Our centre back difficulties are absurdly deep rooted...

[Bladesman]

It happened mid-Covid, outside of a transfer window. I;m not sure how CW was supposed to instantly replace him. Still, it's another chance to rewrite the past.

Finishing 9th = good
Wilder = bad

It's not re-writing the past.

Did we need Brewster at god knows what the fuck we paid or a defender?

 

[Andy67]

A blind spot from Wilder. Every man and their dog could see the big hole left by JOC but for some reason Wilder didn't take the loss seriously and giving chances to the wrong players to fill that void.

With hindsight maybe the moment we lost JOC was the time for Wilder to change formation totally and change the tactics. Instead of throwing players in who were nothing like as a good as JOC.

He wasn’t given the money to replace him

 

[I should coco]

It's not re-writing the past.

Did we need Brewster at god knows what the fuck we paid or a defender?

There weren't many dissenting voices for a young LIverpool stricker who'd been banging them in for Swansea and won a medal with England. The price seemed a bit steep, but then again, we had to show 'ambition'.

I'll happily apologise, if you point me to your post in the summer of 2030, where you said what a bad buy Brewsrer was.

 

[Lane Ender]

Got to get Mee in to add that experience it’s a must

 

[Nick Jansky]

There weren't many dissenting voices for a young LIverpool stricker who'd been banging them in for Swansea and won a medal with England. The price seemed a bit steep, but then again, we had to show 'ambition'.

Absolutely right, but people always get more excited about the signing of a striker than any other position and we were all a bit dazzled by it. With the benefit of hindsight it was a mistake though because the priority should have been a replacement for JOC and maybe spending less on a striker as a result. But I’ll happily admit that I was excited about Brewster coming and thought it was a sign of the club showing ambition. Sadly, as it turned out, it was a poor decision and we are still suffering from it. Hindsight, though.

 

[Nosworthys Throw]

Got to get Mee in to add that experience it’s a must

Why, what experience have you got?

 

[Lane Ender]

Why, what experience have you got?

Even I would be better than RND

 

[Snowflake]

The point I'm making, I thought was pretty obvious. But apparently you need it spelling out.

Putting today's signings to one side for a moment. The options available for the CB position are dreadfully lacking, and a primary contributor to that is the regular failure to recruit players who either are/were better than our existing options, or were able to provide definitive competition to our first choice players.

What can we do now about the past? Nothing. It's the past. I'm highlighting an issue that has persisted in some shape or form for most of the past decade, through the tenure of multiple managers.

I noticed something that I felt was an interesting topic to promote discussion. But I'll keep your view in mind - next time I'll put a presentation together that we can show to the board.

Touché

 

[Panini]

With today's announcement of Nils Zatterstrom, combined with our awfully weak lineup of centre halves already at the club, I wanted to see how proactive (or not, as this post will highlight) we have been in the CB department. By which I mean, how many players have we recruited on a permanent transfer (not including loans as they are not a definitive long-term solution), either to be starting options, or backups, for the 2 or 3 CB positions we have used. I've gone back through the last 10 seasons, including the current season, meaning we go back to the 2016/17 season when Wilder first arrived. Since then, despite playing with 3 centre backs for much of that time (small spell under Slav, last season under Wilder was almost exclusively a back 4), Zatterstrom has become only our twelfth centre back to be signed on a permanent transfer since that final season in League One. But even more horrific, is the fact that he is only the third CB we have signed in six seasons. Below is the history of recruitment during that time:

2016/17: Jake Wright, James Wilson, Jack O'Connell
2017/18: Ben Heneghan, Richard Stearman
2018/19: Kean Bryan, John Egan
2019/20: Jack Robinson, Phil Jagielka
2020/21: None
2021/22: None
2022/23: Anel Ahmedhodzic
2023/24: Auston Trusty
2024/25: None
2025/26: Nils Zatterstrom

I should say at this point, that this should not be interpreted as me being dismissive of the loan system. We have had some incredible loanees across the above time period, and some of the success we have had over the past 10 years would likely not have happened had we not recruited players of the calibre of Dean Henderson, James McAtee or Tommy Doyle.

