Martin Škrtel
Martin Škrtel (29) started his career with FK AS Trenčín (2001-04) and Zenit Saint Petersburg (2004-08). Rafael Benítez, the manager at the time, on signing Škrtel for Liverpool in January 2008 said “He is aggressive, quick, is good in the air and I think he’s a very good player for the future and also for the present. He is very competitive, but his mentality for me is very good.” In the 2010-11 season Škrtel played every minute of every Premier League game. At the midway point of the following season, Liverpool held the best defensive record and earned Škrtel the nickname “The Terminator”. He went on to win Liverpool Player of the Year Award in May 2012 to add to his Slovak Footballer of the Year awards from 2007, 2008, 2011 and 2012.
Škrtel has played 187 league games for Liverpool in which he’s scored a total of 14 goals (albeit four of those were own goals in the 2013-14 season). Equally as bad, two out of the other three goals scored last season were in Liverpool’s 5-1 humiliation of Arsenal – a fact that BT Sport has delighted in repeating in their pre-season advertising, both on TV, billboards and the national press.
If you would like to see some Squawka stats for the above five players side by side you can find them via this link http://bit.ly/1opQvs9. You can also add more of your own. Some are more impressive than others. What do you think? Would you have chosen any of these or would you have gone for different players?