward to the current day and there is the sense Rodgers is older and wiser, less bombastic in his rhetoric and more able to rely on his rearguard. His three-most used centre-backs for Liverpool in 2013/14 were Martin Skrtel, Toure and Mamadou Sakho. Now he arguably has a trio who are all better now than any of them were then: Jonny Evans, Caglar Soyuncu and Wesley Fofana.
Leicester’s surge this season is prompted by several factors: outstanding away form, a capacity to respond to the disappointment of slumping to fifth last season and Rodgers’ adaptability amid injuries among them. And if their defensive record is not immediately awe-inspiring, with 21 goals conceded in 18 games, the circumstances render it hugely impressive.
Ricardo Pereira, arguably the outstanding right-back not named Trent Alexander-Arnold last season, is still to play in the 2020/21 Premier League. Ben Chilwell, perhaps the best left-back other than Andrew Robertson and Kieran Tierney, is gone. Soyuncu, a member of the PFA Team of the Year last season, has not started a top-flight game since October. Wilfred Ndidi, on any shortlist for the finest defensive midfielder, was sidelined throughout October and November.
Theirs has been a campaign of shifting systems and multiple combinations. Rodgers has used a three-man backline at times in Soyuncu’s absence, roping in either Christian Fuchs or James Justin, partly to compensate for Ndidi’s absence from the midfield. Yet he favours 4-1-4-1, and two centre-backs. A decision may finally beckon: who is the odd man out in his preferred pairing? Evans is the classy constant. Soyuncu was last season’s revelation. Fofana is this year’s equivalent. Perhaps the young Frenchman would be third in line if all other factors were equal.
Maybe the Turkey international’s relative lack of minutes will determine the other two start against Chelsea. Yet what they have proved is the importance of possessing three high-calibre centre-backs.
Fofana has become the insurance policy Leicester required when Soyuncu was out. If a team is only as good as its third-choice centre-back, it explains Leicester’s lofty position. Perhaps it explains much: Liverpool’s third-choice central defender is the often excellent but invariably injured Joel Matip, but the problem in that planning was apparent when the seemingly indestructible Virgil van Dijk was struck down, even if Fabinho has been outstanding as a stand-in.
Manchester City have the division’s best defensive record with Aymeric Laporte, the man who had seemed their premier option, now only third in the pecking order due to the reliability of Ruben Dias and the renascent John Stones. Manchester United’s recent fine form owes something to Eric Bailly’s emergence as a viable option to Victor Lindelof. Ben Godfrey feels Everton’s answer to Fofana, but with the added benefit he has been superb at left-back as well.
For obvious reasons, centre-backs are often discussed in the context of partnerships. Perhaps this season, more than any other, with its compressed fixture list and rise in injuries, requires a terrific third man. Maybe, if Leicester had missed out on both Fofana and their other target James Tarkowski, Soyuncu’s subsequent injury would have ruined their season. Instead, they could go top on Tuesday night.
That Leicester’s trio cost little over £50 million illustrates how good their recruitment has been. That, in Pereira, Justin and Timothy Castagne, they have arguably the best trio of right-backs any Premier League club possesses looks further proof. But it is the men in the middle who have underpinned Leicester’s charge. If Rodgers misses out on the title this season, it probably won’t be because of his central defenders.
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