However, it is dishearterning that the club has glossed over the CB position so thoroughly, that we've only managed to sign 3 players for that position this decade. And when you consider that in the context of where we are now - dangerously lacking in quality in the CB department - the failure of the club to future-proof what is a critical position on the pitch, is utterly shameful. The fact that we are scrambling to get defenders in the door now, with barely a week of the transfer window left, highlights some critical failures having occurred within the operations of the club. I remain hopeful that more signings will occur before the window closes, but we really shouldn't be in such a perilous position, when it's been obvious to everybody for multiple years that that is where we've been the weakest.

Good post and helps put in real terms what most have known for a while.

I do think it's also relevant to add that many supporters believe there's a general shortage of good centre back options, which has been exacerbated by our yo-yoing between divisions (eg it's hard to sell the back up role to a quality player).

Therefore I'd also think it's relevant to see how similar / equivalent clubs have performed in this area over the same period.

I don't expect you or anyone else to gather that data, but there is a limit to saying we've been bad at something if we can't properly quantify if indeed it's bad, or what good looks like.

 

[Pandev]

With today's announcement of Nils Zatterstrom, combined with our awfully weak lineup of centre halves already at the club, I wanted to see how proactive (or not, as this post will highlight) we have been in the CB department. By which I mean, how many players have we recruited on a permanent transfer (not including loans as they are not a definitive long-term solution), either to be starting options, or backups, for the 2 or 3 CB positions we have used. I've gone back through the last 10 seasons, including the current season, meaning we go back to the 2016/17 season when Wilder first arrived. Since then, despite playing with 3 centre backs for much of that time (small spell under Slav, last season under Wilder was almost exclusively a back 4), Zatterstrom has become only our twelfth centre back to be signed on a permanent transfer since that final season in League One. But even more horrific, is the fact that he is only the third CB we have signed in six seasons. Below is the history of recruitment during that time:

2016/17: Jake Wright, James Wilson, Jack O'Connell
2017/18: Ben Heneghan, Richard Stearman
2018/19: Kean Bryan, John Egan
2019/20: Jack Robinson, Phil Jagielka
2020/21: None
2021/22: None
2022/23: Anel Ahmedhodzic
2023/24: Auston Trusty
2024/25: None
2025/26: Nils Zatterstrom

I should say at this point, that this should not be interpreted as me being dismissive of the loan system. We have had some incredible loanees across the above time period, and some of the success we have had over the past 10 years would likely not have happened had we not recruited players of the calibre of Dean Henderson, James McAtee or Tommy Doyle.

However, it is dishearterning that the club has glossed over the CB position so thoroughly, that we've only managed to sign 3 players for that position this decade. And when you consider that in the context of where we are now - dangerously lacking in quality in the CB department - the failure of the club to future-proof what is a critical position on the pitch, is utterly shameful. The fact that we are scrambling to get defenders in the door now, with barely a week of the transfer window left, highlights some critical failures having occurred within the operations of the club. I remain hopeful that more signings will occur before the window closes, but we really shouldn't be in such a perilous position, when it's been obvious to everybody for multiple years that that is where we've been the weakest.

This highlights how poor our recruitment has been over the past few years. Constantly plugging holes instead of thinking long term.

Anel the only exception. Hopefully Zatterstrom will be the same.

 

[Pintor75]

Jack O'Connell was brilliant for us, but in all likelihood he maybe would have gone to a bigger club as he was most likely on the edge of the England squad, we'll never know now

 

[Need4speed]

I don't think anyone would have been particularly surprised if Anel had left before last season. It was obvious last summer that he would not sign a new contract and therefore would have to be sold this summer. Why oh why didn't we buy a younger centre back last summer when we could have introduced him to the team more gradually. RND was never a CB until we ran out of them. It has been obvious to the majority of our fans that this has been a position we needed reinforcements for years. Why did noboby at the club act on this.