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Why Kevin Danso Has To Play Against Liverpool

It will be a big asking for new signing Kevin Danso to make his debut against the free scoring Liverpool attack, but he has to play after the debacle at Burnley.

The manner of the way we conceded the goals at Burnley highlighted that our problem is still in the centre of our defence, that is something that you don't need a rocket scientist to be able to work out.

Indeed this has been the problem now since January 2017 when Virgil Van Dijk got injured and Jose Fonte left after several months of sulking.

Since then we have lacked leadership and organisation in the centre of defence and the defeat at Burnley proved that the problem is not going to be solved by those who are already at the club, or at least have already played for the first team.

I'm sorr for the likes of Jack Stephens and Yoshida who are undoubtedly good club men, but time and time again they have been found wanting.

It is not just leadership and organisation though, it is also about getting in tackles and blocks and too often we do not do this, compare Burnely's back line to ours, they threw themselves into tackles and blocks even in the last minutes when the game was won, but we as the first goal showed just do not do that, Jack Stephens had got goal side of Ashley Barnes but failed to even try to block his shot let alone do so.

Indeed the only player who did so of our three central defenders was Jan Bednarek and that has to change.

Therefore although Kevin Danso has no experience in the Premier League and is young, we have to try something different against Liverpool or the same things will happen again as it did up at Turf Moor and indeed in many games in the last 30 months or so.

We have to stop playing Russian roulette where we are relying not on our own defensive skills, but on the shot not being fired after the trigger is pulled, sometimes we get away with it and sometimes as at Burnley we don't when what could have and should have been a reasonable performance with at least a point was completely ruined by three slack goals.

It is easy to look at the result and go into meltdown about the quality of our team, but the truth was good battling performances in difficult conditions from most of the side were ruined by poor defending that saw 3 goals go in from only 4 shots on target, we gave them all three goals !

So Ralph Hasenhuttl has to do something different, if I were him I would be scouring the players out of contract at the moment for a good experienced central defender we can bring in to sort out our lack of organisation at the back, but he is unlikely to do that before Saturday.

One thing out of the conventional way of thinking could be Oriol Romeu, up at Burnley the Spaniard showed that he has the tackling ability and has been deployed as a central defender earlier in his career, perhaps going forward he could be an option in this position, but perhaps not against Liverpool with his tendency to pick up a yellow card.

Another option would be Wesley Hoedt, he became the whipping boy of the fans last season, but he is perhaps the best tackler we have in the centre of defence and he is not afraid to go to ground to make a tackle or a block and that is often the difference between conceding or not conceding a goal.

Don't believe me, take a look at last season's goals against and see how many of them could have been prevented is one of our central defenders had slid in or stuck a leg out, not just from shots but also crosses.

But for some reason Hoedt does not seem to be in Hasenhuttl's plans, suggesting that he might well go before the European transfer window ends in a couple of weeks, so Ralph Hasenhuttl has to try something different and that is Kevin Danso.

The player is described as being " an imposing 6ft 3in tall and boasting impressive athleticism" big and fast will be a big asset against Liverpool, I have seen little of those qualities over the last two seasons from anyone aside from Jan Bednarek in the centre of our defence.

It has also been stated that he is fit and up to the physical level needed for the task ahead, as mentioned sometimes pace can get you out of trouble when you are caught out of position and we are going to need some pace in the back line and this is something that none of the other candidates can truly offer.

So on Saturday Kevin Danso has to make his debut for the club, if only because he is the only candidate to play alongside Jan Bednarek and to a lesser extent Jannik Vestergaard who has yet to fail, perhaps not the best qualification, but better than what was shown up at Burnley.

We have to try something new and something different, I'm sick to death of watching the same old culprits making the same old mistakes, failing to mark, getting caught out of position, failing to get a tackle in, failing to get a block in and getting caught out on the break, I have nothing against any Saints player except when he is not good enough for the job he has to perform, everyone has bad games, but we have seen enough in the past 2 1/2 years to know those that just aren't up to it.

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