This season has been a major struggle for Brendan Rodgers and Liverpool. Not only has the team’s offense been incredibly goal shy, the defense and the goalkeepers are unable to keep the opponents off the score sheet.
Both goalkeepers, Simon Mignolet and Brad Jones have made multiple mistakes that have directly led to goals and have also struggled to communicate with the players in front of them. Now, it looks like Rodgers is looking at Chelsea veteran Petr Cech as the solution to the problems at the back, at least for the short term.
Cech is one of the best ‘keepers that the Premier League has ever seen and he was one of the main reasons why Chelsea featured a terrific defense on the way to titles in 2005, 2006 and 2010. This season, he has been pushed to the bench by the arrival of Thibaut Courtois and that has led to Cech only making two total appearances.
Adding a player of Cech’s caliber would be a great addition to the Liverpool squad and would definitely give the defenders some confidence. At 32, Cech is still not that old for a goalkeeper and he will definitely be motivated to show that he can still perform at a high level. While he is only an inch taller than Mignolet, he looks much bigger when standing in goal and this allows him to strike fear into opposing striker’s hearts while they are heading towards his goal.
His ability to distribute the ball from the back is another asset that will help Liverpool since that has been an issue for both Mignolet and Jones.
One of the reasons why Liverpool has struggled to defend corners this season has been Mignolet’s inability to make up his mind in either going for the ball or letting his defenders take care of it. On the other hand, Cech is a player that does not hesitate in his decision making and that should result less mistakes that lead to goals.
All in all, bringing Cech in would be a huge boost to the Liverpool squad and hopefully his leadership and talent will lead to better defense.
